Mr. Speaker, I certainly am no expert in terms of increases that have occurred. As I mentioned in my speech though, back in 1978, which was not that long ago, honestly, I did not even know what autism meant. Here we are a few years later, and we have so much more information on it.
Obviously, there are a couple of factors at play. There may in fact be an increase in the number of incidences of autism. That is probably true. I think another factor that often comes into play, not just with autism, but with many of the medical issues that we face today, is that we have far better diagnostic tools. Our medical practitioners are more aware of these early signs and can actually help us identify earlier. Therefore, there is probably a two pronged answer to that question.
I do not profess to be an expert on autism. I think part of our job here as parliamentarians is not to be medical experts but to get the medical experts to the table and to raise awareness with the public, so that we as individual members, and Canadians, are more aware of the challenges that families who are dealing with this are facing on a daily basis.