Your basic question was whether we should reinstitute the process that existed before. That is, once every year, ministers responsible for seniors across the country—some provinces have a specific minister for seniors; some don't—met and decided on the issues they would be dealing with during the year. Absolutely, that's a key element to a strategy. For the federal government to fly away, thinking it can establish a strategy without provincial input, it's dreaming in colour. Maybe it's dreaming in colour that both of them can get together, but that's another story. It is absolutely essential that provinces and territories work together on this.
Also, many provinces have, if not a seniors advocate, a seniors group, usually within the ministry of health or the department of health. Each one of the provinces has a staff devoted to seniors. My concern has always been—and I mentioned this when I was chair of the national seniors council—the enormous waste of duplication that we have in Canada. We could put that money into doing things as opposed to.... For example, each province is looking at long-term care, doing all sorts of studies. Each province is looking at care at home, doing all sorts of studies. It's not coordinated. I'm taking off my professional hat now. That's a personal point of view.
There were even recommendations to encourage families to take care of their elderly relatives by establishing some kind of tax incentive. For example, if you gave so many hours to care at home, there would be a deduction that you could put on your tax return. These are the sorts of things we should be looking at.
Also, as mentioned, there are countries that are...I won't say far more advanced, because I don't think there are many more countries that are better than we are in taking care of our elderly people, and I'm an elderly person myself. We should look at what's being done in other countries and not force-fit it but adapt it to our country.
Yes. We need to coordinate a bit more.