Thank you.
I think there's an opportunity here for federal leadership, for sure, because I think all of our provinces and territories have been struggling with how to balance and provide long-term care.
In Canada, we stand out internationally, because we spend the vast majority of our dollars, our $24 billion a year, on long-term care in terms of nursing home care. It's 87% versus about 13% in home and community care.
Many other OECD countries—Denmark stands out as a great international example—spend the majority of their dollars on home and community care. By doing that, they can provide more effective care, care that doesn't leave people stranded in hospitals. They are able to receive care that is more in line with what they want and in a more sustainable way.
This is where the federal government can provide leadership. We have just seen how that leadership, with guidelines, allowed some of the smaller provinces in particular to have that support, or the role of the military in helping our two most unstable provinces at the moment better manage their needs.
I think there are opportunities here, as we saw with the recent health accord, in terms of helping to boost spending specifically on home care. However, we can't think of home care versus nursing home care. We have to think of it as a continuum. This is where the federal government, in co-operation with the provinces and territories, can help to develop a framework and figure out how best to organize it and support this kind of care.
All Canadians are aging, and the tragedies we've seen have not been limited to one province or the other. It defines everything that we've seen across the country so far.