MONTREAL - The federal government has extended the mandate of the Canadian Mental Health Commission for another five years, Health Minister Tony Clement announced Monday.
Clement said the commission is focused on projects including a mental health strategy, an anti-discrimination campaign and a knowledge-exchange centre.
Commission president Michael Kirby said he hopes to help Canadians change their attitudes toward people with a mental illness.
He said the government will spend $74 million over the next five years.
"The mental health system in Canada has been so colossally underfunded," Kirby said.
"It's going to take a long time, 10 to 20 years I would suspect, before the mental health system gets to be as good as the acute-care, physical health system is."
