A long-anticipated three-digit suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline will come online in 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said Wednesday.
The CRTC said it will use 988 as the hotline’s number — the same three digits adopted for a similar hotline in the United States that launched in July.
MPs voted unanimously in favour of establishing a three-digit hotline in December 2020, as demand was rising for mental health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conservative B.C. MP Todd Doherty, who tabled the motion on the hotline, said he heard the news while out running errands and had to sit in his truck and cry for half an hour.
“It took way too long to do this but today is a great day,” he said.
