Thank you very much, Madam Chair. You're doing a fine job in your DH role today.
Just so that you get a sense as to where I'm coming from with this particular study on this issue, I had a brother who was a year younger than me who had cerebral palsy. He died at age 39. My mother was a long-time advocate and activist for persons with disabilities.
Back in the days when my brother started mainstream school, they suggested that he go to what I think they referred to at the time as the retarded children's class. I remember the battles my mother had with the principals and school boards and how that sort of evolved. My brother was very high-functioning and had a wide circle of friends as he grew up. He opened up a little store and made some money, owned his own car, had a girlfriend, but didn't get married because he was too cheap. He was wise beyond his years.
So just understand that inclusion, access, and participation were ongoing discussions through our lives and in our household. My sister is the director of a workshop now. I watched my mother's opinion on total inclusion in the school system sort of evolve; the battles that she fought early on sort of evolved over time. Before she passed away, she wasn't as convinced at the end of the day if it was right for everybody. It's almost like an individual case by case thing.
I want to get back to Shelley's comments about the workshop experience. I can understand your comments to compartmentalize and put everybody over here because now we've looked after these guys and we don't have to worry about them anymore. But I know that some of the workshops—and I know one in particular which my sister is the director of—had good success in transitioning and helping support transition.
I'll make one more comment. I just want you guys to comment on the ability of these workshops, because it seems that you're very much opposed to workshops. Could you elaborate on your position on that.
The other thing that she's noticing now with some of the students coming out of mainstream schools, public schools, is that they all have teachers' assistants and they're not life hardened anymore. They're getting their noses wiped, and they're opening the doors and closing the doors sort of thing. I know the neighbours looked after hardening my brother, and his brothers and sisters looked after hardening him, getting him ready for the real world, and so the workshop has been doing.... They spend a lot of time just preparing them to make that transition, but they've had great success.
That was more of a rant on my part, a reflection on my part, I think, than anything, but would you elaborate on your position on the group homes?