Mr. Speaker, April is Parkinson's Awareness Month. About 100,000 Canadians live with Parkinson's disease and this will double by 2036. Parkinson's is not a normal part of aging, but 85% of people with this neurological disease are over the age of 65.
People with this disease and their families face many challenges, including a shortage of neurologists, genetic discrimination by insurance companies, financial troubles and stress on family caregivers.
Parkinson's Society Canada calls on the federal government to take a leadership role to implement a pan-Canadian seniors strategy and to ensure Canadians with Parkinson's have access to the compassionate care benefit, which they currently do not have.
We need a law that prohibits insurers from practising genetic discrimination against people with Parkinson's disease. The government recently quashed the Senate's efforts to pass such a bill—