I'll talk briefly, and perhaps the other witnesses can say a few words.
Meaningful action is what is extremely important. This is not the last step; this is the beginning of many steps, from my perspective, of what we're all trying to do in dealing with it.
As I said, the government's new surveillance and monitoring program is a good first step. Also, dealing with the issue of the disability payments, many grandparents and others have come to me and said that this is a really good step.
But those are only steps. I fully believe, and said in my statement about aboriginal youth, that, my goodness, children are slipping through the cracks every day in the aboriginal community alone. Why couldn't that be a second step for a national government's involvement?
I also believe that it's time to think outside the box. I know there are provincial governments that are delivering autism services as well as they can, but it's about time to think outside the box. We have the terminology that “it's a provincial responsibility”. It's Canada's responsibility.
I feel that whoever is in power should think outside the box and bring people together in a room like this, with scientists and researchers and other politicians from all spectra, to sit down to hammer out something that can work. I really believe that—and not only for autism, but for those with other severe intellectual disabilities.
I'm originally from Atlantic Canada—I'm from northern New Brunswick—and I'm an Ontario senator, but I'm a Canadian. As a Canadian, I'm tired of hearing about people who are getting on little airplanes in northern New Brunswick and travelling to Alberta and other provinces to get treatment, which lasts from zero to the age of 18, with a diagnosis.... You name it.
We have to get there, and I think what we're all trying to do is get there. I think we have a moral, ethical, and a loving obligation to get there.