44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2023 10:00AM
- Apr/28/23 1:44:49 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for putting forward this really important bill. Eye care is absolutely critical for Canadians. I say this as just a few months ago my husband was a patient having cataracts removed from both eyes, and seeing how much technology has changed, seeing how many things are available now to patients and how we can make that better for all in putting this forward.
On World Sight Day in October, I had the opportunity to meet with an incredible group that came with OneSight. In that group was Dr. Stan Woo from the University of Waterloo. He and I just connected; I guess it was the energy and excitement for what he does at the University of Waterloo, including the research and development and seeing what they can do for patients to ensure that they have the proper care. When there are opportunities for reversals they know what to do to ensure that the treatment, such as medication, can be used. The knowledge and what they are doing there, not just at the university but shared across this great country, and how they can ensure that access to eye care is available from Nunavut down to the Maritimes, is extraordinarily important.
People at the university, when I was there on my visit on January 20, shared with me all of the incredible things that they were doing for research. It was noted here in this bill: “promote research and improve data collection on eye disease prevention and treatment”. Being at the university, that is the type of stuff that I saw being done there: making sure that they knew what was happening among their own patient base and making sure that they had the expertise across the country working to ensure the best technologies were going to be there so that the future of eye care was going to be enhanced.
One of the best parts of doing research on private members' bills is looking at what I saw on cataract surgery, where it suggested that there are two separate surgeries. I brought my husband home just a couple of weeks before Christmas, after having double cataract surgery where he had two cataracts on one eye and one on the other, and wearing these cups on his eyes. Within 24 hours I woke up to a husband who for the first time could actually see me. I do not know if he wanted that, but he actually saw me for the first time because he was as blind as a bat in the morning. From the research I was doing, I saw that they used to do them separately and now they can do them together. It is all of this treatment and research and how they can do patient care better.
This is the type of work that I would hope we would see in a national eye care strategy, and promoting the information and knowledge-sharing between the federal and provincial governments and in relation to eye disease prevention and treatment.
I was very grateful that the member focused on four key issues here in looking at macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. These are four key things that we see especially in our aging population.
For instance, AMD is age-related macular degeneration. We know that there are approximately 2.5 million Canadians being impacted by this and it is impacting people my age and older. It impacts younger people as well, but this is usually something that we see in the aging population, 55 and older.
Understanding things like reducing smoking, diet and genetics in the family through awareness campaigns and what we can do as the national strategy is really important so that people understand their vision. Some of the diseases have no symptoms, so it is important to make sure that we have a program so Canadians in every part of this country, whether they are living in indigenous communities or well-developed communities, have access to this type of care as well. So many of these diseases have no symptoms but absolutely need the kind of care that they have.
We can also look at things such as cataracts, which is the most common type of vision loss. It is something very simple. Many Canadians are going around wearing their glasses. I lose my glasses all the time. People could have that type of surgery, knowing that each and every day it is getting better. I can remember my father having his cataracts removed and now my husband. I am just seeing that with the research we are doing by the doctors working together, we are actually providing great programs and great opportunities for patient care.
Glaucoma is impacting over 728,000 Canadians, which is related to age. I will read this about it:
Glaucoma affects more than 728,000 Canadians and takes the form of a number of related disease types. The most common types are open-angle, which is more prevalent and can go unnoticed due to a lack of early symptoms, and angle-closure, which can be painful with a sudden onset.
These are the things that we learn in research, and being members of Parliament, we get to do the research and learn about these things. It is important that all Canadians understand this.
Currently, there is no cure for glaucoma, but there are treatment options. When people have pressure in their eyes and may not understand what it is, they need to recognize the importance of going to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist to ensure they get the proper care they need.
I am also very supportive of clinical trials. As I said, there is work being done at the University of Waterloo and work being done at the London Health Sciences Centre in my hometown area, in my backyard. We have seen some incredible research, not only at the University of Western Ontario, but also throughout the Collip Circle area, where people are working to make sure that patient care is the number one priority.
Finally, when we are looking at this, I want to talk about the considerations. The bill notes, in subclause 2(3), “The national strategy must take into consideration existing frameworks, strategies and best practices related to the prevention and treatment of eye disease, including those that focus on addressing health inequalities.”
I will let the member know that I am very supportive of this bill, but this is where I have to say the government approach has to be right. We cannot do what it has done in the past.
We know the Canadian Dental Association, back in 2014, had a national oral health strategy. We saw the hygienists do it. We saw a number of organizations talking about oral and dental care. When it came to having a program with the government and Canadian dental benefits, it took none of those suggestions.
