Several provincial ministers have signed a joint letter urging the Trudeau government to delay the planned expansion of medical assistance in dying to the mentally ill indefinitely.
This letter comes as federal Health Minister Mark Holland alongside Justice Minister Arif Virani, announced that the Liberals would be tabling legislation to push back the expansion of assisted suicide scheduled for March 17 by an unspecified amount of time.
The expansion to the assisted suicide regime would controversially allow Canadians whose deaths was not reasonably foreseeable and whose sole reason for seeking assisted suicide was their mental illness.
Ministers from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon signed on to the open letter.
The provinces are calling on the government to scrap the March 17 deadline and delay the expansion of MAID indefinitely to properly reconsider their policy.
In specific, the provincial ministers raised concerns that provincial health departments are ill-prepared to implement a system with the necessary and appropriate guardrails.
“It is critical that all jurisdictions, health authorities, regulators and MAID practitioners have sufficient time to implement these safeguards and to address capacity concerns that are expected to result from the expansion of MAID eligibility,” reads the joint letter.
The provincial ministers also said that the examinations used to determine a person’s capacity to make treatment decisions for themselves are flawed and inconsistent.
“The federal Expert Panel has acknowledged that the comprehensiveness and delivery of the mental competency exam to determine an individual’s ability to make treatment decisions is inconsistent across Canada.”
Despite the blowback from most provinces and territories across the country, the federal health minister told reporters that he does not believe it was irresponsible for the Trudeau government to pass the law in spite of provincial readiness.
“When you look at the people who are suffering and who are asking for this relief, we take that deeply seriously,” said Holland.
“I think the question though is making sure before we move forward, and the date is March 17, to really ascertain and understand, is the system ready and to get it right.”
The Trudeau government had already pushed back the deadline for assisted suicide expansion, as in February 2023, the Liberals with the help of the NDP and Bloc Québécois passed Bill C-39 which delayed assisted suicide’s expansion to March 2024.
The provinces that did not sign the letter were Manitoba, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. True North reached out to the health ministers of each of these provinces for comment, but did not receive a response.
