CMHA Ontario CEO Camille Quenneville is urging the Ontario government to make mental health a priority during the development of the 2017 provincial budget. At a 2017 Pre-Budget stakeholder consultation session in Toronto today, Quenneville recommended several ways the government can achieve this.
Quenneville urged the province to return to the table with Ottawa and continue negotiating the Health Accord.
First, she urged the province to return to the table with Ottawa and continue negotiating the Health Accord, ensuring that dedicated funds be allocated to mental health and addictions services.
Quenneville also highlighted the work of Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions Leadership Advisory Council, a group of sector experts convened by the province to make recommendations to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. She referenced the following council recommendations:
- The need to develop 30,000 more supportive housing units over the next decade
- The development of core mental health and addictions services so that every Ontarian has access to the same treatments
- Greater access to structured psychotherapy, an evidence-based approach to help individuals in their recovery
- The need to develop a comprehensive data and performance measurement strategy for the mental health and addictions sector
- A three percent base budget increase for the 30 CMHA branches across Ontario, many of which have not received increases in five years.
Quenneville was attending a consultation session hosted by Finance Minister Charles Sousa and his parliamentary assistant, Yvan Baker, MPP for Etobicoke Centre.
She will also be appearing before the provincial legislature standing committee on economic affairs on Jan. 18, the date which CMHA Ontario will make public its final pre-budget submission document.