If I were pessimistic, I'd probably be out of business, but I need to have an optimistic point of view from this.
I think those are two different things. I think the efforts to try to curtail the epidemic of childhood obesity is a much more challenging task in itself. From a diabetes perspective, though, because that's what we're here for, I think it's doable.
We're focusing in Quebec here because we know the reality, but certain areas of the province do have pretty good school services for diabetic children. It's a matter of school boards sometimes making choices, and they're making choices, I'm sure, based on budgetary constraints. But there is a way for public health, I think, to be involved, to try, at least, to get more knowledge out there. The nurses who are working in the schools are actually obviously catering to 8 to 10 schools, on average. They're not physically present. There needs to be a general way for them to know about type 1 diabetes as opposed to type 2 diabetes, which is often the case. They need to try to find out, as was pointed out by the people from the CDA, what the priorities are for this particular child, age-wise, autonomy-wise. And if it takes only someone supervising the child for half an hour, I think this is perfectly doable, and I don't think that's stretching the budget to a really unreasonable amount.
I agree that the fight against obesity is a completely different type of approach, and it probably involves major support and longstanding work. But I think diabetes is perfectly manageable. It's just a matter of committing to it and making concerted efforts so that everybody's on the same page. The problem is there are many jurisdictions, and I don't know that abolishing school boards is necessarily going to help—