Mr. Chair, it has been a long night for everybody. I am glad to be able to participate in this debate.
I want to bring up an issue that we started the day with today. It is a very important issue for quite a segment of our population. It has to do with the subject of autism.
This morning we had the Autism Society of Canada here. We had alarming statistics being brought forward. We have seen at least a tenfold increase in the last 10 years and in some areas the numbers are even a hundredfold and more. We know that autism used to be so rare and now in many classes there are two or three children with autism, at least in British Columbia where my wife is a counsellor in the elementary system. It is a huge problem.
The families of autistic children have of course suffered a great disappointment with the Supreme Court decision on treatment that has just come down. That particular treatment option deals with behavioural modification, a very intensive behavioural analysis. It costs about $50,000 to $60,000 per child.
More needs to be done to head this off early and intervene early so that we can prevent this catastrophe for families and for these children. That being said, I wanted to highlight that and ask the minister where the health ministry is going with this.
Just recently in the last weeks the New York senate commended and honoured Dr. Joan Fallon for a new study. It was the patenting of a process for early identification of these children and it involves a simple stool test. It has to do with pancreatic enzyme deficiency. This is very promising in the treatment of these children, with enzyme treatment improving their function.
What is the ministry doing to help head off this problem of autism? Are we doing something? Is there a strategy? Are we putting money through the CIHR or some other agency into identifying the cause of autism for these children and the appropriate treatment? By the way, Dr. Joan Fallon is a chiropractor. Along with the enzymatic treatment she does use manipulation of these kids as well. Is there a strategy and is something being planned?