Thank you so much.
I want to thank Laura and Miranda for speaking about the importance of independence and having the choice to stay at home. I think everybody on this committee would agree that people value their independence, and that when they get to that point in life they would like the option of choosing between long-term care and home. I say that, as well, for members of the disabled community, who should also be granted those life options.
During the second wave, we saw devastating levels of infection and death in long-term care homes, notably in for-profit care homes. In fact, we know, as you know, that 80% of the COVID-19 deaths in Canada have been attributed to long-term care homes. We knew we had problems before the pandemic; we just didn't deal with them. If we had, this wouldn't have happened. I'm just putting that out there. This is not a new problem.
We also saw in long-term care homes that the worst outbreaks were, more often than not, in for-profit care homes. We know that.
My question is for either one of you. Can you speak about why it is important to take profit out of long-term care and how doing that would result, in fact, in better care for seniors across the country and better treatment of workers as well?