(Toronto) Toronto Mayor John Tory is calling for a national summit to address what he calls Canada’s mental health crisis.
In a statement released Wednesday morning, Mayor Tory said the summit would allow mayors, ministers and premiers of Canada and the provinces and territories to discuss how best to support people living with mental health and addiction issues. .
The mayor of Toronto says the decline in federal and provincial spending on mental health is painfully felt in Canadian municipalities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his view, without adequate funding, mental health care responsibilities are pushed onto the shoulders of municipalities, transit systems, shelters, police departments and hospital emergency departments.
John Tory wrote that he first took his national summit proposal to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month.
The best evidence of the scale of the ongoing mental health crisis, he said, is in addictions issues, including the thousands of people who died last year in Canada from opioid overdoses.
In his statement, John Tory wrote: “Three years ago we faced the COVID-19 pandemic and in that time all governments worked together to help people through these difficult times. We now face a mental health crisis that requires the same level of dedication, cooperation and commitment. »