Hon. Katherine Hay: Hello, minister. Men and boys in this country are facing a silent crisis: mental health. Men account for nearly 75% of suicide deaths in Canada, yet represent only 30% of those accessing services. Stigma remains a significant barrier, particularly in rural and remote communities and in male‑dominated workplaces.

I appreciate your consultation on Canada’s first Men and Boys’ Health Strategy and the intent to launch. Minister, how will this strategy be designed to truly reach those men and boys and ensure systems meet them where they’re at, particularly in rural and remote areas?

Hon. Marjorie Michel, P.C., M.P., Minister of Health: Thank you, senator, for your question. As you know, I’m very engaged now in this consultation. This morning, I had a round table with experts, people and organizations working in that field.

First of all, I would like to make sure that we hear every single voice. There is not one men’s group. There are multiple groups, and I need to hear from a number of them. This is also why, when I launched the consultation, I sent my Senate parliamentarian colleagues the tool kit to ensure that you can spread it around and ask your organization to lean into it. I don’t feel we can build a men’s strategy if we don’t address the different ranges of men. And, yes, people in rural and remote locations are definitely in the consultation.

Senator Hay: Ensuring the strategy has strong resources and funding behind it will be key to its success, as will partnerships with community-based organizations from coast to coast to coast. Can you speak to the funding model and partnerships that you envision that will support the implementation of your strategy?

Ms. Michel: Thank you, senator.

I do not envision anything up front. I am doing the consultation and engaging with the organizations. I’m willing to design something that answers to the realities, so I don’t want to prejudge what I will do before doing the consultations, wrapping up all the information and getting to something.

I didn’t get a commitment to fund anything for now, but I might put forward some requests, or maybe there’s some funding already existing in other portfolios that could be redirected to this.