Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to move it, but I'll speak to it then as well, per your invitation.
What CPC-6 does is it.... To back up a bit, as you know, in Bill C-7, we have two tracks, one where death is reasonably foreseeable and one where death is not reasonably foreseeable.
We've already dealt with the fact that we have not defined “reasonable foreseeability”. On the track where death is not reasonably foreseeable, there are a number of safeguards that are in place.
On the track where death is reasonably foreseeable, we know that the 10-day reflection period that Parliament included in Bill C-14 is being eliminated. On the track where death is not reasonably foreseeable, the government has put in place a 90-day reflection period. It's interesting that on the one hand there's a reflection period being eliminated and that, on the other hand, there's a 90-day reflection period.
Our amendment CPC-6 would ensure that rather than “90 days”, there are “120 clear days between the day on which the first assessment under this subsection of whether the person meets the criteria set out”, and the point when they can receive medical assistance in dying. In effect, it extends the reflection period when death is not reasonably foreseeable.
The basis for our proposing this is based on testimony that we heard. All of us, as members of Parliament, know that access to health care is an issue probably in all of our ridings and among all of our constituents. Particularly now with COVID, we're seeing even more delays in the system.
I mentioned them before, but the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians specifically points out that under the proposed two-track system, where death is not reasonably foreseeable, the 90-day assessment period may not provide sufficient time for a person to receive appropriate palliative care or other supports needed to reduce suffering and live with dignity.
We also heard from other physicians who are specialists. We heard from MAID assessors quite a bit. These are specialists who deal with any variety of injury as well as sicknesses that people who may now be eligible for MAID would have to be dealing with. The feedback we had from those physicians as well as the physicians who deal with palliative care is that 90 days may not be sufficient. Upon studying this and consulting, and then based on the witness testimony we heard, we proposed this amendment that would increase this by a modest amount.
Is 120 days the exact right number? Is 90 days the right number? We don't know. What we do know from the testimony we heard about the 90 days is that it's not enough. Therefore, 120 days is a step in the right direction.
I mentioned the physicians who deal with palliative care, but we also received a submission from Physicians Together for Vulnerable Canadians. That is the submission that had over 800 signatures, not from MAID assessors but from physicians who deal with any variety of sickness that people may be dealing with. I want to draw the committee's attention to the second page. They say, “We live in a country where the wait time to see a psychiatrist...is 4-8 times longer than the 90-day waiting period”. Just for psychiatric care, the waiting list puts someone beyond the 90 days. What they're saying is that for situations where death is not reasonably foreseeable, the 90 days is woefully inadequate.
We've heard testimony that people within that 90 days can have ups and downs. The government acknowledges that some period of reflection is appropriate when death is not reasonably foreseeable, but what we're hearing overwhelmingly from physicians and from palliative care physicians is that 90 days is not an adequate reflection period.
Wherever you stand on the issue of assisted death where death is not reasonably foreseeable, ensuring we have the right safeguards should be something that we can all agree on, and the evidence we're seeing is that 90 days is not satisfactory. That's why our amendment would increase it to 120 days, which still may not be adequate, but we are proposing a number that recognizes that 90 is not enough in the hope that members of the committee would see it for what it is. It is a reasonable effort, where death is not reasonably foreseeable, to provide further safeguards for people who are at a very vulnerable point in their lives, to make sure they get the medical assistance that they can get and that we have more time for the provision of health care services to take effect—let alone to see those specialists—but also to have some movement towards recovery, hopefully.
We heard testimony at committee about individuals involved in a significant accident, for example, and someone who could be rendered paraplegic. This 90 days is not going to give them the time to see what opportunities they could have. That is why I'm asking that committee members consider this very reasonable amendment to increase from 90 days to 120 days the reflection time when death is not reasonably foreseeable.
I thank committee members for their consideration, Madam Chair.