Amanda Telford’s decision to leave her autistic son at a provincial government office in Ottawa this week placed a human face on a crisis that has been decades in the making. And if any of us think that this is a rare situation, or something unknown to policy makers, think again.

(The following is transcripted testimony of Peggy Taillon presented before the House of Commons Committee on Finance, April 30, 2013)

Why address growing inequality? If left to fester it will tear apart he very fabric of Canadian society.....equality connects us, binds us together....builds cohesion.

And....

Social cohesion is not just the absence of conflict.  It is the ability to move forward in the same direction with shared purpose. It is a mandatory requisite for a smaller, trading country like Canada. We can only exercise our full strength through some essential level of agreement.

Canada must have continuous nation building by furthering a genuine consensus across provinces, cultures and languages. We require much more than passive tolerance of one another to advance on our common problems.

As we settle into 2012, Canada remains a country facing big questions about sustaining our health care system. The big question, facing Canadians is not choosing between private and public systems, or taming costs associated with our ageing population…both are circular. Thirty percent of health care is not covered under Medicare…pharma, complimentary therapies, vision, and dental care all out of pocket unless you have health benefits. AND the ageing thing, really?? Are we really going to blame our elders for getting older and living longer?? Hasn’t that been a goal? We knew this was going to happen? We just didn’t plan for it.