Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My questions today are for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I would like to thank you and each and every one of the presenters for being here today.
These questions can be answered by either Mr. Prowten or Ms. Weisman. You can decide that for yourselves.
I wanted to say a few things. Growing up, my mother's two best friends, two sisters, both had type 1 diabetes. They've both passed on at this point. They were very close. They lived and grew up down the street from where I lived. Today some of my best friends have children with type 1 diabetes as well. Certainly I am no expert in it, but I have seen and witnessed some of the struggles first-hand.
I'm going to give you some quotes from a friend of mine, just so that you can see where the mindset is of many parents today who have children with type 1 diabetes.
This one particular mother says to me, “Jake, I'm now functioning as my child's pancreas, literally. It's all in my...to do what that pancreas is supposed to do but now doesn't. I wonder if the Prime Minister thinks he needs his pancreas 24 hours a day. I can guarantee it's a 24-hour-a-day job, though I wish it were only 14 hours. I'd like to know how he would do working a full-time job and performing the job of his child's pancreas. The burden is so heavy that I've seen type 1 parents give their careers up to care for their child, and I've watched them run on minimal sleep themselves. The burden is really that heavy.”
Today my questions mainly sit with the disability tax credit. Both kids and adults who have type 1 diabetes require life-sustaining therapy for the rest of their lives. Most have insulin pumps that give insulin 24 hours a day. Can you confirm that an inequality of access to the disability tax credit is really about patients and doctors trying to navigate arbitrary and inconsistent rules by the Department of Finance and Revenue Canada?
Thank you.