I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself, for a couple of reasons. One is that I used to be a member of a government. I was a member of city council and regional council for the city of Hamilton, and I recall it was quite often the case that when an individual would come, rather than a group, their demeanour and comments were sometimes not quite at the level of those who were representing a larger group.
Just to give you a bit of understanding of why I'm here or the passion that I feel for these things, before I was on city council, I was the president of the Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton and district. I was the president and founder of one of the first business improvement areas in Hamilton. When I was elected, I continued my interest in social issues by looking at where I believed the basis of government is, which I believe is health, because I think all of the things we do talk about a healthy community and healthy individuals. I'll come back to that in a minute.
When I was on the city council, many of you served with Sheila Copps. Her mother was the chair of the persons with disabilities committee in Hamilton. Mrs. Copps and I often would disagree, but I will tell you that her passion about issues for persons with disabilities has helped make our community one of the better communities in Canada for persons with disabilities. She did a number of things that we don't have time to talk about.
I was a member of the executive of the District Health Council. I chaired the public health committee of Hamilton, and then I was chair of the province-wide Association of Local Public Health Agencies. I was a member of the board of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. I founded the refugee and immigrant committee for the city of Hamilton. I also founded the gay/lesbian, bisexual, transgender committee. So I have a long history of social inclusion that I'm very proud of. I think I have an understanding of many of the issues that face you that is perhaps a bit more than the average citizen's.
I'm also going to be a little unusual, not only in being here as an individual, but because I'm not going to ask you to spend more money. As a former member of the government, I know that no matter who's in power, dollars are limited. It seems to me there are ways of maintaining the envelope but spending that money a little more wisely.
I should have told you I'm going to talk about four things. The first one is that I understand financial constraints.
The second thing I want to talk about is the need for more cooperation among levels of government. As a former municipal politician, I think many of you will understand that there are things municipalities can do because they are by their nature somewhat closer to some of the issues that face their communities. Unfortunately, not all of them have that same level of understanding or interest in those issues.
I'm going to tell you a short story. A few years ago when the Kosovar refugees came to Canada, I started up a group. Everyone in the group is now angry with me, because they did all the work and I started the group. We sponsored the largest single family that came to Hamilton as refugees, some 38 extended members of a family--and I'm very proud of what my neighbours and friends did for these people. But when they were refugees sponsored by the federal government, they were not eligible for provincial programs. Until they became--