Mr. Speaker, I wish to thank my colleague for his very pertinent remarks.
How far will we open extend the notion of social work? For my part, I considered that it was limited to social workers. Earlier, in my speech, I gave the example of a youth who had problems integrating into his school environment, and whose parents have to wait a long time before being able to meet a social worker. In my opinion, this bill is quite specific in this regard.
Could that be extended to a consultation with a psychologist? I think that more study must be done on this subject. If a child has a problem, if there is no psychologist in his school and if his parents must wait years before getting advice, I would not object to a psychologist seeing this child. However, he is partly right. How far should we extend it? For the time being, I know that speech language pathology is included, as well as social work.
For our part, we had limited that to social workers. It is not negligible. A social worker may not be a psychologist, but a good social worker surely understands the issues of the school environment, among others, and can make a valuable contribution when someone asks for help. We will stay vigilant and we will evaluate the situation as it evolves in order that the extension does not go too far.
I gave the example of the psychologist, and I said I would not be against that. As far as social workers are concerned, that is clearly in the law presently. We shall see if it needs to extend to other professions. For the time being, this is how I interpret the bill.