I rise today in this House to talk about a very complex issue and one that has challenged successive governments for decades. It will probably continue to challenge us for decades. I'm speaking today of the treatment of those who are mentally ill and addicted.

Certainly, in years gone by it was the practice that we would maintain folks who needed these services in institutions that really weren't meant for rehabilitation. They were meant for housing, and they were meant for maintaining these folks in what was thought to be a positive and supportive environment.

There really wasn't a view to taking a look at them as individuals and seeing to it that we could provide to them the kinds of supports that they needed in order to, hopefully, be rehabilitated and live a higher quality of life, reconnected with our communities.
When our government came into office, it was a commitment on the part of the Premier to form a task force on homelessness, mental illness and addiction services. As those services were reviewed and contemplated, it became apparent that we needed to start taking some new approaches. We needed to start taking a new view with respect to mental health and addiction services in British Columbia.

Certainly, while our goal of providing the best system of support in Canada for those most vulnerable in our province is a laudable one, it's also a very challenging one, especially when one recognizes the need to correct some of our past errors. We certainly know that there are errors in the way that we've done things in the past, and at a UBCM address the Premier acknowledged that.
I'll quote from his speech. He said: "We're going to listen to what we've heard from you, and you know what you've told me. Deinstitutionalization is a failed experiment. So we're going to work with you to make sure that we provide for the care and the support for people with mental illnesses as we look ahead, and it will be a major item on our agenda."

It certainly has become a major item on our agenda. Since our government took office, we've spent about a billion dollars a year just on mental health services alone. Then when one considers the amount committed to capital…. We now have $138 million in capital funding allotted to renovate or construct new mental health facilities across B.C. Adult community mental health beds have increased by 57 percent since 2001. That means that as of 2006 we've created 2,800 new beds, and that's going to be a total of 7,741 across the province.

We're providing new facilities. We're using new approaches. But where this really means something is in our willingness to explore different types of service for people with different types of needs, and I think that's an area where we've made significant progress. In Langley itself we've seen the opening and the groundbreaking for two facilities that are not only cutting edge in terms of their philosophy but are also opportunities for us to review and revise the kind of services we're providing for those unique needs that people with mental illness have.
It's common in British Columbia — it's common everywhere — for us to think that if someone has a mental illness, they all need the same kind of service. I'm really pleased to see that, largely as a result of what has come out of the task force, we've been able to address the different needs of those who are mentally ill by providing different types of facilities. I want to talk about a couple of them.

he first is a place called the N.G. Nair Place. It's named after a leading psychologist in Langley who has been at the forefront of developing new approaches to serve the mentally ill. N.G. Nair Place is really different. As a 25-bed facility, it's intended to allow these folks with mental illnesses that will preclude them from living independently to reside in a home environment. They feel like they have their own home, and yet they're in a community that's supportive.
What's most important is that the services will adapt with them so that they can age in place. Many of these people will be there over the course of the later part of their life and will probably reside there until they need the services no longer. Those are new approaches that haven't been seen in British Columbia before.
It's really exciting when you can go to an event, open a facility like that and have the residents themselves come to you and say:

"I love this place. I love being here." You can see it on their faces. One of the residents came to proudly tell me how happy she was to have access to a piano in the common room so that she could play. It's all those individual stories that lead up to how we must understand the treatment of the mentally ill and not just lump them all together as needing one individual type of service.
N.G. Nair Place is one of two community mental health facilities in the Fraser health region. It's designed to meet the residents as they age, but it also incorporates green building technology. It's LEED-certified, and the
building itself is one of the cutting-edge facilities in terms of environmental sensitivity.
This past weekend I was at the groundbreaking for another facility in Langley, Memorial Cottage. Memorial Cottage is also a 25-bed facility. It's long-term, temporary residential that will assist those who have very severe mental illnesses and psychosocial difficulties and need to be reintegrated into society. They need help getting a job. They need help learning life skills. These folks will return to society, and we know from other facilities of their type around the province that we've had success with that.

Certainly, one of the biggest changes we need to make was announced in the throne speech — and that is, dealing with those who need to be taken into care and need to be made well and sometimes not when they want to be.
I want to read from the throne speech. What we've committed is this: "Patients with severe mental illness who require intensive, sustained and complex medical treatment will be provided care in new and existing facilities at Willingdon in Burnaby. People in the downtown east side and elsewhere who can't cope will be cared for in safe and secure facilities until they are well."

I'm proud that we are taking the time to review what we do in mental health and addictions services, to ensure that what we're providing for the mentally ill is not just the best level of service and support that we can provide but is designed to meet their individual needs and recognizes that, in spite of the fact that they have mental illness, they are people. They are people with individual needs. They are people who deserve to have the attention paid to what it means for their quality of life, not just what government thinks their quality of life should be.
I'm very proud of the progress that we've made. There certainly will be continuing challenges as we continue to learn more about how to treat and serve and support the mentally ill.