Instead, the government implemented its own dental program, which was not supported by the Canadian Dental Association at the time because it was not part of those discussions. That is one of my only fears. We need to make sure that people are at the table. We need to make sure that we have the researchers, the ophthalmologists, the optometrists, the patients and the academia, and that we have everybody working together so we have a proper strategy. Unlike the dental program, which was brought out by the government, not everybody was at the table. When we are talking about that, we need to make sure we have diverse opinions as well.
The reason I will continue to elaborate on the Canadian Dental Association is that the government has talked about the number of children who have been impacted by this program, which is sending out cheques to parents. As a person who comes from the dental health field, I would have loved for the government to consult with members of Parliament.
I actually used to go out to teach about dental health. If someone wanted to see a lady who could teach them how to brush their teeth, or if they wanted to sit in my chair, I would show people how to do their little, round brushing.
Those are the types of things that we should be focused on when we are looking at a dental health program. Instead, we saw a government say that it was going to send cheques out to Canadians, and that they will go to get their dental health needs dealt with.
Right now, we are in a crisis in Canada. Families cannot afford to put food on their tables. The government is coming out talking about the number of families, and I think they are saying 250,000 Canadian children have been able to use this program. However, I ask how it got those numbers. Nothing has been audited. We do not have information coming from the Canadian Dental Association or any of the providers that would be providing this type of information because they would not know. All we know is that we gave out cheques to families.
We have the healthy smiles program, which has been working here in Ontario. We should have been using its existing framework and working on that. That is the same type of work I want to see here. I hope we have success with this program and strategy because Canadians need it.
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- Apr/28/23 1:54:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the hon. member for Humber River—Black Creek, for introducing this bill.
Let me begin by saying that vision health is important. Obviously, it is a component of overall health, but one that is often underestimated. My Conservative colleague has given some personal examples to show that quality of care can change lives and change people's quality of life. I thank the member who introduced this bill.
There are several important elements in the bill, one of which involves raising awareness. It seeks to designate February as age-related macular degeneration awareness month. Obviously, this is important. In my opinion, we should never miss an opportunity to remind people of the importance of issues that affect us all. We all have daily obligations that keep us very busy, and these issues must always be brought to the forefront.
The bill provides for the development of a national strategy. Many national strategies have been proposed lately, including for autism, cancer and diabetes. I am skeptical about the effectiveness of these national strategies, because they generally lead to the tabling of a report that is ignored by the government most of the time. I hope that will not happen in this case if this bill is adopted. However, it needs to be said that national strategies often face the same fate as Labatt 50, in that they get shelved.
Although we agree in principle, let us be careful not to encroach on Quebec's jurisdiction. This bill seeks to raise public awareness, but it affects health, which is a provincial jurisdiction.
That being said, the issue is truly important. I think we know the data. Data from 2019 shows that 1.2 million Canadians suffer from diseases that could lead to vision loss, and 4.1% of those people could become blind. We know that eight million Canadians suffer from an eye disease that may lead to blindness. For some of these diseases, blindness is preventable.
We know that the direct annual health care costs related to these diseases leading to vision loss can reach up to $9.5 billion. Of course, there are human costs, but there are also social costs, such as lost productivity because of these diseases, and those costs can reach $4.3 billion per year.
I mentioned age-related macular degeneration earlier. With the growth and aging of the population, the costs related to those diseases could increase substantially. These are issues of critical importance.
Let us not forget that health is a provincial and Quebec jurisdiction. Quebec already has a number of programs in place to address various ocular conditions. Vision care services are covered by the government in Quebec for people under 18 years of age and people aged 65 and over. Last month, reimbursements for ocular prostheses were increased. It had been 30 years since those amounts had been increased, so that is progress.
This also serves to show that Quebec and the provinces need funding, transfers and money to be able to cover these programs. Developing a national strategy is all well and good, but the levels of government that are responsible for providing this care on the ground must be properly funded.
The RAMQ's visual devices program helps people obtain assistive devices like video magnifiers, ocular prostheses, night-vision goggles and Braille typewriters. These programs seek to improve the quality of life of persons with visual impairments, but they are expensive.
I will say it again. As the population ages, these diseases will become increasingly common. We will need to be in a position to improve the quality of life and productivity of the people who live with them.
There is talk of having a national macular degeneration awareness day, but I have to say that I would have liked this bill to include a national degeneration of health transfers awareness day. I offer that as a suggestion. For two years or more, the provinces and Quebec have been calling for $28 billion a year in extra transfers for health; that way, the federal government's contribution to provincial spending on health would reach 35%.
