Health committee  Yes, thank you. I think I'll ask Kelly to speak to this one.

Health committee  I think anything that we can do that keeps people out of hospitals is beneficial at this time. We've certainly seen that people have self-selected to stay away from hospitals. Given the strain on hospitals, more at-home support and more virtual support make sense.

Health committee  I think opening up the levels of care as quickly as possible is what's going to help our cancer patient community most of all. As for the decisions that are being made about how to prioritize, I will leave them in the hands of the health care leaders to do that well and to follow some of the guidance that has been created by organizations like the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer and the surgical oncology associations that have provided more prioritization guidance.

Health committee  I'm really sorry to hear about your mother. It's lovely that she was a volunteer with us. We have 100,000 people a year volunteering with the Canadian Cancer Society; it's an amazing grassroots network of people who all care about cancer and who do a lot to support each other and all the million-plus Canadians living with cancer.

Health committee  Yes, it's very tragic. We've heard the same kinds of stories of people having to be isolated from each other at times when they want to connect and, of course, we've all seen the situation in long-term care homes. The patients we speak to and the families we speak with are very respectful of the instructions from Public Health to self-isolate and protect our health and protect each other.

Health committee  I think any kind of support we can give to allow people to connect with each other right now is vital. It's what we're trying to do when it comes to our online and telephone support, where people are able to connect that way. We've really augmented the kinds of offerings we're making right now in terms of our website resources and our phone support, and people are certainly accessing them.

Health committee  Yes, it's definitely going to take time. As we have talked about in a couple of circumstances here, the data is not there. It's hard to get a picture of the experience. It's also very much varied across the country. Different jurisdictions are providing different levels of care right now.

Health committee  Yes, you're right. It's very often complex. It's not just a matter of one course of treatment; this is sometimes many years of impact on a person's life.

Health committee  Yes, thank you. I would echo everything that's been said. There's such a feeling of powerlessness when you are diagnosed with cancer that you need support in the best of times. What we've been hearing through our helpline—we have a community called cancerconnection.ca where patients and caregivers go to support each other and share their experiences—is a frustration that they can't get answers about what's going to be next for them, which is very understandable, because the health care system right now is trying to determine how it's going to reopen, resume services and get back up to the levels of care that people need.

Health committee  We've been advocating for an increase to the employment insurance sickness benefit for a number of years now. It currently provides 15 weeks of coverage, so when someone needs to take time off work, 15 weeks are covered. From a cancer point of view—and this, of course, is different for different diseases—we know that's not adequate for the average length of time that a person needs to be off work to receive cancer treatment.

Health committee  We've had numerous positive conversations about the request and, I think, a great deal of understanding of the needs of cancer patients and the role that we could play in supporting them. But those conversations are still ongoing and we haven't had any confirmation of funding.

Health committee  Yes. I'm sorry. I missed the very beginning of your comments, but I think the rest was directed to me. Is that correct?

Health committee  Thank you. Absolutely, I think there are going to be many lessons to be learned. From the patient perspective, I think there has been a great deal of understanding that the health care system is in an impossible situation and that we've had to prepare for the worst. At the beginning of the pandemic, when you looked around the world, it really looked like of course Canada needed to avoid the worst that we saw in other countries.

Health committee  I could speak briefly to it. Among the top concerns we hear from cancer patients, I think they relate to financial strain overall. When you have chronic health conditions, such as cancer and others, there are burdens placed on patients depending on where they live and what kind of access to health care they have, and there's the financial strain it places on people in having to get to treatments or losing employment.

Health committee  All right, thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair and committee members, for having us here today. Thank you to my fellow witnesses. I'm speaking from Vancouver, from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. My name is Andrea Seale.