While we all do our best to push through, the burden has become even more significant for families with seriously ill children. Sadly, kids do not stop getting sick during a pandemic. And, they often require urgent care at a hospital far from home.

Every year, an estimated 1.2 million Canadian families face the reality of caring for a sick child. Of these families, 55,000 are forced to leave home, travelling over 100 kilometres to get their child's necessary medical treatment.

With just 16 specialty children's hospitals across Canada, the top experts for any given condition are often unavailable in a family's local community, making travel to access health care essential.

The physical and emotional stress experienced when a child is sick comes with unexpected and significant financial impacts. According to a recent RBC Economic Impact Study, parents can face up to $38,000 in bills for travel, accommodation, parking, childcare, and food. This debt can take up to 19 years for a family to pay back.

As the Prime Minister's Office released the new supplementary mandate letters for Trudeau's Cabinet recently, it is evident that the federal government recognizes the urgent need to ensure all Canadians have access to care and fill gaps in this country's social infrastructure.

Now is the time for government, charities, and corporations to come together to help keep families close to their sick child, and the health care they need. We must work together to support the thousands of families who must travel to city centres to reach their nearest hospital so that no parent has to decide between sleeping in their car, or going bankrupt while their child is receiving care.

For the last 40 years, Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada have helped support over 425,000 families that have needed to travel for health care when the unimaginable happens. The Houses are essential infrastructure in Canada that provide housing to help reduce the financial and emotional burden on families with critically ill children, while enabling families to stay together, and close to hospitals.

Still, we are not able to help every family. We are meeting just 20% of the estimated demand for our support and services in this country, with the pandemic acting as an additional system stressor. The pandemic has resulted in us shifting to a more independent living model to account for social distancing, new health standards, and increased sanitization and screening measures to protect families, staff, and volunteers. All of which have amplified our need to expand and build new Ronald McDonald Houses to address these demands.

Expanding services to support families across Canada can no longer be left as a consideration, but instead, a necessary investment. We need a cross-sector partnership to come together and close the infrastructure gap and help keep more families close to their sick children and close to the health care they need.

For example, in the case of Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) Canada, a 1/3 government investment of $75 million over five years will be supported by a 2/3 investment from individuals, community fundraising, corporations and other levels of government. In turn, saving Canadian families an additional $52 million each year in out-of-pocket expenses while enabling an additional 141,583 nights for families at our Houses, close to their sick child.

We have seen what happens when the system is overrun. It is time we fill this critical gap in supportive housing and social infrastructure across our communities to enable equitable access to paediatric health care.

Now more than ever, Canadian families need us.

Cathy Loblaw is the CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada. She is committed to fulfilling the organization's vision of 'keeping families close' by helping families with sick children stay close - close to each other, and close to the health care they need. Visit: therealcost.ca