Finance committee  It's often even worse. Whereas it used to be three or four weeks, now it's over 40 weeks that most people are being quoted for a response to their application, so much so that I'm aware of one promoter who used to employ 30 people, last year, to provide support for Canadians accessing this program, under multiple illnesses, but they are actually shuttering their business because they can't have a business that's dependent on approval times and review times that have lengthened so much, particularly when that's 40 weeks just to get the first set of questions sent to your doctor, and then you go back into the queue and wait again.

Finance committee  It was conducted by the administrator of the Facebook group on the disability tax credit and RDSP.

Finance committee  A third to one-half of the people who said they have been disallowed since May, for diabetes, had previously applied.

Finance committee  Not all 1,500 are people with diabetes. They are just people in this forum. What I am trying to say—

Finance committee  No. That Facebook group in no way represents every person who has applied for the DTC or RDSP.

Finance committee  By all means. I want to be clear. I never said that I had scientific numbers. I wish I had them. I filed an ATIP request in early August asking for these hard numbers from the CRA. I am saying that we are seeing an alarming trend, a massive decline in the number of people who are getting approved.

Finance committee  That's an excellent question. In the past 10 years, there has been an increase in the number of promoters, companies that help people apply for the DTC on a fee-for-service basis. A few of them were charging egregious amounts and their fees had to be capped. The majority don't charge that much.

Finance committee  I don't think there are inconsistencies between those numbers. I have personally seen 715 cases of disallowance. I know, of course, that I have by no means seen every disallowance there has been for people with diabetes in the last six months. I have statistics that are coming from groups that treat or support thousands of patients trying to access the disability tax credit.

Finance committee  This is really one of our biggest concerns. What we're saying is that we don't understand why CRA agents are overturning the certifications of expert doctors and nurse practitioners who are attesting that a patient is requiring the 14 hours. As I mentioned at the outset of my remarks, I don't pretend to say that every single type 1 case always takes 14 hours a week, but many do.

Finance committee  That's an excellent question. There's no question that technology has improved vastly in the area of management of diabetes in recent years. It's even stunning for me to think about what's happened in the last 20 years, to say nothing of what's happened since insulin was discovered in 1921 by a Canadian doctor.

Finance committee  No, they have not. Our conversations with them, as recently as yesterday, are to look at how we might set up a process to engage in a series of conversations with experts to inform them about what goes into managing type 1 so that they can inform us about their clarification procedures and questions.

Finance committee  No, I have not heard of any cases of anybody being reinstated. My understanding is that, since our meeting on October 25, they have frozen the application of every person with diabetes for the disability tax credit. Right now, none of us are getting refused or approved, but I have not heard....

Finance committee  Late June or early July we wrote some letters to both the minister's office and the CRA and attempted to engage with them.

Finance committee  We have, and we did receive a face-to-face meeting with the director general of the relevant part of the CRA on October 25, near to the time of the initial press conference, and we had one follow-up by telephone yesterday.

Finance committee  As mentioned, we are currently looking at setting up a teleconference for the last week of November, where we will have some endocrinologists, some nurse practitioners, and some general practitioners available to discuss the application process, the eligibility criteria, and the clarification questions that the DTC normally asks, and attempt to engage in a process to educate the CRA employees about what goes into managing type 1.