I'll take that one very quickly.
What I was always taught is that the shortest way to get a problem done is the easiest route from point A to point B. The first thing you want to do is create a clear channel. The federal government, the provincial governments, the territorial governments, the regional governments, and the municipal governments need to work together, and there needs to be a clear access to the authority, the funders, right down to the front line. There needs to be a mechanism such that I don't have to jump through my manager and three other managers, and four other managers from another agency, before I even get to the decider of the funders. Moneys for the problem need to be quickly accessible, because it's a triage problem.
We have a national problem called homelessness. The report put out by the national research branch was “Homelessness: A National Disaster”. I first read it and “Poverty Hurts”. All those reports are showing that we have a definite problem. Take a look at it from a serious point of view.
Our triage theory would be opening up moneys available to front-line workers, moneys accessible immediately to address a problem that's immediate there, with immediate accountability on the person who receives the funds. You cannot just say, “Okay, I have an idea. Here, give me the money.” You have to show that it works and what the projected outcomes are. When that channel is opened up, you then have to open up and make it accessible for people like me or any other person to be able to come to the people who have the answers and say, “Okay, here's the problem.”
I'm getting off on a tangent. I'm sorry; I'll stop.
It takes national, provincial, regional--all levels of government have to open up. There has to be clear access.
I'll quit with this: on March 9, 1895, on the legislative assembly floor of Upper Canada, Richard Cartwright said that we must make sure that the cares of the few are not trampled under the caprice and the passion of the many. That's basically what's happening. We have to open up that channel federally, right down to the municipal level.
That's just my simple little idea, but I hope it helps a little bit.