Because I only have five minutes.
Tomorrow I'm sure you'll hear many examples of agreement with you on this.
The reason I don't like to emphasize so much the economic argument on why we should do the right thing is because historically it hasn't worked. When the federal government cancelled the national housing program, it was assumed the private market would take over. It didn't. I think we have to do it because it's the moral thing to do, it's the right thing to do. It's based on human rights, not on saving money in the health care system, because I think there are too many other sad and depressing advantages.
For example, the poorer we are keeping certain groups of people, the lower we are keeping the minimum wage, there's a class of workers who are doing the crappy jobs that nobody else wants to do. There are too many other groups benefiting from that.
I haven't, in my career, witnessed good social policy around homelessness and poverty made for cost-saving reasons. I would prefer that we look to world values, to the United Nations' values, to a human rights case.
In Quebec, did they bring in a province-wide child care program or do such a good job on housing just because of the cost-saving reasons or because of the cultural values, the social values, the real good ways and means to do something good for people?