Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses.
Before I ask my questions, I would ask the chair if he could request that Dr. Pereira provide this committee with a written report supporting his opinion that, one, people are being provided MAID instead of access to palliative care when they want palliative care; two, the data that shows that people who are receiving MAID have received suboptimal palliative care; and three, that resources are being diverted from palliative care to MAID provisions outside the usual ongoing annual reallocation of resources in the health care system.
I have questions for both Dr. Kekewich and Dr. Roy.
Dr. Kekewich, you raised a concern about the possibility of a real shortfall in the health care workforce that can provide MAID and palliative care. Both are very important. How can that human resource problem be addressed by the federal government? Can you think about whether targeted health care transfer funds might be part of that solution?
Dr. Roy, would regulatory bodies have within their jurisdiction the ability to require that MAID providers must have completed a national training program in MAID assessment and delivery?
Go ahead, Dr. Kekewich.