Finance committee  Thank you very much. I am joined today by Yassemin Cohanim, from our Ottawa chapter, who will be sharing the presentation time. We're very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to the Standing Committee on Finance. The Multiple Sclerosis Society is a national voluntary org

Finance committee  Thank you. The MS Society is also recommending some changes to existing programs to benefit caregivers. These changes would help address the inequity currently faced by caregivers when they leave the workforce to care for someone who is disabled. In so doing, they compromise the

Finance committee  Initially it will benefit us indirectly. Essentially we fund research that's directly related to multiple sclerosis, and, as many other health charities, we really depend upon the bedrock of research that CIHR funds for conditions that may be related to multiple sclerosis. We rea

Finance committee  An exchange of information and the knowledge that can be gained from CIHR-funded research will certainly benefit those in other disciplines. Secondly, organizations such as ourselves partner with CIHR. The funding of research and the research innovations are among the economic d

Finance committee  We fund research. Between ourselves and a related foundation, we fund about $10 million to $11 million a year.

Finance committee  We fund individual researchers based in hospitals and universities across the country.

Finance committee  There have been a number of various reports looking at aspects of disability, but the one we are really looking at is the complex area of income security and support for people with disabilities. I think pieces of that have been looked at. There have been some great studies on th

Finance committee  True enough, and in the brief we have definitely concentrated on what we think is actionable that we would like to see happen within the next 12 months. But we're also conscious of the fact that the income securities and supports in this country are multi-level. There are both pr

Finance committee  Sure. We looked at some other jurisdictions to see how it works there. This is essentially the threshold they have set in the United States. Charitable organizations there are required to provide tax receipts for donations of $250 or above. Essentially, below that the Internal Re

Finance committee  As I understand it from some of the researchers connected with CIHR, in the recent granting period they had to cut the research budgets of a number of approved researchers by 21.5%. When we look at that, we say, well, this is 20% less research that people can do; this is 21% less

Finance committee  In terms of any kind of home care strategy, what we really need to look at is not in terms of money spent but in money saved. People who could stay at home are people not living in institutions and not living in hospitals. So I think that's a way to approach it, not looking at th

Finance committee  We basically looked at it in terms of the model for the funding of medicare. The money is spent at the provincial level, but a significant portion of it comes from the federal government through transfers. I think both the Romanow and Kirby reports on health care a couple of ye

Finance committee  I think we have some models in place that already work that way. I agree with you that the federal government doesn't need to be in the business of taking over home care, but it has a leadership role there.

Finance committee  Perfect. Thank you very much, and thank you for inviting the Multiple Sclerosis Society to present today. We are pleased to provide input on behalf of Canadians affected by multiple sclerosis. First a little about MS. It is an often progressive and disabling disease of the brain

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. Yes, we work very closely together, in coalitions, with a number of other organizations that are equally concerned about these, especially in terms of the episodic disabilities part of the issue. That is probably the most problematic, given