I hesitate to speak against the proposed amendment because I know it to be well intentioned. The reason I'm speaking against it is, I suppose, twofold. First, it comes up as a condition for eligibility. That is, the way it's put in the bill, where it fits in the bill, is that this would be a condition precedent to actually being able to be eligible. It bothers me to think that in every case, particularly for those people living in remote communities, they would be denied their ability to take advantage of this service unless they could find a medical practitioner who could describe, perhaps non-existent, palliative care options.
The minister herself told us 15% to 30% of Canadians may have access to palliative care. I would have thought that the practitioner, or those people who counselled, encouraged, or persuaded people about the service in the past, who talked to them—social workers, psychologists and the like—would have talked about that. Health care practitioners would have already done that as part of what normal team medicine is in the 21st century, so I don't think it's necessary. But it troubles me that we would make it an absolute bar to doing so, where it may be difficult to obtain that advice.