Thank you very much.
Thanks, Chair. It is nice to see so many familiar faces.
Dr. Kneteman, first allow me to personally thank you and your medical team for all you have done for my family. For those who don't know, my son Tyler is a three-time liver recipient. One of them was donated by me, and the rest came from deceased donors. Dr. Kneteman led the surgical team in our case, and I would like to say I'm eternally grateful. Thank you.
In 2016, as you probably know, I introduced Bill C-223, which sought to create a national organ donor registry. Unfortunately, it was defeated by the government at second reading in the House of Commons due to unneeded partisanship. I must mention that the chair supported me on my bill, against the government's will. Thank you.
I'm pleased to see this committee finally deciding to study such an important topic that is close to my heart and mind through personal experience, and which led us as a family to finishing with our pain of almost 20 years. We can only be grateful to the medical teams and the families who donated. We still don't know who they are. They came forward and gave us two additional opportunities to the one that we started ourselves.
We know that about 260 Canadians died in 2016 due to unavailability of organs. We also know that about 4,492 Canadians were on the waiting list. The waiting list can go for four years. I hear some stories about waiting lists for kidneys that go for eight years, maybe ten years, which is ten years with no quality of life. We know how unproductive that is for the patient, the families, and the community in general.
It is safe to say that we need a more coordinated effort among the provinces, and a national awareness effort and program—I call it a registry—at some point.
For my question, I'd like to start with Dr. Kneteman, and all of you can elaborate or answer.
First, are you aware of how many organs from deceased donors we do not get the opportunity to benefit from? Based on that answer, do you feel that we need a national organ donor registry that would link all the provinces and basically, if you don't want to say “obligate”, at least put everyone under one responsibility to act and work together?
Dr. Kneteman, if you would like to start answering those questions, I'd be grateful. Thank you.