Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the government is nearly ready to reveal its long-awaited decision on the next steps for medical assistance in dying in Canada, which is expected to address whether the procedure will be available to people who solely suffer from mental illness.
A press release from the department of justice said the announcement will be made with the minister of health in Ottawa on Wednesday at noon.
It will be the first time the federal government communicates the direction it plans to take on MAID in the wake of a parliamentary committee recommending in June that it should “indefinitely pause” an expansion of the end of life procedure to people with mental disorders.
Fraser said he will be putting the “final touches on the path forward” over the next 24 hours, and that his office solicited a variety of views in the wake of the report’s release.
“There were people who felt heard in the process. There were people who felt their perspective wasn’t fully heard. They were able, separate and apart from the parliamentary committee process, to share very directly their own plans, their own perspectives, and their desired path forward for the government,” Fraser told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
“I feel confident that we’ve heard a range of different views in the development of the policy process and we’ll be able to share next steps tomorrow.”
A temporary exclusion has been in place for people who suffer solely from a mental illness since 2021.
That exclusion has been repeatedly extended, most recently until March.
The federal government revised legislation in 2021 to include people who suffer intolerably with a serious and incurable illness or disability but whose death was not reasonably foreseeable.
When MAID legislation was first passed in 2016, it required someone’s death to be reasonably foreseeable in order to qualify.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2026.
Hannah Alberga and Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
