Thank you very much.
Hello. I'm Michael Nicin, executive director of the National Institute on Ageing, a Ryerson University-based think tank focused on addressing the reality of Canada's aging population.
The NIA's mission is to help governments, health care systems, the financial sector, businesses and Canadians themselves to enhance successful aging by conducting research and generating evidence-based policy solutions.
I'm joined today by Dr. Samir Sinha, the NIA's director of health policy research. He's also the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and University Health Network in Toronto as well as the Ontario government's expert adviser, since 2012, on long-term care and seniors.
I'm going to turn over the bulk of our time to Dr. Sinha, but before I do, I want to take one moment to acknowledge the nearly 6,000 older Canadians who have died thus far from COVID-19, and also acknowledge their families and caregivers.
In acknowledging long-standing issues, there's a growing public discourse on whether the federal government should play a greater role in the provision of long-term care, whether it should be incorporated into the Canada Health Act and whether or not we should reduce our reliance on private sector delivery of care. These are all questions that we must pose and answer, but they are only a select number of tools by which we could work to improve long-term care across this country.
In our view, the substance of our ensuing public discourse and action should focus on the following two core issues. One, how can we improve the provision of long-term care for as many Canadians as possible, and encourage them and allow them to age at home for as long as possible so that we never experience what COVID has taught us in these past two months ever again? Two, what are the most cost-effective—