Senator Gold: I’m not sure that that’s the only consequence, if there still remain differences of opinion between clinicians, and I think it would be idle to assume that what is necessary is that every clinician, whatever discipline or specialty, is of one mind, leaving aside issues of conscience and the like.

I think what is necessary, though — and that is what we are told by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, or CAMH, the Ontario Hospital Association and others — is that there needs to be much more specific criteria developed within that community for deciding exactly what measures, for example, might need to be taken before one could conclude that all steps have been taken to no avail to alleviate suffering.

I have confidence in the medical community. I have confidence in the regulatory bodies that are working on this. People are working hard at this and in good faith. In jurisdictions like my own in Quebec or like in British Columbia, these are not jurisdictions that are ideologically opposed to MAID generally or to MAID Track 2 or to MAID for mental illness. It is simply not the case that they are looking for an extension because they wish the thing would go away. They say, “We are working really hard at this, but we need to do more, and we need to drill down deeper. We need more assessors trained. The take-up has been reasonable but not overwhelming.” It is a long process to get fully trained, as the Minister of Health said.

I have confidence in our systems to get ready, because I think the extension requires them to get ready, and they have been working really hard at it. We are just not there yet.