I'm going to try to remember them as I go. You worked a lot in there.
“Timely and equitable access” is the easiest one, right? People are waiting way too long to get their start. In Jaden's case, we knew he had autism around the time he was two. It was around his second birthday. This was fast relative to where we are now.
It took a few months before we were able to start a program with him. That program completely changed his ability to communicate with us. It completely changed his ability to understand the world, seemingly, and our ability to connect with him. We all know how important connection is to things like mental health and, actually, physical health. Our connection level increased almost immediately, within weeks of him starting his program. It kept increasing.
Every young person is going to progress on a different path, but I believe that he is much more able to connect with the world around him because of the help he got. If we had waited for that, if it had taken too long.... We know there are windows where that help is going to be more effective.
If you take a look at diagnosis, there now are adults who are diagnosed with autism. They're in a different place on the spectrum, but there are adults who are diagnosed with autism. Their life changes once they have a diagnosis and the understanding that comes with that diagnosis. It's a different form of help that may be available to them. Again, it's to mitigate challenges and to help them unlock potential. That's what “timely” is.
The “equitable” part of it is dependent on where you live. The circumstances have been completely different across the country over time, and that's obviously a significant challenge.
On the jurisdictional question that Jean-Denis was asking, I'm from Alberta. Jurisdictional issues are important to folks in Alberta as well. What B.C. is doing is different from what Alberta did, which is different from what Ontario is doing. Right now, if you talk to families in those provinces, most of them are often fighting for a continuation of the program they're used to, even though those programs are completely different in each of those places. They're fighting for at least a continuation or for an extension of those programs to families who don't have the help in the first place.
Equity is about providing an evidence base so governments can make those decisions and, hopefully, so people get the help they need. That's without—as Stephen was saying—having to move halfway across the country to get that help.