Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A9

                                                                                                20 January 2003

Mr. Garry W. Breitkreuz, M.P.

Room 452-D

Centre Block

House of Commons

Ottawa

Dear Mr. Breitkreuz:

                        Further to your request of 17 December 2002, I am pleased to provide you the following information on suicides in Canada.

                        Should you require further information on this or any other subject, please do not hesitate to contact the Parliamentary Research Branch.

                                                                                                Yours sincerely,

                                                                                                Emmanuel Preville

                                                                                                Economics Division

                                                                                                Parliamentary

                                                                                                Research Branch

SUICIDES IN CANADA

                        Overall, the number of suicides went up about 60% over the last 30 years where as the population grew by about 30%.  Excluding 1999, the last observation for our data and a particularly high year, the growth in suicides was about 40%, closer to the population figure.

                        In the last ten years, there has been a continuous and consistent decline in the number of firearms deaths.  Suicides with firearms have also seen a continuous decrease after spending much of the last 20 years over the 1,000 per 100,000 mark.  While the number of firearm suicides decreased, there has been an increase in the number of suicides by hanging.  Almost half that increase took place in 1999 (see Table 1 and Chart 1).  Suicides involving other methods have remained relatively stable. 

                        Between 1991 and 1999, the number of people shooting themselves decreased by 303 while the number of people hanging themselves increased by 721.  On the surface, there seems to be a substitution effect from firearms related suicide to hanging.  However, there is insufficient information to draw this conclusion.  We cannot clearly state that there is a substitution effect between the two, because the causes of suicide find roots in changing and complex social, economic and personal situations which may or may not effect the method of suicide.

                                                                        Prepared by:     Emmanuel Preville

                                                                                                Economics Division

                                                                                                Parliamentary Research                                                                                                             Branch

                                                                                                20 January 2003