Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to each of our guests for being here today.
Mr. Chair, I'd like to recognize for the record that we've been joined just recently by the original sponsor of this bill, Costas Menegakis, member for Richmond Hill, and I want to thank him for all the hard work he did in the initial stages of bringing the necessity of this bill to the government's attention.
I'd like to start with Ms. Bergeron, if I may.
First of all, Ms. Bergeron, through you, I'd like to thank the Canadian National Institute for the Blind for the very good work they do to help visually impaired people across Canada. I've had a relative who lost his vision through a form of cancer and was assisted greatly by the CNIB, and I've known many other people who have been assisted by the CNIB. I think they do fabulous work, so I want to thank the CNIB for that.
I also want to say that you, Lucy, and I have met a few times before. It was largely through the comments you made to our government that we included service animals in this legislation. I think you made great representations on behalf of the owners, the handlers of all service animals, and the people who are served by these animals as to how important they are to people's lives. I want to thank you for making that really strong contribution to this legislation.
You talked a bit about the training that your dogs have gone through. I think you pointed out in your opening comments that they receive more than two years in total of training before they go into service with a person. Could you tell us if there are different kinds of training for animals that perform different duties, how long they train, and what costs are associated with training these animals?