Thank you.
You've been a breath of fresh air here this morning in terms of some of what we've been hearing across the country. You've identified the real challenge that is out there. Some of what you're doing, the success you're having, and the approach you're taking is very positive I think, and we can certainly all learn from it.
Just the last comment about not necessarily looking at a person and defining them by their addiction or their affliction but looking at them as a human being who first of all needs a place to call home, and then from there we can build on other things, I think that's spectacular. To put in place the support programs that are necessary is really great too.
My first experience of poverty in Alberta was quite a shock. I showed up in Calgary about two years ago in February and found—you said 3,100 here—there were at that time, before the recession, 3,500 to 4,000 sleeping rough in the streets of Calgary. Dean, Mike, and I visited the big shelter there and it was quite an experience, but we saw the effort that was being made to try to get some of those folks in out of the cold, and then get them into some programming and move them on.
But some of what you're doing here in front of that major challenge, I guess, is kind of interesting and unique, not expected. Alberta back then and for quite some time has been the mecca that everybody moved to for the new wealth and the new jobs. I remember travelling home for Christmas in the middle of winter and they had actually closed the highway down, but I was young and foolish and thought I could never get hurt, so I went through anyway. There was another guy on the road just a little bit farther ahead, hitchhiking, and I picked him up. He was heading for Alberta. He thought if he could get there the day after New Year's, that of everybody who had gone home, some wouldn't come back, and there would be jobs.
What I discovered in the shelter in Calgary was a lot of those young people who came to get jobs. Some of them got jobs—not all of them did—but they couldn't find a place to live, as you said, because either it was not there or it was too expensive or whatever. They were sleeping on the same mats on the floors as the addicted folks and the people suffering from mental illness and a whole bunch of other issues. It was quite disturbing that that was how we were dealing with human beings who have inherent value in them and who we need to be respecting and honouring.
It's good to hear as well that the provincial government is spending some money—$30 million, I think you said. Maybe you could talk a bit about the federal role and any expected federal role. What could you tell us that would be helpful in terms of—that's the role of this committee—what the federal role should be in a national anti-poverty strategy? And should there be a national anti-poverty strategy in the first place?