The food bank solution is one example, and there was the Belleville man who was trying to do the social housing. Certainly there are steps that can be taken to improve or support charitable responses to poverty, but I think the bigger question is to really think through the importance of the government needing to take a more active role and it not just being left to those private charitable responses. We certainly see in B.C. that things such as food banks provide a crucial service particularly for folks trying to survive on income assistance in urban centres, but as soon as you get to rural areas, people are not as able to access those supports.
With regard to leaving things to the whims of donors, while those are welcome and certainly there may be ways to facilitate things happening, they can't be the only response. We have to look past them to the government's role in ensuring that everyone has access to a response.