Thank you. It's really an honour to be here, to finish out my time on the Hill talking about some issues that have consumed me in my political career and my personal life for a long, long time.
I'm really happy your committee is doing this study. I know my colleague, Tony Martin, has been vociferous on this point, along with others. I'm just really pleased that you embarked on this work.
I want to thank all of the presenters here today for your leadership, and in fact for being critical players in terms of Canada finally signing and ratifying the UN convention. I know we're going to be celebrating a bit later today this remarkable achievement.
I think what I hear you saying today--and I agree with you--is that there are so many studies. I have them all in my office; I don't know what I'm going to do with them. I'll give them to you, Tony. They would probably go close to the ceiling.
I guess what you're saying is we know what the problems are. We know what the status of persons living with disabilities is. But we've got to find a way to kickstart governments everywhere into a plan of action that will actually translate those recommendations into something concrete.
I think your recommendation to focus on section 33 makes a lot of sense. But then I want to ask you what that looks like in your mind. You talk about a focal point within the federal government--let's start with the federal government--and a coordination mechanism. Should we build on what is there now or should it be different? Where should it be? How does it look in your mind? What recommendations would you give to this committee in terms of working on that particular recommendation?