Finance committee  Good afternoon, and thank you very much for the opportunity to present to you today on the needs of the charitable sector and to share a perspective from one of this country's largest charities. My name is Andrea Seale. I'm the CEO of the Canadian Cancer Society. The pandemic is

Finance committee  Sure. The details of the emergency support fund haven't been fully released yet, so it is hard to comment on how exactly it will address the needs of the sector. I know for health charities like ours, the impacts we feel are across all parts of what we do. For example, we're the

Finance committee  Yes, I definitely would agree with that proposal. I would say it's a difficult one, as a leader of a charity, to see clearly how it would assist with the current situation. I'm sure it would increase giving and I think increasing incentives for giving is a great idea, but it's go

Finance committee  Yes, absolutely.

Finance committee  I can start by saying, yes, absolutely we would. When the changes were made to remove the limits for stocks there was a real boost seen in the stock donations to charities, which have been incredibly helpful through the years. Yes, I definitely would be supportive of that measur

Finance committee  One thing we're seeing is that as we start to get to what is hopefully the other side of the most acute crisis of the pandemic, the impact on the health care system will continue to be with us for quite a long time. The surge of people coming into the system is going to be high a

Health committee  All right, thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chair and committee members, for having us here today. Thank you to my fellow witnesses. I'm speaking from Vancouver, from the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people: the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. My n

Health committee  I could speak briefly to it. Among the top concerns we hear from cancer patients, I think they relate to financial strain overall. When you have chronic health conditions, such as cancer and others, there are burdens placed on patients depending on where they live and what kind o

Health committee  Yes. I'm sorry. I missed the very beginning of your comments, but I think the rest was directed to me. Is that correct?

Health committee  Thank you. Absolutely, I think there are going to be many lessons to be learned. From the patient perspective, I think there has been a great deal of understanding that the health care system is in an impossible situation and that we've had to prepare for the worst. At the begin

Health committee  We've had numerous positive conversations about the request and, I think, a great deal of understanding of the needs of cancer patients and the role that we could play in supporting them. But those conversations are still ongoing and we haven't had any confirmation of funding.

Health committee  Yes, thank you. I would echo everything that's been said. There's such a feeling of powerlessness when you are diagnosed with cancer that you need support in the best of times. What we've been hearing through our helpline—we have a community called cancerconnection.ca where pati

Health committee  We've been advocating for an increase to the employment insurance sickness benefit for a number of years now. It currently provides 15 weeks of coverage, so when someone needs to take time off work, 15 weeks are covered. From a cancer point of view—and this, of course, is differ

Health committee  Yes, you're right. It's very often complex. It's not just a matter of one course of treatment; this is sometimes many years of impact on a person's life.

Health committee  Yes, it's very tragic. We've heard the same kinds of stories of people having to be isolated from each other at times when they want to connect and, of course, we've all seen the situation in long-term care homes. The patients we speak to and the families we speak with are very