Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by residents of Elliot Lake who want the government to identify hospice palliative care as a defined medical service to be covered under the Canada Health Act.
The petitioners state that palliative care and hospice palliative care help improve quality of life for patients and their families as they cope with terminal illness.
These services provide relief from pain and other distressing symptoms, while affirming life and regarding dying as a natural and normal process. The petitioners tell the government that hospice palliative care does not seek to hasten or postpone death but does so much to help with pain, as well as other physical and psychological problems patients and their loved ones must deal with. For these reasons, they ask the government to do the compassionate thing and have hospice palliative care covered by the Canada Health Act so it is available to all Canadians when and where they need it.