Thank you, Minister.
I think the challenge Canadians are seeing here is that, by and large, health care within our country is controlled by the individual provinces. We've heard warnings even as recently....
Minister, the Association of Chairs of Psychiatry in Canada has called for your government to delay the expansion of MAID for those suffering from mental illness. They've issued a letter saying the following:
Further time is required to increase awareness of this change and establish guidelines and standards to which...patients and the public can turn...for more education and information.
That's as well as doctors' concern.
Here's the concern. At the federal level, these changes are being brought into our Criminal Code. We're saying that enough work has happened, when so clearly even our own house.... These were federal employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs who were offering MAID to veterans. This is a case of not only the provinces and professionals not being ready for this, according to the Association of Chairs of Psychiatry, but also the federal government itself not seeming to know what it's doing, when we have seemingly random people offering assisted death to struggling veterans.
This is December. March is quickly approaching. This government and this entire regime are not ready.
So, Minister, I guess my plea to you on behalf of many Canadians who are calling out to put the brakes on this, including doctors and those suffering with mental illness and the disability community, is that you strongly consider that.