Mr. Speaker, first I would like to salute Shawn Murphy, the former member of Parliament for Charlottetown who retired just before the last election. I should add that the current representative for that riding is an excellent member who has obviously taken much inspiration from Mr. Murphy in terms of the sincerity of his efforts and the intensity of his work ethic.
Shawn Murphy tabled bills and motions several times in this House calling on the federal government to create a national autism strategy. The bill we are debating today, courtesy of Senator Munson, is calling on the government to officially enact in Canada April 2 as world autism awareness day. It is but one item in a suite of federal actions needed to address the growing and still poorly understood autism spectrum disorder, which affects a growing number of children and their families every year in this country.
In turn, we can only have a concerted national action on autism if first we create a critical level of awareness among the general Canadian population. This awareness will lead to overwhelming public consensus on the need for such action, followed logically by political pressure at the grassroots that, at the end of the day, should produce concrete government measures on autism.
To many of us, autism appears to have come out of nowhere. Personally, I do not recall talk of autism when I was growing up. I do not know if this is because autism had not been properly diagnosed or whether it is because new factors are at work that have increased the incidence of autism.
As we know, approximately 1 in 110 Canadian children are diagnosed with autism. The number of new cases is increasing by 10% to 17% per year. Another fact of which I was not aware is that boys are four times as susceptible as girls to be diagnosed with autism. Just this past Sunday, I spent the afternoon with a friend whose son is autistic. Today I meet numerous parents and families who are nurturing an autistic child with extraordinary love, dedication, intelligence, creativity and patience. What all these parents have in common is a fierce and indefatigable determination to create a powerful community of interest around those directly or indirectly affected by autism and to push for a proper public policy response to autism at the local, provincial and national levels. I will take this opportunity to salute these parents.
One of the reasons I have chosen to speak today in the debate on the bill is that the region I represent on the island of Montreal, what is commonly referred to as the West Island, is home to a higher percentage of people with intellectual disabilities and autism than any other region in Quebec. If this is so, it is testimony to the extraordinary civic-mindedness and volunteer spirit of my community, I can proudly say. This spirit has been the historic hallmark of the West Island and lives on today, perhaps on an even wider scale as primary and secondary schools, for example, make community service part of their curriculum.
One of the most eloquent examples of how citizens of the West Island coalesce to meet social and health needs is through the West Island Association for the Intellectually Handicapped, which operates under the vision and energetic leadership of Natalie Chapman. WIAIH, which in 2008 celebrated its 50th anniversary as a community organization, provides support to people with intellectual disabilities or autism. Its mission is to maintain and develop innovative services and to sensitize the community to available services and the need for greater government support for people impacted by intellectual disabilities and autism.
If the West Island of Montreal includes such a large number of families with children with intellectual disabilities or autism, it is because of the scope and quality of WIAIH services. In other words, families move to the West Island expressly to access those services. As a side benefit, our community attracts extraordinary citizens to live and work in the community and surrounding region. These are dynamic people who help us grow in so many different ways.
Incidentally, WIAIH has served as an incubator for the development of other local organizations in the same sector, namely, West Island Citizen Advocacy, Placement Potentiel, AVATIL, the West Montreal Readaptation Centre, the West Island Residences for the Intellectually Handicapped and the John F. Kennedy School.
While we are fortunate in the West Island to house a critical mass of organizations like WIAIH, our success in constructing an enviable social and health infrastructure underscores the fact that other regions lack a comparable level of support. In other words, while WIAIH is a beacon of hope and assistance for those suffering from autism and their families, at the same time the organization's success illuminates the fact that in other regions a greater level of need persists and goes unmet.
One should not, for a moment, think that WIAIH has all the resources it needs at its disposal. Whenever I have the opportunity to meet and speak with Natalie Chapman, she reminds me of the overwhelming pressure on our community. She reminds me of the weight under which families are labouring and how diagnosis is not being conducted early enough in those crucial years for children with autism. She reminds me that post-diagnosis intervention still does not occur early enough, and that families desperately need respite.
What is needed today at the federal level, and urgently so, is best captured by the Autism Society of Canada. It says, “We need increased funding for provinces and territories to provide critical no-cost treatment, education, professional training and required supports for Canadians with autism. What is also needed is a mandate for the Public Health Agency of Canada to make autism a national priority by initiating surveillance and reporting, and setting national standards for treatment and service delivery. Also needed is an allocation of significant funds targeted for autism research to Canadian funding organizations, such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Finally, we need improved financial and other supports to individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism, and their families, through the federal tax and labour systems.”
In conclusion, issues of common concern to Canadians from coast to coast to coast need to be addressed through national coordination and with standards of service delivery that are consistent for all citizens, wherever they may live in this great country.
Autism is such a matter of common interest and national priority. Declaring April 2 of each year world autism awareness day would be a small but meaningful step in the direction of eventually, hopefully, creating an effective national approach to learning all we can about autism and providing the services children with autism and their families need, and this as early as possible.