I know that this cause is important to my colleague and that she is well-meaning, but inside these envelopes there could be money for eye care. A national strategy and a report identify a number of things, but do not provide care to those who need it, care that could change their daily lives. The government is obviously short-sighted about the needs of Quebec and that is rather sad.
As I said, the aging population is going to increase the cost of health care and these transfers are necessary. In response to the aging population, more should be done in research and development and to expand our programs, including support programs for those who have vision problems.
There is also a shortage of workers, which means that we will be trying to keep older people in the labour market. We know that vision problems are bad for productivity and for the economy. They are also bad for those who want to keep working.
Statistics Canada's most recent report states, and I quote, “the percentage of people with self-reported good vision without correction decreased with age.” That is a bit like the Liberal government's vision regarding health transfers. It has been diminishing with age. The government's vision has been diminishing for eight years now.
For almost two years, we have been calling for a summit to be held with the provincial premiers and the current Prime Minister to discuss these issues. Instead, what the government did was to impose conditions on the provinces, which means that they are currently unable to enhance their existing programs or design new programs that would provide people with better eye care.
It seems as though the Liberals might need some Bloc Québécois glasses to better understand the needs of Quebec. I would like to offer them mine. Practically speaking, that would help them to provide care to those who need it, which could make all the difference in people's self-esteem, how they function in society, and their work and family life. This is a human issue. We are all equal when faced with the various health problems we may experience throughout our lives, and we should all have access to care.
Although I am clearly making some jokes, I hope my colleague realizes that I welcome her initiative. I know that she has been holding consultations and reaching out to various groups. Her intentions are excellent and, as I said, we agree in principle. We will be proposing amendments, but I understand that this is an important issue for my colleague, and I acknowledge that.
I will close by saying that the statistics clearly demonstrate that the issue of degenerative vision affects women in particular. I do not fully understand what causes this, and I will not presume to be a doctor or biologist, but I do know that there are also gender equality issues. Helping people become more aware of an issue, more aware that care is needed and that this affects women more than men—there is a fundamental equity aspect to that.
As I mentioned, we will support it in principle, study it in committee and act in good faith. We are skeptical about the outcome of these major strategies, but our colleague is certainly making it possible to discuss this important issue, raise public awareness and reflect on the issue of vision care. I thank her for that.
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Madam Speaker, before I begin my speech on the bill today, I want to take a moment to recognize today as the National Day of Mourning, to honour every worker who goes to work, and to say very clearly that they deserve to return home safely at the end of their workday. I would also like to take a moment to remember those who have been injured or lost their lives, and to commit ourselves to fighting for a safe work environment for all workers.
I am very pleased to rise today to speak in support of Bill C-284, an act to establish a national strategy for eye care. I would like to thank the member for Humber River—Black Creek for introducing this important bill with respect to eye health for all Canadians. New Democrats support this bill and the important steps it would take to improve access to eye care for all Canadians.
This legislation would set out a national strategy to support the prevention and treatment of eye disease to ensure better health outcomes for Canadians. It states the following:
(2) The national strategy must describe the various forms of eye disease and include measures to
(a) identify the training, education and guidance needs of health care practitioners and other professionals related to the prevention and treatment of eye disease, including clinical practice guidelines;
(b) promote research and improve data collection on eye disease prevention and treatment;
(c) promote information and knowledge sharing between the federal and provincial governments in relation to eye disease prevention and treatment; and
(d) ensure that Health Canada is able to rapidly consider new applications for treatments and devices used for macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.
This legislation also designates the month of February as age-related macular degeneration month.
Organizations including Fighting Blindness Canada, the Canadian Council of the Blind, the CNIB, Diabetes Canada, the Canadian Association of Optometrists, the Canadian Ophthalmological Society, and the Canadian Association of Retired Persons have advocated for a national eye care strategy for many years, and it is long past time for action on this issue.
Sadly, eye health has been underfunded and deprioritized in Canada for far too long. As a result, millions of Canadians are being put at unnecessary risk of vision loss because they lack access to eye care. Currently, access to eye care varies widely from province to province, resulting in variable health outcomes and exacerbating inequalities in our health care system. As well, 39% of Canadians do not have access to vision health benefits. This is wrong. Over eight million Canadians are living with an eye condition that puts them at significant risk of blindness. An estimated 1.2 million Canadians are currently living with vision loss, with many facing a lack of investment in services and supports that impacts their ability to live life to its fullest. This number is expected to grow to two million by 2050. That is staggering.
