Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a territory, we struggle with mental illness every day, and although we see some great initiatives nationally on working together to create a stigma-free Canada, we are still failing.

While everyone in this room struggles to improve the quality of care while reducing the costs of our health care system, we seem to be missing the point. That is, the overwhelming evidence that access to mental health care in the NWT is poor.

Nationally, one in five people with depression get appropriate treatment, and we know this number is much higher in the North. Shockingly, nationally one in three patients discharged from a psychiatric department see a primary care physician or psychiatrist within a month. We don’t track this type of performance measure in the NWT, but we all know what our numbers would look like.

Compare this to such post-disease follow-ups like heart failure or cancer at close to 100 percent, it shows even nationally we are doing things poorly. But the question is: Why?

The answer is complicated. Mental illness, by all accounts, is one of the biggest predictors of inequality to access of care in this country. Basically, once pegged with a mental disorder, you are far less likely to get the care you need. What’s bad for business and costly to the taxpayer is the price we pay for psychiatric illnesses ending up back into the hospital, when it’s far less cost than cost due to proper follow-up and working wisely with the patient. Unfortunately, the long-awaited NWT Mental Health Act is, by all accounts, another continued barrier for better management of outcomes for those suffering, and sadly, we continue to wait for this legislation.

Until such time as we can master the same diagnostic work-up, measured care and proper treatment for conditions like cancer or heart failure and heart disease, mental illness patients will be burdened with a system of inequality who lack the continuous and level care of population-based need.

We as legislators must understand this clear sense of need so we can be expected to align existing resources with this present demand. People are no longer willing to suffer in silence, and we can no longer ignore the burden of mental illness. I call on my colleagues collectively to support a system that is ready, responsive and able to meet the needs of

those suffering in our communities, in all our communities. I know this is a daunting task before this House, but let us be remembered for our actions and, again, not just our words. Thank you.