Thank you, Chair and colleagues. Thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss my private member's bill, Bill C-234.
I would first like to thank the members of this committee for their incredible support for this initiative and previous efforts to improve Canada's organ and tissue donation systems.
I would like to thank the five members of this committee, including the chair, who have taken the extra step and signed up as official seconders of Bill C-234. Your seconding of this bill has sent a strong message to our colleagues in the House and undoubtedly helped get unanimous approval from this committee. I will also note that this bill is seconded by members from all provinces across Canada.
Before continuing, I just want to make a few comments that I had intended to make at second reading but was not able to because the bill passed unanimously before I could rise. It was a situation I did not anticipate, but I'm thankful for it.
As you all know, I donated part of my liver to save the life of my son Tyler, but he also had another life-saving transplant. During debate in the House, a member of the Bloc Québécois expressed great pride in the organ donation system in Quebec. Not many people know that Tyler needed more than my transplant to survive to today, but he did. That life-saving donation came from Quebec. My family will be forever grateful to the anonymous Quebecker who selflessly gave my son Tyler another chance at life.
I look forward to the day when Canada will have a living donor recognition medal. As so many have pointed out, the medal would be an opportunity to increase education and awareness of the power of living donation. It would save lives.
This is why we think it is absolutely critical that the medal come with its own post-nominals. The post-nominals would be a lasting, visible reminder to all Canadians, long after the medal award ceremonies were over. Post-nominals offer the opportunity to reopen the discussion about living donation over and over and will help achieve our goal of education and awareness.
Again, I thank members from all parties for their incredible support and encouragement. Their ability to put partisan politics aside and do the right thing for Canadians helped restore my faith in this place.
I also want to especially thank Minister Dominic LeBlanc. It is well known that he is with us today because of another type of living donation. He received a stem cell transplant from a young German, Jonathan Kehl. This selfless donation saved the minister from certain death. The minister, also the President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada, has made it very clear that he strongly supports this initiative, and I'm truly thankful for his personal support.
Since second reading, we have worked closely together on amendments to my bill in a full, open and transparent way. The amendments take input from those who would be responsible for its implementation and have been brought forward to ensure that the bill achieves its goal as smoothly as possible. In particular, I would like to thank Joel Girouard, senior Privy Council officer, and all the officials of the Privy Council Office, the Office of the Governor General and the Department of Justice for their work on the amendments proposed today.
In addition, through this process, it's become abundantly clear that this was a unique opportunity to recognize the blood donors who give the gift of life. Throughout the discussions over these amendments, there was a clear understanding that we want a threshold that is attainable but at the same time available only to those with a very significant and sustained donation history. We're talking about those who made a huge, generational commitment to saving others. Let's understand that the number of blood donors at this level is extremely worthy of recognition.
As we know, a donor is someone who donates without compensation for that donation. They give of their own free will. Anyone who receives compensation for donation should not be eligible for recognition.
Without going into each amendment, I can assure you that I have carefully reviewed them and welcomed them all as friendly amendments. While I understand the responsibility of this committee and the purpose of this review process, as a fellow member of Parliament, I'm also satisfied that certain scrutiny is not warranted and would welcome any effort to expedite the clause-by-clause process to accept these amendments as proposed.
I can honestly say that the minister, ably assisted by his director of parliamentary affairs and issues management, Émilie Simard, has provided answers to any questions I have had, has made thoughtful and constructive suggestions and has demonstrated a passion and excitement for this legislation at every step of the way.
It has been a wonderful experience, and I look forward to working with them as the bill progresses. Again, I'm truly thankful for the support of my colleagues. I can't wait for this bill to return to the House for third reading as quickly as possible.
Thank you.