Hon. Tracy Muggli: Honourable senators, today I rise to speak about an issue that touches every community across our country: suicide.

March is national Social Work Month, and I want to draw attention to the great work social workers do on this issue as well as important work under way in Saskatchewan. Suicide remains a serious public health concern in both Saskatchewan and Canada. Nationally, approximately 4,500 Canadians die by suicide each year, or 12 every day, making it one of the leading causes of death among young people and adults under 50.

In Saskatchewan, our suicide rate has historically been higher than the national average, reaching a record high in 2022 with 21 deaths per 1,000 people. In 2020, Saskatchewan began to take steps toward providing better resources to those struggling with thoughts of suicide, launching Pillars for Life: The Saskatchewan Suicide Prevention Plan. This is a coordinated strategy to help address suicide across sectors and includes the voices of those with lived experience to help shape its implementation. This is how effective, compassionate policy is built.

Some of the initiatives under the plan include a new Suicide Prevention Grant Program for training and awareness activities, the Rapid Access Counselling for Suicide Loss Program and Roots of Hope, a community-led suicide prevention initiative in the northern communities of La Ronge, Meadow Lake, Buffalo Narrows, Prince Albert and North Battleford. Importantly, this work acknowledges that prevention must begin early.

Additionally, I want to recognize the partnership of the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, who helped deliver the Mental Health Capacity Building program, a school-based initiative that promotes positive mental health in children and youth through prevention, early intervention and mental health education aimed at building resilience and reducing stigma. The Saskatchewan Health Authority has noted our own Senator Kutcher’s work as a valuable resource in this program.

This year, the program expanded to six additional school divisions with plans to expand to all 27 divisions by 2028. Preliminary numbers show these programs are beginning to help, with a reduction in per capita suicide in both 2023 and 2024.

I want to extend my gratitude to the thousands of social workers in Saskatchewan and across Canada who carry out this work daily, and following International Women’s Day, I want to acknowledge that many of them are women, including the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s executive director and social worker Zoe Teed McKay, whose leadership makes this initiative possible.

Congratulations to my beloved Province of Saskatchewan for recognizing this epidemic with this meaningful delivery of support programs, and happy Social Work Month, especially to our colleague Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard.

Thank you. Meegwetch. Marsee.

Some Hon. Senators: Hear, hear.