Mr. Speaker, a way to get two rounds of applause in this place is a point of order on the other side. Also, congratulations. It is great to see you in the chair. I know you will serve us well and be fair. I wish a happy birthday to your little guy, Bennett Nater, who celebrated his birthday this past weekend.

Now that I have good favour with the Chair, I will get to the rest of my speech.

This is my first speech in this 45th Parliament, my fourth Parliament. I have spent almost 10 years in this place, and what never ceases to amaze me is the opportunity to stand up here and represent the people of Edmonton Riverbend and share, from time to time, the amount of goodwill the people there have in electing me to this place. It is something that I am incredibly proud of.

I want to take the opportunity to thank a few people from the campaign, being that this is my first speech. First of all, I would be remiss if I did not thank my lovely and beautiful wife Elizabeth, who has been with me from the start of this thing. It has been an incredible journey. She has a busy life. She is a colorectal surgeon. At times, she likes to say that she actually saves lives while we pretend we are saving lives in here. I have certainly seen a number of things we have done here together in this place that have translated into some pretty amazing and remarkable things.

Also, I want to thank my two daughters. Molly just turned 17 and is off to university next year. She was an instrumental help during the campaign, as she always is. My other daughter, Lily, who is 16, was too. They came with boyfriends this time, so there were an extra couple of hands and volunteers doing signs and logistics. I thank both Molly and Lily for continuing to support me in doing this job, which takes me away from them. Actually, Molly's graduation is this Wednesday, and unfortunately I will miss it to be here. To stand up in this place, thank them and tell them how much I love them is something that I never forget to do.

Then, of course, there is the little guy who runs our house, Hugh, who is five. He was a brand new baby who came in the last Parliament. He has sat in the Speaker's chair on a number of occasions now, and he takes over the House when he is here. Thankfully, there have been no members of Parliament here at those times, but I was able to spend time with him. He came out every day of the campaign. He door knocked with me, lit dropped with me and put out signs with me. If members are looking for more volunteers, I guess the message here is to just have kids, and they will bring volunteers with them.

Then there is my wonderful sister, Bernadette Jeneroux. She is a teacher back home in Edmonton. She has helped us tremendously through so many opportunities and has looked after our little ones.

Then, of course, there is the volunteer team. I would be remiss if I did not mention a lot of their names. At the end of the day, they are the ones who really helped get me here. They are Vera Fedor; Jason Bischoff; Carter Moroz; Norman Lorrain; Ivonne Martinez; Sohail Quadri; Sami Alam; Tania Fatmi and Christine Liu, who both work in my office; David Sparrow; Asia Parmar, the best financial agent there is; Varun Chandrasekar; Karen Stix; Alison Webster, who baked us a bunch of delicious food while we were on the campaign, and her husband John Webster; Brooke Timpson; Rob Bligh; Ash Gupta; Alex Liu; and Ravi and Sonia Dhawan. Of course, I thank my good pal Rishi Dhawan for his support and advice.

Because we have a bit of a shortened session this time around, I want to take a moment to highlight an initiative that has been important to me since being in Parliament: our annual Father's Day on the Hill initiative. We have done that for about eight years now. It raises awareness for men's mental health among young men and young fathers. Unfortunately, this time around we will not be able to do the event as we have known it before. We are doing it in partnership with the Hi Dad Foundation, a foundation that I have been a part of since we launched it about three years ago.

We continue to raise awareness for men's mental health through that, in partnership with the Mental Health Commission of Canada. I congratulate Michel Rodrigue, who is just about to celebrate his retirement. Then there is Movember and of course the member for Courtenay—Alberni. He has been a big asset in getting this off the ground.

We had previous speakers at Father's Day on the Hill. The National Hockey League Players' Association, Bryan Baeumler from HGTV, the Burlington fire department and others have come out to raise awareness for the importance of men's mental health. The statistics say that 50 Canadian men die by suicide each week. This is a problem that needs to stop and is something we need to address in Parliament.

This particular Father's Day on the Hill, instead of doing an event where we normally invite every member of Parliament and senator, we are doing a round table on men's health policy. Internationally, there are seven countries in the world that have a men's health policy: Australia, Brazil, Iran, Ireland, Malaysia, Mongolia and South Africa. Ireland blazed the trail in 2008 with its national men's health policy addressing a five-year life expectancy gap and targeting marginalized groups like travellers via the engage training program. Australia's 2010 national health policy updated the 2021-30 strategy and supports diverse groups like indigenous men, aiming for long, healthy lives.

Brazil's 2009 national comprehensive health care policy for men expanded men's health units to over 1,000 cities, focusing on primary care and reproductive health. Mongolia's 2014 strategy tackles a 10-year life expectancy disparity, while South Africa's 2020-25 plan addresses HIV, TB and mental health, aligning with UN sustainable development goals. In Europe, the 2018 strategy for the European region links men's health to SDGs, highlighting masculinity norms' impact on mental health help-seeking within the U.K. Lacking a formal strategy, it appointed a men's health ambassador in 2024 to break stigmas around men's mental health.

There are calls for a broader policy in this realm, and these are just examples that can help Canada craft legislation that prioritizes men's mental health and men's health, addresses disparity and fosters inclusivity without leaving anyone behind.

There is a centre in Edmonton called the Zebra Child & Youth Advocacy Centre, and in April, it moved into a brand new 30,000 square foot building, largely thanks to generous Edmontonian Bill Eaton. The Zebra Centre partners with the Edmonton Police Service's child protection section and child at risk response team, the Alberta RCMP, Children and Family Services, Alberta Health Services and Edmonton's prosecution services to serve children and youth who have experienced abuse, supporting them through the investigative justice and healing process. I hate that this organization exists, but I am happy that it does. Led by Emmy Stuebing, it is an incredible herd. I congratulate it and its wonderful team on its brand new facility. I am looking forward to touring the facility when I get back to Edmonton.

Finally, I thank Edmonton. From the banks of the North Saskatchewan to the farms south of the Anthony Henday, our riding has so much promise, and it really is a gem on the Prairies. We are attracting so many incredible individuals from across Canada because of our ability to show an entrepreneurial spirit in Alberta. I have been honoured to represent this city now for 13 years. We have watched it grow and establish more new families and a lot more new communities. I could not be more thankful for them allowing me to be here to represent them back home in our community. It was all just farmland when I started, but the way that Edmonton is growing, it is looking like a brand new city in south Edmonton.

The exciting thing happening right now in Edmonton is that our hockey is doing extremely well, so I would like to end my time by saying, “Go, Oilers, go.”

Matt Jeneroux

$523,406.00