Human Resources Committee on Oct. 16th, 2018

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Sure.

[Lee Cormier]

The organization that we've put together, Quinn's Legacy Run Society, is specifically to support families with a bursary that they can use in any way they feel they need to: to pay bills, to use for the funeral or anything like that.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

I'll just jump quickly. Is it family-specific, or is it a set amount? How does it...?

[Lee Cormier]

It's a set amount.

[Sarah Cormier]

It's a one-time financial payment that we have set up in trust. We raise funds, and then it's given in the amount of $2,000 to the family. We felt that it was what we needed to get through the first couple of weeks to pay for a funeral. We thought if someone gave us that, it would be sufficient, so we decided to start to do that for other unexpected or SIDS losses.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Are there a lot of families, a lot of people, applying?

[Sarah Cormier]

There are. We have supported six families since 2015. We are only doing Calgary and area, but there are lots of families that have reached out to us across the country.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

To your knowledge, are there other organizations prominently doing a good job across the country that are there for families to reach out to?

[Sarah Cormier]

Yes. We reached out to Baby's Breath here in Ottawa. I'm also the chair of SIDS Calgary Society. We provide peer support to families and are focused on research into SIDS and undetermined deaths in Canada.

We access the Rotary Flames House in Calgary for counselling. I believe the family of almost every child who dies at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary is entitled to access the Rotary Flames to see a grief counsellor specifically.

However, to the best of my knowledge—

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

It's not adequate.

[Sarah Cormier]

That's right.

There definitely isn't that in Edmonton. We have met lots of families just north of us that don't have that same access. It's very specific, town to town. We've supported families just outside Calgary that didn't have access to that support.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Then it's safe to say that it's in pockets of the country—

[Sarah Cormier]

Yes.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

—and that's the case for maybe most of the country.

[Sarah Cormier]

I would say that those pockets came from bereaved parents such as ourselves who are fighting for their child.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Yes.

[Sarah Cormier]

For us, it's a way to parent our child, so that Quinn is never forgotten. It brings us great joy to say her name and say that there's a legacy.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Absolutely. You're making a difference.

[Sarah Cormier]

Yes. That's what you see. You see The Vaughn Sawchuk Foundation in Cochrane, and Hazel's Heroes in Calgary.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Just to follow that, I'll go to Mr. Richards, if it's okay.

There are these organizations that are coming up, mainly from bereaved parents, parents who have lost someone. Is there an opportunity to do something with an NGO across the country, that we as government could partner with to offer that, to offer more personal care? Instead of there being one here, one there and none there, do you think there is an opportunity to do something such as that? I'm more focused on the support.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Could we have a quick response, please?

[Blake Richards]

Yes, potentially it's something that could be looked at. Certainly it would need a little more exploration, no question.

Sarah has laid it out well. This does exist in some places. There are organizations such as Quinn's Legacy Run Society and others that I'm aware of all across the country. Some are focused more on providing support or counselling, these kinds of things. Some are providing assistance of some type. There are a variety of different focuses of these various organizations, but many of them do exist, and it's always parents who have been through this themselves and understand how hard it is.

If something could be looked at in terms of partnering with them, I would certainly be open to seeing what that might look like.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

[Blake Richards]

However, the key again is that whatever is done here has to be something that can apply to all families and provide them with what they need. That might be the difficulty in this, but certainly it could be something that the committee might want to explore.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you very much.