Health Committee on Dec. 8th, 2022

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

It is $15 million to develop a strategy. We'll see what the budget for the strategy is. Hopefully, maybe in budget 2023, we'll see that. I don't know.

I totally remember our first conversation, because I was in Katowice, Poland, and I got this phone call from you. I didn't even know you had my number. I don't know that we'd actually really talked much, other than at an event way back when we were in government.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

I recall that.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

No. I would say we had a great conversation that night. I say “that night”, because it was at two or three in the morning for me, and you had come across somebody in a nomination at a door and you had some questions for me about autism. You thought of reaching out to me, and I appreciate that.

Hopefully, the relationships we have as they relate to helping people, in whatever world we're in, transcend our politics. I appreciated that conversation. It was a fairly long conversation, and we've had many conversations since then.

Autism supports across the country should be funded by governments. Those are the core autism supports, early intervention, the education system and what that looks like, inclusion in the education system and all of those things.

You talked about the person who you know who is so fantastic in the work world, or whatever the case is. One of my favourite things is a video we use in our presentations. CTV National News came out and did a story when Jaden was in his senior year of high school. It was his grade 12 year. Jaden had been included in a regular classroom with a full-time aide for his whole K-to-12 schooling. Because he was included, these kids got a chance to see what he was good at. They remembered that he was good at times tables. He always finished his times tables. He got 100% on his spelling tests or anything visual. He was great at puzzles and word searches, and those kinds of things.

They started to try to figure out where they could include him. They included him in musical theatre. He was surprisingly better than they thought he was going to be at learning some of the dance steps and things like that. He has a few motor issues, and that's a bit of a challenge. They then started to think what Jaden would be good at.

They included him in the school library. He worked in the school library, and he's amazing. CTV did this report. It's on my Facebook page, if anybody wants to see it. It's two minutes of him, scanning the books in the computer systems and putting them on the shelves. He was walking around with a pile of books that he had in order. He put them on the shelves way more quickly than any of us. He was running to put them on the shelves. If he was running by a shelf, he would grab a book off the shelf that some kid had put in the wrong place, as he's walking by and without skipping a beat, and put it in the right place.

It would shock you, because we would completely underestimate him. No one would think that he's that good at that type of thing, but he is. He's that good at it. Even to this day, you see him do a puzzle and he has his tongue out. He's super intense. With the systematic way that he does things like puzzles and those kinds of things, there has to be room in our society for someone like Jaden to contribute in those ways.

We're going to have to mitigate a few things, because Jaden is so excited in the library to put books away. If he's working in the public library, he'll run over a senior citizen with his cart because he's so excited to put the books away. You have to mitigate those things. Surely, we can do that to take advantage of full potential.

I know that your time's probably almost up. I'll take a quick second to give a shout-out. I have a staff member back here, Courtney, who works in my office. She's on the autism spectrum. She is amazing.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

She also works for the Canadian Association for Supported Employment. She works 22.5 hours a week there. She works six hours a week in my office. She has a master's degree in critical disability studies. I'll say it into the microphone, so that it gets into the record. She's invaluable.

Don, she also speaks at many conferences, as an autistic voice, from her perspective, which is in a very different place than Jaden is on the autism spectrum. Both have contributions to make, if we just pay attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Lake.

We're going to do two short rounds from Monsieur Garon and Mr. Davies before we wrap it up.

Mr. Garon, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I won't go over the two and a half minutes. But it all depends on Mr. Lake.

Subclause 2(3) of the bill provides for consultations that will lead to a federal framework on autism. The subclause talks about consulting the provinces, health ministers, stakeholders and so on. This seems to me quite an ambitious process, given the context.

Are you confident in the minister's capacity to set up a federal framework 18 months after the bill is passed?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

It's been a long road. One of my colleagues talked about going down that road in 2017 and basically having what would have led to a national strategy, the Canadian Autism Partnership, rejected in the budget in 2017. Confidence is a tricky thing.

I am. I think we're in a different place today, though. I think we're in a place where the government has signalled that we are going to have a national strategy. There has been a 19-month study done by the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, led by people I know and who I think are absolutely capable of guiding this discussion. There has been a lot of work done. It's not 18 months starting from now, by any stretch. This is an accountability framework to make sure it happens.

Some people might ask, “Why do you have confidence in ministers at the provincial level in health, children's services and education?” I have confidence that there's a will to get this right. Clearly, we haven't gotten it completely right, over the years, but I think there is a will to get this right. It takes leadership at the federal level. That's what a national strategy is all about. I think, by working together, we're going to get there this time around.

I'm so thankful this bill has come forward to set an accountability framework around that.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Lake.

Go ahead, please, Mr. Davies, for two and a half minutes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I have two questions, Mike.

Under the Canada Health Act, one of the principles is that every Canadian is supposed to have relatively equal access to quality services across the country. It's one of the core principles. We know—and I think you touched on this—that each province and territory offers autism diagnostic and support services that vary quite a bit, in terms of supports, delays and disparities.

One, how do you view that, in terms of developing a national strategy? Two, how can we ensure that autistic Canadians have relatively equal access to the supports they may need?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Those are big questions for a two-and-a-half-minute time frame.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

You have 30 seconds.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

First off, recognizing that most provinces.... No province deals with it exclusively in the health jurisdiction. It's education and social. This is common, though, almost everywhere. In the States and other parts of the world, you see the same thing: health, education and children's services. The ball gets tossed among them. I think this is where that leadership piece comes in at the federal and provincial levels. It's a recognition that this is the spirit of the Canada Health Act.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Can I interrupt you, Mike, and ask whether you see a role for federal money? Is the only way we're going to get progress through the federal government kicking in a significant amount of money to make the services real?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Absolutely. I think we've seen that in some places. Ready, Willing and Able, for example, is the employment program started by Jim Flaherty. It has been continued and renewed by this government. It's a partnership with Inclusion Canada and now the Autism Alliance of Canada.

Certainly, we haven't even touched on indigenous communities in this country. The federal government has a huge role to play. I think we made progress with the last iteration of conversation around indigenous communities and voices being heard on this—conversations around military families, tax policy and the justice system. There are a lot of places yet.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

That's where I was going next. I know I won't have time.

I was going to get into the issue of intersectionality, because autism intersects with many other identities, such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic status, rural and urban. We have a lot of work in front of us.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

I will note that it's mentioned in the bill. I think that's very important. Even though the bill doesn't lay out the strategy, the fact that it's mentioned in here and that they left room to add other areas—wherever the conversation might go, from here—is an important part of this.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

That's a great place to end.

Thank you, Mike.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thanks, Mr. Davies.

Dr. Hanley asked for 10 seconds to thank you. I'll extend the courtesy to the other parties, as well.

Dr. Hanley, go ahead.

[Brendan Hanley, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Thank you.

I just want to thank you on the record, Mike, for your eloquent testimony today and your advocacy.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, AB]

Thank you. I appreciate it.