Doug Ford, Michael Tibollo address mental health and COVID-19

'People still need other people,' Tibollo, Ontario’s first associate minister of mental health, says

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 10, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Premier Doug Ford handed the microphone to Vaughan-Woodbridge MPP Michael Tibollo at one point in a news conference Nov. 9, when reporters asked several questions about the decision to ease restrictions in much of the province amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases.

Both Ford and Tibollo, who is the associate minister of mental health, were at Interior Finishing Systems Training Centre in Woodbridge to announce the Ontario government is investing $511,100 in the Pathways to Post-Military Employment program to support the return of 180 military veterans and reservists to civilian life.

After the announcement, Ford received many questions on COVID-19, as Ontario saw its daily new case count hit quadruple digits for the fourth straight day.

There were 1,242 new infections of the novel coronavirus announced in Ontario Nov. 9.

Ford explained how his "heart breaks" when he is "bombarded" with phone calls from small business owners, with some on the brink of bankruptcy.

Ford said there ought to be balance between containing the pandemic and making sure people’s mental health is in check.

"You lose your business, your house, where do you measure mental health?" he asked, before asking Tibollo to address the topic.

Tibollo, who is Ontario’s first associate mental health minister, gave a dark glimpse of what’s happening.

There is an increase in suicides and addiction, Tibollo said.

Even with investment in internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy the government has put in place to assist people in times of COVID-19, "people still need other people", he said.

"It’s extremely important that we strike, as the premier said, a balance that allows people to maintain, at least as much as possible, some routine and provide them with the support they need," he said.