Routine eye exams play a crucial role in the prevention of vision loss. If certain eye diseases are diagnosed early enough, they can be effectively managed before expensive and sometimes invasive measures are required. If diagnosed early, and if people have access to treatment, vision loss can be prevented in 75% of cases. Further, 70% of existing vision impairment in Canada is estimated to be correctable with prescription glasses. A sizable proportion of correctable vision impairment is related to the barriers to accessing vision care in Canada.
Most guidelines recommend having an eye exam once a year for people aged six to 18, or 65 years and older, as well as for those with diabetes or an eye disease. For healthy people aged 19 to 64, one visit every two years is considered sufficient. For many Canadians, this is out of reach due to out-of-pocket expenses, and 39% of Canadians do not have access to vision health benefits. Vision care is not a luxury; it is health care provision and must be treated as such.
However, some provinces are moving in the wrong direction and reducing access to eye care for those who need it the most. For instance, the Conservative government in Ontario announced that, starting September 1, free annual eye exams paid for through the Ontario health insurance plan will no longer be available to all seniors.
A study commissioned by the Canadian Council of the Blind and Fighting Blindness Canada has raised alarms on the state of vision care in Canada and the impact of the COVID pandemic on eye care services. In 2020, 1,437 Canadians experienced vision loss as a direct result of treatment disruptions, and the percentage of Canadians reporting that they had an eye exam within the last two years declined between 2019 and 2021.
The federal government must lead the way in saying that eye care is health care and improving access to services and treatment.
New Democrats have always stood for publicly funded health care, from head to toe, including eye care. Our founding leader, Tommy Douglas, fought tirelessly and relentlessly for the universal public health care system that has become a fundamental Canadian value. In fact, the notion that every person deserves access to health care as a basic human right, regardless of their ability to pay, was one of the founding principles of the New Democratic Party in 1961. It was always the NDP’s intention that the public health care system would include eye care. At the founding convention, the NDP stated, “Believing that a country's most precious possession is the health of its citizens, the New Party will introduce a National Health Plan, providing benefits to those who need them without regard to their ability to pay. The plan will cover a full range of services: medical, surgical, dental and optical treatment, as well as prescribed drugs and appliances.”
This belief remains an unfinished project, as many services, such as eye care, continue to be left out of Canada’s national health system. However, the NDP’s position and advocacy have not wavered. The NDP’s 2019 platform committed to achieving head-to-toe public health care, including eye care, for all Canadians. The NDP’s 2021 platform also committed to a long-term path to providing public coverage for eye care, along with other health services.
In May 2021, the member for Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing introduced Motion No. 86. I want to thank the member for her leadership and vision, no pun intended, in bringing it forward. This motion called on the federal government to work towards the creation of a national strategy for action on eye health and vision care, and that has brought us to where we are today with the bill before us, so I thank the member for that.
I am pleased that my colleague from the Liberal Party agrees that we need a national strategy for eye care, and I hope that members from other parties will also support the bill.
In 2003, the Government of Canada made a commitment at the World Health Organization to develop a vision health plan for Canada by 2007 and implement this plan by 2009. Well, it has been 20 years since the Liberal government of the day made this commitment, but to date, no plan has been developed.
As recently as July 2021, the Government of Canada voted in the UN General Assembly to enshrine eye health as part of the United Nations' sustainable development goals. In this resolution, the establishment of a national vision health plan was endorsed again by Canada. It is time for action and leadership on this issue at the federal level.
I hope that all members of the House will listen to the experts and support a national strategy for eye care by voting in favour of Bill C-284. Eye care is health care. It needs our support. It needs all levels of government coming together, and we need to recognize that.
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today and speak to Bill C-284, put forward by the member for Humber River—Black Creek. The bill addresses a national strategy for eye care. It is an honour to speak to this today because my wife worked at an optometrist's office for 23 years.
I had not expected to speak to this bill, but I am honoured to be able to do so today and to relay some of the experience that she had and that I had in working with the great doctors there. Dr. Beckner, Dr. Allaway, Dr. Ewanyshyn, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Geire have all provided such professional health care in our community of Salmon Arm, as all optometrists do across this country.
What I learned from speaking with them and with my wife about the importance of eye care is something that I think all of us in this chamber should see. We should see that eye care and the health care issues that can be discovered through regular eye care are very important.
