Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank all the witnesses for their testimony, and we are grateful to them for having been here. My question is for Mr. Conrad Saulis. Mr. Saulis, I'm happy to see you back. We met two years ago when we were discussing the previous situation of the bill.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question will be for Ms. Hewitt. You saw the task force report, and I'm sure you read it, as I did. The members of the group expressed consensus on the way the evaluation should be made, and they stressed the importance of socio-economic factors in the thinking process of the requester.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Yes. Sorry, I wasn't clear.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Do you think, for example, as one of the safeguards is a 90-day period, if somebody's in crisis, time will maybe help to solve the crisis? The assessors must try to understand the real reason why the person is asking to have access to MAID and try to redirect that person to proper social assistance, if available.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. Dr. Gupta, you said that there are some uncertainties with some of the concepts and that's why your group has come up with a list of recommendations. You said these recommendations are based on the experience in Belgium and the Netherlands. Based on that, you also refer to the fact that very few cases are accepted.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  There's uncertainty with any words in the world, but you're trying to guide the practitioners to remove that uncertainty. If they still have uncertainty, they should say no.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  The intent of the report is to err on the safe side, rather than otherwise.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Can you hear me?

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I unplugged and plugged my headphones back in. It seems to be working.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Do you think support from the professional bodies would make it possible to standardize all of this? There are already various national medical standards.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Gupta, thank you for your participation, and in particular for having chaired a group that issued such an important report. The chair of Canadian Psychiatric Association appeared just before you. You may have listened to her. In order to improve your report, she said that national standards would have to be established that would apply to all psychiatrists and other assessors taking part in the process.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Do you think it's possible to have these national standards before the contemplated date of these provisions of MAID coming into effect?