To mark World Mental Health Day and highlight USJE’s efforts to ensure that more federal public safety personnel have access to Worker’s Compensation for mental health related workplace injuries, USJE hosted a special reception on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, October 8 in recognition of the day (held internationally on October 10). Because most MPs return to their ridings on Thursday evenings, USJE hosted its reception on Wednesday, October 8 to ensure that as many Parliamentarians as possible could attend.
World Mental Health Day, recognized around the globe, is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of mental health – and to mobilize efforts to increase access to psychological supports.
USJE’s National Health and Safety Advisory Committee, led by Regional Vice Presidents Kirsty Havard and Jeff Sandelli, oversaw the event. USJE National President David Neufeld and committee member, Fadia Sakha, presided over the evening’s formalities.
Senior Parliamentarians from each of the major political parties also spoke at the event, including:
- Maggie Chi, Member of Parliament for Don Valley North, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health
- Todd Doherty, Member of Parliament for Cariboo–Prince George and Conservative Shadow Minister for Addictions
- Claude DeBellefeuille, Member of Parliament for Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon, Quebec, Vice Chair of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, and Bloc Québécois Critic for Public Safety
- Gord Johns, Member of Parliament for Courtenay—Alberni, British Columbia and the NDP Mental Health Critic
These individuals spoke in favour of improving access to mental health supports for individuals who have suffered a psychological injury, just like first responders in most provinces and territories.
An impressive 17 Members of Parliament attended the reception, including:
- MP Natilien Joseph, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, Quebec
- MP Frank Caputo, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, British Columbia
- MP Colin Reynolds, Elmwood—Transcona, Manitoba
- MP Ginette Lavack, St. Boniface-St. Vital, Manitoba
- MP Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, Quebec
- MP Fares Al Soud, Mississauga Centre, Ontario
- MP Ernie Klassen, South Surrey—White Rock, British Columbia
- MP Andréanne Larouche, Shefford, Quebec
- MP Chi Nguyen, Spadina—Harbourfront, Ontario
- MP Sonia Sidhu, Brampton South, Ontario
- MP Chak Au, Richmond Centre—Marpole, British Columbia
- MP Sukhman Gill, Abbotsford—South Langley, British Columbia
- MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman, Hastings—Lennox and Addington—Tyendinaga, Ontario
Further, USJE was also very pleased to welcome one of our own members to speak, Conrad Zalevich from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Unfortunately, Conrad was denied Workers’ Compensation after incurring a psychological injury – owing to a major incident on the job with a violent offender – in his capacity as a federal program officer in the community.
Unfortunately, despite two appeals, Conrad was deemed ineligible for Workers’ Compensation, and he bravely shared his difficult journey with MPs and USJE members to highlight the urgency of making changes to the federal Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA), a piece of legislation that has not fundamentally changed in 50 years.
GECA provides the legislative and funding mechanism by which federal public service employees are covered under provincial and territorial Workers’ Compensation boards. It is the provincial and territorial Compensation boards that exclusively determine the criteria, benefits and other supports offered to individuals who qualify for Workers’ Compensation. This current arrangement has meant many federal public safety personnel are frequently excluded from coverage.
Effectively, the proposed changes would broaden the entitlement among federal public safety personnel to presumptive injury claims for work-related psychological injuries, sometimes referred to as Occupational Stress Injuries.
The proposed changes would result in a definition of federal public safety personnel – who are recognized to have an increased vulnerability to Occupational Stress Injuries and would be entitled to presumptive injury coverage – would be entrenched in the federal legislation.
USJE LOBBY DAY
This year’s reception on the Hill gave USJE the opportunity to not just engage with MPs across party lines at the evening event, but to follow up on Thursday, October 9th with senior MPs, including federal Secretary of State for Labour John Zerucelli on why USJE’s members and other federal Public Safety personnel who are suffering from an Occupational Stress Injury need the legislation changed NOW.
USJE remains highly encouraged by the quality of the dialogue with Mr. Zerucelli and other senior Parliamentarians, including Conservative Shadow Minister Kyle Seeback, Shadow Minister for Labour with whom we also met while on the Hill.
To further demonstrate support for the mental health of public safety employees across the country, USJE invited Members of Parliament to wear USJE’s custom designed pin featuring its own Presumptive Injury logo during Question Period in the House of Commons on October 9.
The pin symbolizes the power of ensuring USJE members, and other federal public safety personnel, have access to the mental health supports they need.
USJE’s sustained advocacy over the past two years appears to be generating some important momentum among several key Government and Opposition MPs who appear to understand the need to change the legislation as quickly as possible.
Several have offered to work closely with USJE to make it happen – either through the upcoming federal budget, or another legislative mechanism.
USJE also looks forward to another key meeting later this week with the federal Minister of Jobs and Families, Patty Hajdu, that RVP Jeff Sandelli was able to arrange.
We will continue to work with all MPs who are willing to support the legislative changes required so that federal Public Safety Personnel get the support they so deserve in their efforts to keep Canadians safe.