It's extremely real.
I gave testimony to the MAID committee, the joint committee of the House and the Senate, earlier this year. The friend I mentioned is somebody with post-viral syndrome, basically, and, as we live in this post-COVID era, we don't know how many people are going to join that. She's somebody who just cannot afford to pay for treatment. We know there are people in Ontario who have used MAID this year because their housing was toxic to them, not because they didn't want to live and not because their suffering was irremediable. The remedy to their suffering was financial: Their suffering was because they lived in poverty.
I truly believe that we're out of whack at the moment, in that we have legislation by this government that is moving forward. In March 2023 it will include more people who can apply for MAID, but that's only half the picture. We're not looking at the poverty angle and at the way people are being forced to live.