Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Autism Society Canada has been around for 35 years. We have a provincial-territorial representative. We take the pulse out there regularly. We're virtual, with no resources. It's all done by volunteers and based from the ground up. I'll also add that there are strategies out the

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I would echo that. In terms of surveillance, a lot of you are putting this question to the table: can we understand what's out there? We cannot. They have told us that there is no data. You can't build a strategy on speculation. I think we have to sit down, assess, take the pul

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Dr. Jeanette Holden at Queen's is doing a pilot process in that direction, and this is one of the challenges they have identified. They work with Manitoba and Ontario. In Manitoba, it's kept under social services. In Ontario, it's under the education system. They're not tracked t

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  That's what we're doing.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I have the same concern. We're a virtual organization with no staff, so we can't do this kind of scanning. We have anecdotal information, and I could make you a list of anecdotal.... What you're asking for here is very sound and professional, but....

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  And that's just Ontario.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  So we'd like to mirror that times 12. Ideally, a national strategy would do that. Take best practice or what's working and multiply by 10 provinces and 3 territories.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  I just wanted to add that it is difficult to assess, because every province has a different program. A little earlier, we talked about gaps or...How can we understand it? I think we need to review what every province does across the country. There are success stories, whether in

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  We often encounter challenges. As we said, in Ontario, there's a limit. It stops.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Autism spectrum disorder has received considerable attention in the media recently, and some public funding.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  This is my last point.

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  We just want to say that despite the perceived lack of reliable information, we think there's a great need and value to ensuring that we continue to inform communities about ASD. To conclude, we would like the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorders Alliance to work together with the

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  We think the federal government is in a unique position as a national facilitator engaging provinces and territories. The federal government can stage and maintain a national agenda for autism. Precedents exist in introducing agenda items at health ministers conferences or first

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  We're just going to highlight a few points that we think are important from our position paper. CASDA came about as a result of the “Pay Now or Pay Later” report. In 2007 there were challenges amongst the community, so we did come together in a collaborative effort. As Laurie sa

Subcommittee on Neurological Disease committee  Surveillance, as we said, is a mandate of the Public Health Agency of Canada. In November 2006 the Honourable Tony Clement, then Minister of Health, announced a package of initiatives that included a consultation process to inform the development of an autism surveillance program