Thank you, Madam Co-Chair.
Dr. Herx, maybe I'll start with you. I was a member of Parliament in the 42nd Parliament when the original debate on Bill C-14 was going on in 2016. I remember the very passionate debates in the House during that time. Opinions voiced by members spanned the entire spectrum. Concurrently with that debate, there was also an acknowledgement that we as a country needed to do better in terms of giving patients palliative care options. In my own community in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, Cowichan Hospice has benefited tremendously from the building of a new palliative care centre, which has expanded the number of beds that are available.
I want to take a little walk down memory lane with you over the last number of years.
The original Bill C-14 was passed in 2016. We had all-party support in 2017 for the palliative care framework. Dr. Herx, when you saw that renewed focus on palliative care in Canada that came first in 2016 with the debate on Bill C-14 and then with the passing of the palliative care framework, did you see an improvement in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and then did it just ebb? Have we just lost the plot a bit, and do we need to refocus the attention a bit? I want to get a sense from you of what those previous years were like.