Subcommittee on Neurological Disease Committee on Dec. 9th, 2010

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

—but this is perfect.

I really appreciate the work that Senator Munson has done. The story about Michael, I've heard that once before, and that's fantastic.

I want to focus, if I could, in this round just on this concept of a national strategy. Now at the table we have three groups that are probably the three most national groups in terms of autism in the country. I think that would be fair to say.

One of the things that is difficult when we talk about national strategies, and can sometimes get in the way of national strategies, is that all the groups aren't necessarily pulling in the same direction on whatever issue it is that you're talking about having a national strategy on.

With this question I'd like to focus on areas where you are pulling in the same direction. Maybe give us an idea of what kind of common agreement there might be in terms of what should be the priorities in dealing with autism across Canada.

If Laurie wants to start, then maybe we'll just hear from all three of you.

[Laurie Mawlam]

On behalf of the 38 organizations that CASDA represents, we've pointed them out to be surveillance; best practices; the facilitator role, which would be having ministerial conferences, etc.; looking after the health of the aboriginal community, because you are a health care provider at the federal level; research specific to autism, increase it; financial assistance to families was the next point we made about the Income Tax Act; and lastly a national awareness campaign.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Kathleen, did you have anything to add to that?

[Kathleen Provost]

I would echo that. In terms of surveillance, a lot of you are putting this question to the table: can we understand what's out there? We cannot. They have told us that there is no data.

You can't build a strategy on speculation. I think we have to sit down, assess, take the pulse. There are things out there.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Suzanne.

[Suzanne Lanthier]

I really don't have much to add. From our perspective, really it all comes down to research. Without knowing what causes autism we don't have an understanding of treatments and preventions that are unique to every child in every situation.

We'll continue to focus on our need for research and for the equality of services, access to services and diagnosis. There's no reason, as Canadians, that we should have to look at where to live in this country in order to access services.

On the rest, I think we're all pretty much on common ground. We know that things can be a lot better.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Right. One of the things I've been encouraged about over my five years as an MP is that there seems to be a lot better understanding of the jurisdictional component. When I say jurisdictional, I'm not talking about health, social services and that stuff, but provincial-federal jurisdiction. There's a lot more recognition that the provinces are really responsible for funding the treatment of autism, they have the money to do it, and they need to make it a priority. I think at the federal level we need to equip them with the tools to make those decisions, and the research and surveillance, for example, is a big part of that equation.

Madam Chair, I don't know if there are other meetings scheduled for this particular topic at some point.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Mr. Lake, I'll stop the clock for a minute.

Next week we are doing the research component on autism. We're very excited about some researchers who are coming in. That's going to be on our subcommittee.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

One thing that may be helpful to the committee, too, is to have an official from the government. I know that we've had some meetings, and the people at the table have had some meetings, with some really capable officials who might be able to shed some light on what's actually happening out there as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Yes, we do. We have some really good information. You kind of precluded what I was going to announce. Thank you, Mr. Lake.

I was going to invite you back on Tuesday to listen, and you might get some extra documentation. And everything that's said here is recorded. You can find it in Hansard. That might be useful to you.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Do I have a couple more seconds?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You actually have a minute and a half.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Okay. I'll use that minute and a half.

There are three organizations; Kathleen and Laurie, you have the individual organizations of Autism Society Canada and Autism Canada Foundation. A lot of people who might be listening to this or following the transcript might wonder, “Okay, so we have three national organizations. Why do we have three organizations?”

So I guess I would ask you, what is the focus of your particular organization that makes your organization unique?

[Laurie Mawlam]

I'd just like to say that when it comes to addressing the federal government, Kathleen and I do it under CASDA. The other member of the leadership committee is Margaret Whelan, who is the executive director for the Geneva Centre for Autism.

Outside of being here today, which I do under the umbrella of CASDA, the one thing that makes us maybe a little different is that we talk about autism as a whole-body disorder. That would be one thing that would stand out, in that recovery is possible, which is what I put in my opening comments.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

I'm sorry, but I have to stop there. I gave you a little extra time, Mr. Lake.

Monsieur Dufour, you're last but not least. You're the best.

[Nicolas Dufour, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I have no questions. I will give my time to Mike Lake.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You want to continue, Mr. Lake? Okay.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Thank you, Nicolas.

I'll just use the time to ask Kathleen to continue on that topic

[Kathleen Provost]

Autism Society Canada has been around for 35 years. We have a provincial-territorial representative. We take the pulse out there regularly. We're virtual, with no resources. It's all done by volunteers and based from the ground up.

I'll also add that there are strategies out there. The U.K. and New Zealand have some. I'll forward all that after the meeting.

[Suzanne Lanthier]

Autism Speaks Canada, very simply, raises money and gives out money. We raise money and we give out money to research communities through family services grants. It's our goal, through the resources we provide, our website, and the information we provide, to make the path a little straighter.

I also want to comment briefly on this idea of a summit and what Autism Speaks in the U.S. did very effectively for the adult community. If they can do it across the U.S., we can certainly do it across Canada. They had virtual sites set up where they hooked up stakeholders, policy makers, and members of service provider groups in centres across the U.S. Everyone voted on issues that were important to the adult community. They developed a strategy as a result of that.

The technology is there to do it virtually across centres. I think that's a really exciting concept. When the senator mentioned that, it struck me. I attended the central hub in Chicago to see how the technology worked. I think it's a fantastic concept, and we would be happy to lend our expertise in that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

I'm sorry, I have to end our conversation there.

This has been a really good meeting with a lot of very insightful comments. I let the time fall away because you had some very insightful things to say and I didn't want you cut off.

I would invite you to join us next Tuesday in the audience at the next meeting, because I think the witnesses we have there will be extremely good and may be very helpful for you.

Ladies and gentlemen, our next meeting is in Room C-120 at 11 o'clock.

This meeting is adjourned.