Thank you, Chair.
Thanks to our witnesses for being here today. My first question will be for Jim Mann of the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
First of all, Mr. Mann, thank you for being here today and for sharing your own personal experience with this disease. I really admire your courage in doing that.
As you stated in your opening statement, the issue of dementia is a serious one, and it's one that also touches many lives of many Canadians. I know that most of us at least know somebody or have a loved one who is suffering from it. I know because I do myself as well.
I recently met with Dr. Pat McGeer, a world-renowned dementia specialist and researcher at UBC, and he shared with me some of his concerns about this terrible disease. He also shared with me his optimism about finding a cure and better treatment for this disease as well.
Now, I noticed in reading the pre-budget submissions that a number of organizations are looking to tackle this issue head-on. I wanted to find out about that. Are you working closely with these other organizations? Because you all want to accomplish the same thing and you all need funds to do it, is there close cooperation amongst these groups?