Certainly. Thank you for the question.
One of the other witnesses very eloquently described the impact of COVID-19 on children. In the children's hospital perspective, it was something where we really didn't know what to expect and what impact it would have on children. We did learn some things about transmission to children, but really, in terms of comparative impact to adult health services, we did not see children dying in children's hospitals, as we did adults in the adult hospitals. In fact, what ended up happening was that we sent many of our critical care nurses to work in the adult health system or, in some instances, to look after adults in children's ICUs. It was a very different impact from what was seen in adult health services with COVID.
I think your question about prioritized funding for children was next. We're all so grateful for these transfer payments, but there's always a risk that children are forgotten because children's services represent such a small proportion. Less than 3% of surgeries done in my province are in children under 18. There's been some talk about earmarking a certain proportion of those transfer payments to the provinces so that they must be used specifically for children's services, and I applaud that. I encourage more of that thinking that targets resources specifically to children and does not rely on others to prioritize children with funding.