Mr. Speaker, as this is kidney month I should like to present two petitions from people who are concerned about those who have kidney disease.
The first petition is signed by hundreds of people from the Peterborough region who point out that kidney dialysis and transplantation have been valuable and continue to be useful, but that there are difficulties with dialysis treatments and that the rates of organ donation are not sufficient to meet the needs.
Therefore they call upon parliament to work and support research toward the bioartificial kidney, which will eventually eliminate the need for both dialysis and transplantation for those suffering from kidney disease.
The second petition is signed by many people in Peterborough and central Ontario who point out that kidney disease is a huge and growing problem, which they want us to note especially during kidney month.
They also point out that progress is being made in various treatments, but they call upon parliament to encourage the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to explicitly include kidney research as one of the institutes in its system, that institute to be named the institute of kidney and urinary tract diseases.