Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for the question.
With regard to the 60,000 people who have received the letter and have not replied, it is not surprising given the fact of the written format of a letter and the fact that there are many people with visual disabilities. They have difficulty with regular communication, be it the papers, be it written materials, and they certainly would have a problem with this type of communication element. I think it shows the lack of accessible programming in terms of sending out one form letter to people using a supplement or at least a tax benefit that offsets some of their incurred costs when there are other issues with regard to language, literacy and the ability to read. There are all those different things, so it is really not that surprising that 60,000 people have not responded.
As a former board member for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, I can say that a lot of people are shut out with regard to day to day communications that are in the general media or even generally in their community, be it in flyers and different materials of that nature.
Specifically with regard to the cost, it is certainly one that we would be better off putting toward the implementation of social programs or at least toward assisting in facilitating persons with disabilities to be more involved in the community and, more important, in being able to participate and fully function, as opposed to incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs. Those are the costs we are talking about in terms of the money to get this out through the letter system at a complete waste.