Status of Women committee  If I may add, I believe currently there is a guaranteed basic income pilot project going on in three communities in Ontario. The guaranteed income is $17,000 a year. Given average costs in Nova Scotia of long-term care per month and alternate level of care, ALC, beds in hospitals, providing that caregiver with a $17,000 guaranteed basic income, allowing her or him to step away from work, is a savings of almost 50% of the institutionalized cost.

Status of Women committee  That's both long-term care and ALC units in hospitals.

Status of Women committee  In our opinion, no, there are not enough skilled persons to do that. Again I'll refer you to the recommendations we made in our written report, in particular recommendation 3. A few years ago in Nova Scotia there was a non-repayable bursary for those individuals who wished to study continuing care assistance to provide exactly that service.

Status of Women committee  There are challenges with living in rural areas, in particular, when the caregiver has reached a point in their life when they're no longer able to hop in the car and go to where the services are provided. In some communities there are services like mobile blood collection, that sort of thing, but not nearly enough, though.

Status of Women committee  There are many positive and uplifting testimonials, and we celebrate the caregivers' resilience and achievement. However, the accounts of unmet needs as well as struggles to see the job through and regain one's health at the end are far more common. It is important that we put a human face on these challenges, so we are going to share with you some of their stories.

Status of Women committee  Our third caregiver is Cathy. She is 66 years old and one of 10 siblings. She's the only one who didn't marry and have children, so when it came time to care for their 90-year-old mother, it fell to her to move back to Nova Scotia to help. Because Cathy took on that duty, the rest of the family has abandoned their caregiving duties.

Status of Women committee  Our final story comes from a wonderfully insightful client, who I have named Flora. She is a reluctant caregiver, and we've had many conversations about the lack of options available to her. Through her frustration, she compares the current condition of caregiving in Canada to the generation of lost young men who served in World War I.