Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Gladu, for the work that you do here and for your constituents. They must be proud of the work you're doing on this palliative care issue.
I have two hospices in my riding of Calgary Confederation: the Rosedale Hospice and the Agapé Hospice. They are wonderful facilities that do great work. The Rosedale Hospice opened about 20 years ago. My family and I were quite involved in starting up that hospice. There was a lot of volunteer work done there. Also, my constituency assistant right now was the executive director of the Rosedale Hospice for many years, and then she came to work with me in my office. We're quite proud of the work we have done in Calgary with the hospices.
One struggle that Rosedale Hospice has always had was funding, and they continually had fundraisers and such. It seemed the director was more involved in trying to raise money than in providing care to the patients there. It was quite a struggle, and I'd love to see more funding come from the government for these private hospices.
The other hospice we have is the Agapé Hospice. I know that hospice very intimately. My wife, at 37 years of age, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and went through a long struggle with the disease, and there was wonderful home care provided to us. Donna Dryer, a lovely, wonderful registered nurse came to our home daily to care for my wife, and she was a godsend. I would love to see more focus on home care in the country here. My wife Heather spent three days in the hospice. We kept her at home as long as we could, and that's where she wanted to be. Where most people want to be is at home. Again, I can't say enough about how important it is to have a good home care system throughout the country.
Ms. Gladu, I find that Rosedale and Agapé are incredible care facilities. They would be wonderful for best practices around the country. Have you looked into federal best practices, whether here in Canada or internationally? Do you know of other countries that are doing a better job at this? If so, who are they, and what can we learn from them?