2007-06-05
The Hon. Stéphane Dion, P.C., M.P.
Leader of the Official Opposition
Liberal Party of Canada
Dear Mr. Dion
An Autism Question
I am the father of two sons one of whom has classic Autism Disorder, with profound developmental delays, and I have been an autism advocate for the last eight years.
This year I watched hopefully, but with no illusions, as Liberal MP Shawn Murphy of Charlottetown introduced Bill C-304, a Private Member’s bill, which would called for amendment of the Canada Health Act to provide coverage for autism treatments.
As expected, Bill C-304 was defeated by the governing Conservative Party and its partner, the Bloc Québécois.
The Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party both voted, by and large, in support of Bill C-304. You personally cast a vote in support of the Bill.
Autism is a serious neurological disorder which affects 1 in 150 Canadians, including 1 in 94 male Canadians.
Persons with an autism disorder can display a wide range of deficits including intellectual, communication, behavioural and social deficits. While no known cure exists, a treatment which has been empirically demonstrated in hundreds of studies to decrease the negative autism deficits, and in some cases virtually eliminate, these deficits exists.
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) has been demonstrated to improve the abilities in all these areas and improve the quality of life of autistic persons in hundreds of studies.
Effective, early and intensive intervention with ABA, in addition to being effective in treating autistic children, has also been shown to save governments very substantial sums of money in provision of government services over the life of an autistic person.
Despite these facts, governments in Canada have an atrocious record in dealing with the Autism Crisis which confronts Canada and in helping these very vulnerable people.
In British Columbia and Ontario governing parties reversed election campaign promises to provide medicare coverage for autism choosing instead to spend hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars to fight in court the parents of autistic children they had pledged to help.
Mr. Dion I hope that you will not follow these shameful precedents, I hope you will not forget your vote in support of Bill C-304.
Mr. Dion, will you tell me, and other parents and caregivers of autistic children and persons, if the Liberal Party of Canada will, once elected, introduce legislation in the first year of your taking office as Prime Minister, to include autism treatment in medicare for all Canadians with autism regardless of residence and regardless of income?
Respectfully,
Harold L Doherty
Fredericton
New Brunswick
cc The Canadian Public
You can visit Harold Doherty's blog site by clicking below -
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Blog
5 comments:
It is too bad that such a serious and sad problem is treated as political by this Parent.
Example: The Bloc is not a partner to anybody.
No person or political party is against helping.
The letter is not accurate,or
Wikipedia is not accurate??
WHAT would Bill 304 do about this serious problem? Nothing
Education and Health are Provincial territory.
Thanks for the advice woodsworker. The Supreme Court of Canada has twice told parents of children with autism, in Auton and Wyneberg, that relief must be sought in the political arena not in the courts.
The truth is that as parents we have had to take political action for any gains that have been made in New Brunswick with respect to autism. People are always willing to say that they are not "against helping" as you say but to get decisions made and actions taken that actually help takes more than platitudes.
The Bloc is supporting the Conservative minority government, keeping it in power and in that sense is a partner to the Conservative party. It also joined with the Conservative party in defeating Bill C-304 and in that specific sense partnered with the Conservative government.
Health is provincial jurisdiction but that did not prevent Medicare from coming into existence. There are many examples of joint federal provincial legislation within areas of provincial and federal exclusive jurisdiction. It is called cooperative federalism and it has been in place for decades.
If you or a coworker are injured while working in the woods you will receive treatment because of the Medicare system that originated provincially but was put in place federally across Canada.
Thanks for the discussion.
I'm sure you won't let the fine title "woodsworker" lure you into complacency.
If I were a severely injured worker,done for life,I would fight to get compensation which would,as soon as I was declared unable to work,switched to cpp and live on less than 1000$ a month.
I would vote to transfer any health care money spend on drug plans,and whatever other wasted healthcare money which is a LOT to,children problems.The billions wasted on bilingualism would find the cause for much of this problems.
I belong to no party and don't expect to ever,but NDP peter Stouffer,put a autism bill forward during liberal rule,what happened to it,why now blame the bloc and cons,for voting down a private liberal members bill,when the liberals party did nothing on the stouffer bill,c-454?.
You know no quebec party will allow intrusion into provincial matters!!Quebec has private medical care.
I assumed that you used the title woodsworker because it had some significance to you. As for the parties involved the fact is that the Conservatives and Bloc voted together to defeat Bill C-304. As for the Liberals I am not assuming anything, that is exactly WHY I asked Mr. Dion for a statement of his intentions, and his party's intentions, should they form the government. In terms of "intrusion" into provincial jurisdiction it has been done many times. And arrangements can be made if Quebec wishes to "opt out".
Thanks again for the discussion.
Statement in House of Commons June 5, 2007
Hon. Andy Scott (Fredericton, Lib.):
Mr. Speaker, it is regrettable that we have seen little action by the government toward implementing a national autism strategy.
It has been more than a year since I introduced Motion No. 172. My private member's motion called for evidence based standards, innovative funding arrangements for diagnosis, treatment and research, and a national surveillance program.
The motion was adopted in good faith and supported by the government. However, it was very disappointing to see no reference to a national autism strategy in the recent budget or any discussion this spring.
Recently, I joined my colleagues from Charlottetown and Sackville—Eastern Shore and Senator Munson at a rally in Halifax that reinforced that there are families with autistic children across Canada who need the government's help.
The Conservatives should move off their default position of jurisdictional excuses, show creativity and compassion and start helping these Canadians.
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