Thank you, and my thanks to our witnesses.
This has been a compassionate, compelling talk, and it is something close to my heart. I spent nine years on Kelowna city council, and worked on the committee for community housing and the board for social planning. As we've said in this committee, poverty is something that crosses all party lines, ages, and social, economic, and demographic sectors. Each of us has a story to tell about individuals we know in our communities. I have an adult daughter who has a borderline personality disorder, and it's been a real challenge. We who have worked with the Canadian Mental Health Association appreciate their efforts. With the street programs and with our homelessness partnering strategy, we've had quite a number of success stories in our home community.
And Carmella, like Calgary, they're working on a 10-year capital plan. Two of the problems are knowing where to start and how to know if you're making progress. That's what we're embarking on right now. There's no silver bullet. It's multifaceted, all levels of government, non-profit and private sector. Everybody has to work together. We respect the hard work of Senator Kirby's report and the commission on mental health. The 2007 budget put in over $130 million over 10 years; the 2008 budget called for $110 million over five years.
At the end of the month, this committee is going to be travelling to Vancouver, where we will see first-hand some of the work that's being done and needs to be done in the community. Coming from British Columbia, I've seen it many times, first-hand.
As to where we go with housing, I know we talked about a national housing strategy, but somebody from Ottawa telling us what to do in our community doesn't go over well out in British Columbia. In the 30-year plan that our government signed off on in 2006, we invested $2.2 billion. The plan works with BC Housing and CMHC, partnering in the community. So we're having some success.
I'd like to get your comments about giving long-term funding to the provinces and working with local communities, versus having a national program with no capacity for making local decisions. What would you favour?