Thank you, Madam Chair.
I couldn't have said this better. Thank you very much.
You have all the latest numbers from ALS Ontario. I'm still the chairman of the support services committee, so I know these numbers by heart.
In truth, there is a phenomenal growth of demand for this equipment. I mentioned the ALS Ontario equipment pool earlier. There's over $2 million in capital value of equipment in our 14 depots that is shared. Even with that amount, it's not nearly enough, and therefore we're inundated with requests to buy more and more.
We just took on a donation from Veterans Affairs Canada. They are getting out of the equipment loan business and they provided all of their equipment to us. Even then, we had to go through and strip it down to those that were still usable. That won't nearly satisfy the need.
In my opinion, this whole thing has to be treated as a package for home care. That, as Sari said, and as I said earlier, is where the load is. People want to stay home. It is the least expensive option, versus acute care in a hospital. We need to make sure that home care budgets are adequate to the task of integrating the care, providing the equipment as and when required, and providing the medically qualified assistance at the time it is required.
In the case of my wife, she did not require any medically qualified assistance, right up to the final weeks of her life, because she never went for the breathing apparatus that requires 24-hour supervision. Others choose to go that route and they get into the place where they need around-the-clock care.
There was a gentleman, a deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, who suffered from this disease. Prior to his death, he estimated that the care the Bank of Canada provided for him totalled something in the order of $1.5 million—for around-the-clock care, to take him to the office to let him still work.
I'm not saying that's the required level for everyone. It is an expensive proposition, and we have to somehow get them coordinated into integrated home care. Unfortunately, it is largely a provincial matter.
I want to wave this plan because I helped develop it for this region of Ontario--the Champlain region. It's an integrated care pathway. That's how complicated it is to discuss all the issues required for the support of someone with ALS. If you had that sort of plan in hand across this country, you might well deliver the service when and where it's needed.
Thank you.