There is a long list of diseases and health care problems that can be discovered through a regular eye exam. I suffer from dry eye. That, in itself, is just more of a discomfort, but dry eye causes a person's eyes to water. Tears are not actually the fluid that someone's eyes need. They need the oils that come out with those tears. If they do not have enough of the oils, the eyes feel dry and the person continuously tears more. When I am exposed to sunlight or to wind, I suffer that much more, but this is something that optometrists can help with.
We have heard others speak about cataracts today. The advancements that we have seen over the last number of years in making an operation to address and remove cataracts have continuously improved the lives of seniors.
I have not gone through that process yet, but because I go to see an optometrist regularly, I have been told that I am in the very early stages. I am a long way from needing that operation yet, but I am confident that by regularly attending an eye exam with an optometrist, I will hopefully know when the time is coming that my vision has been impaired.
Another instance that I was not aware of is something that is done by optometrists called a visual field test. That is where the optometrist or their assistant can check for the range of vision out of one's eyes. People might think that everyone would have very similar range of vision, but they do not.
I had a case where my eyelids were actually longer and more relaxed, so that they were coming down and blocking my vision. It was a fairly simple operation. I just went into an eye surgeon's office and had it done one afternoon. There was no problem with my vision. I had a short recovery.
However, in other people, without having that addressed, they can lose their field of vision. It could be something as significant as not seeing a stoplight. Because it is up at the top level of where they are looking, they may not see a stoplight turn red in front of them. Something as simple as that can be picked up by an optometrist with a visual field test.
We have heard of so many other eye health and actual body health issues that can be picked up through a regular eye exam. These include diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. We have heard today that 728,000 Canadians are suffering from glaucoma. There is also retinal detachment. A lot of people do not know what this is, but if the retina becomes fully detached from the back of the eye, it causes permanent loss of vision. Optometrists and their assistants, through eye exams, can determine if this is happening; early intervention is a key piece to making sure that this sight loss is not permanent.
Diabetes is another issue. I had that explained to me when I went in for an eye exam. They look through very powerful cameras and lights at the blood vessels in the back of the eye. Often those blood vessels cross each other and, if there is extra pressure where they cross, they can identify a bulge in the blood vessels. That can be used to identify whether there is a possible issue with diabetes, high blood pressure and other things that are part of this. I am neither an optometrist nor a doctor, by any means, but these are pieces that I have picked up by listening and going in for regular eye exams.
I hope this bill will lead to not really what is said in the bill, but something that I hope can be addressed at committee stage when looking at this bill. A lot of the terminology in the bill itself refers to “eye disease”. I would be interested in following this as it proceeds through the committee stage to see whether the bill continues to speak to eye disease, or whether it would possibly change to “eye health” and “overall health”, because so many things can be picked up through the eye exams, which I have just spoken about.
The bill does not really address the issue of the availability of training for optometrists in the country. One thing I have noted, after looking quickly, is that there are two schools of optometry, one in Waterloo and one in Montreal. There are none in western Canada. There reflects an inequity in training for those who want to become optometrists.
It is a seven- to eight-year program, and it is very much like becoming a family physician. It is very expensive training, and there is extra cost for students coming from western Canada to those training centres, which are only available in eastern Canada. I am hoping that during the committee stage, that may also be looked at, or at least something is included in the strategy to include the availability of training in other parts of the country. It is obviously an added expense for those from the west, but anyone from the north would be much more burdened by the extra cost.
The purpose of this bill is admirable. The member spoke about her family members who lost their sight. That has not happened in my family, as we have been fortunate. We have been fortunate enough to be able to discover if there were eye problems ahead of time. We were able to get glasses, corrective lenses, contacts lens, whatever was needed, to continue our daily lives. If we can put together a strategy so that many more Canadians can retain their sight, no matter where they live, what their background is, what their wealth or lack of wealth is, that is an admirable goal. As I said, I will be happy to follow this bill as it goes through the committee stage to see if we can improve upon it and make sure that it deals, not just with eye disease, but with eye health and overall body health.
I have heard other members recognize that today is the National Day of Mourning for those who have lost their lives in the workplace from workplace disease or illness. One of my staff members attended a ceremony in my riding today. Workplace diseases can also affect eye health and overall human health.
I am grateful for the opportunity to stand to speak today, and I look forward to following this bill through the process.
