With regard to the age of a child, we heard on Tuesday that it seems somewhat arbitrary or prescriptive to suggest that when the child is 18, a parent's responsibilities somehow end, particularly in the case of persons with developmental disabilities.
I have a friend who is nearing 80 and is caring for her almost 50-year-old daughter every day. She certainly could use some of the supports that are being talked about here, but they're not available. We're also aware from Tuesday's witnesses that for a disappeared or a murdered child, it doesn't really matter whether the age is 18 or not.
The other thing we heard about was some of the inflexibility of the legislation, in that it has to be all in one time and can't be spread out over bits and pieces of time, which meant that its usefulness was somewhat limited. Is there some indication that, even as it's proposed, it should be more flexible, that we should be able to use it over a longer period of time, perhaps, longer than 37 weeks? You've suggested 55 days as the average, but I'm sure there are people who need a lot more time than that. Are there ways in which this legislation can be improved by making it more flexible?