Thank you very much, Mrs. Davidson.
Two days ago I was happy to announce, on behalf of the Government of Canada, a package of initiatives on autism spectrum disorder relating primarily to knowledge and research.
Let me just outline.... There are five particular points. I think I would characterize them as focusing our research better by establishing a research chair. We do a lot of research at the federal level on autism--the causes of autism, possible treatments, those kinds of things. Some questions have not been answered yet. Why do certain parts of Canada seem to have a greater prevalence of autism than others? It seems some basic questions haven't been answered. I believe establishing a federally funded research chair will help our country get to some of the answers, which will then help us as a society deal with the issues that are raised.
The second important thing is that I believe there is a federal role, through the Public Health Agency, on greater surveillance programs. Perhaps it is both sides of the same coin, but until we can identify.... We don't even know how many kids or how many people in Canada have autism or one of the ASD disorders. Surveillance is going to be important, because when you actually know what you're dealing with from coast to coast, you can tailor your programming and focus your research.
I believe those are helpful measures. They certainly were taken that way by some of the stakeholders. From my perspective, I'd rather do something focused like this. Some would say--I think I said on the day--it is modest. I didn't announce the end of autism as we know it, but I did say there is a role we can play and that we should be constructive and actually get something done.
I believe strongly in that. I'm hoping this will make a difference for lots of moms and dads and kids.