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- Apr/28/23 2:24:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be joining this debate. Like the member said previously, today is the National Day of Mourning for those who were injured or killed in the workplace. That reminds me, before I get into the subject matter of the bill, that there used to be a Sobeys in my riding in Douglasdale on the Douglasglen side. I do not know if many constituents know this, but there is a plaque there. There used to be a factory there where five or six workers were killed many decades before. That happens to be on the side of a Gold's Gym. I think most people have forgotten it, because it kind of sits in a corner, but it has a very lively description of that event and what happened, so this is an important day for all of us to remember.
We are on this private member's bill we are debating today. I obviously have eye care needs. I wear glasses now. About 10 years ago I realized I had trouble driving at night, because I could not see white lines very clearly. I went to see my family's optometrist, and they said I do need glasses. It is not very bad for me, but it runs in my family on two sides, and that is why I will be supporting the bill.
On my father's side, he has had many problems with his eyesight throughout most of his life. He still has very thick glasses made of glass; they are not the plastic ones, because glass is the only type that can actually help him with the type of eye care he needs. There is my brother. Shortly after we landed here in Canada we thankfully obtained Canadian citizenship, because I do not know if we could have afforded the expensive operations my brother required to keep his eyesight. He would have lost his eyesight if not for the Quebec health care system at the time. He almost did, because the care being provided at the time was not as good as it should have been. His eyes were actually infected, so he lost quite a bit of his eyesight. He is legally blind in one of his eyes, and the doctors told him just a few years ago, just before the pandemic, that if he did not start practising and doing different exercises to strengthen his muscles, he would have his driver's licence taken away eventually. It is very difficult to keep one's job if one loses their eyesight in Canada. He would still be able to see enough, but he just would not be allowed to drive anymore.
I think this is an important strategy for this Parliament to debate. Like the previous member who spoke, I think there is a lot more that could be included in the private member's bill. Hopefully the member would be willing to consider some of those amendments.
I know it is being moved by the member for Humber River—Black Creek, and I salute her efforts on this. She is a long-time parliamentarian. I have a lot of respect for her work and her time in this House.
I do have a Yiddish proverb, so I will put it in now, just in case I forget about it later on: “When the heart is full, the eyes overflow”. It is a beautiful proverb. It describes when someone is so happy they begin to cry out of happiness, and it usually blocks their eyesight. If there is a great joke or the situation one finds themselves in, typically with family, fills them with so much mirth it brings tears to their eyes, it is a good kind of happiness.
I will recognize the fact that the member is also going to be making age-related macular degeneration month in the month of February. It happens to be the same month my brother was born in, so I just thought that was providence. It is nice to see as well. It does not just happen to the old. Like I mentioned, my brother almost lost his eyesight when he was little, and he needed an operation.
All my children are affected, as many members know, by a rare chronic kidney condition called Alport syndrome, and although it is a kidney condition, it also affects the eyes. It affects the eyes and can lead to four conditions. One is peripheral coalescing fleck retinopathy. Do not ask me what that is in detail. I hopefully never will discover. The others are corneal opacities, anterior lenticonus and cataracts, and temporal retinal thinning.
My youngest son, Enoch, has glasses already. His need for glasses is related to this rare kidney condition that also affects the eyes and all the organs of the body. In his particular case he will probably need both hearing aids and glasses. Maybe some day we will get to the point where we will do a hearing aid national strategy in this place, but eye care for my children is something we are always watching for, because it is something they need.
I know many of us are looking at seniors who suffer through age-related loss of sight, and that is something I see in my parents as well. It also happens for the young.
Both sides of my family have members, old and young, who are affected by the need for better eye care. Other members have mentioned that eye care in Canada does not come cheap, depending on whether someone needs basic eyeglasses or if they need more attentive care from an ophthalmologist.
In the case of my family, we do need of an ophthalmologist, because my family members require much more in-depth care. The Province of Alberta provides excellent coverage for young people, those under 18, but especially those under 12 get excellent coverage for their eye care.
In the case of my children, like I said, because of this rare chronic kidney condition, they get a lot of specialist follow-up for their eyes. I met a lot of youth who needed much more care as they got older because of this condition called Alport syndrome, which leads to a degeneration in the eyes much earlier in their lives.
As we debate the importance of both research and the quality and availability of care, some members mentioned the possibility for improvements and additions to this private member's bill, maybe expanding in some areas and perhaps tightening in certain areas.
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- Apr/28/23 2:30:05 p.m.
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Unfortunately, the member's time is up for now.
The time provided for the consideration of Private Members' Business has now expired and the order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper.
It being 2:30 p.m., this House stands adjourned until next Monday at 11 a.m., pursuant to Standing Order 24(1).
Have a good weekend, everyone.
(The House adjourned at 2:30 p.m.)
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