Thursday 23 June 2011

Tip of the hat to 3 people from 3 parties

        Although it never received the hype of poverty reduction or other high profile parliamentary committees - the Select Committee on Mental Heath has probably been the most functional one of all during this government, no doubt in part due to members of all 3 elected parties working together. 

        With reasoned debate, a respected consultation process and evidence-guided recommendations - they seemed, at least from an outsider's perspective, to have worked as a committee should.  While the debate will carry on as to how exactly the initiative will roll out and what the specific priorities will be - yesterday's announcement of a new 3 year $257 million strategy to support children's mental health (story at  http://ow.ly/5oNSF ) is an important product of their work, will help thousands of children youth and families, and is a committment that has a decent chance of surviving an election due to the multi-partisan approach in which it was developed.

        Big congrats are in order to Liberal MPP Kevin Flynn, PC MPP Christine Elliot, NDP MPP France GĂ©linas, and all others who worked hard on this one!


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