National Strategy for Eye Care Act
Date: 2023_04_28
Chamber: HOUSE OF COMMONS
Mr. Tom Kmiec: 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.