That's a great question. First and foremost, I think we really need to recognize that [Technical difficulty—Editor] services are part of the continuum of care and must be reflected in our national health policy and delivery of health care.
The federal government should [Technical difficulty—Editor]. Canadians have overwhelmingly told us that their desire is to age in place, as you've indicated. Funding and policies need to mirror those wishes.
It's time the federal government committed to including community services in the Canada Health Act. Right now the only place Canadians are guaranteed health services is in hospital. As long as we have that paradigm in place, we'll continue to undervalue home care supports and community services, require [Technical difficulty—Editor] CHATS to operate on a shoestring and expect our workers to drive from client to client and not be fully compensated for the time it takes or for the cost of gas.
We have many examples of supports that are actually provided 24-7. Our assisted living program provides support to seniors who live in areas where personal support workers are co-located in buildings. In cases in which clients are living in the rural community, the PSWs will go out and do visits to them on both an unscheduled and a scheduled basis.
A lot of services are being provided that are unrecognized and undervalued. If we continue to do that, the resources necessary to serve the clients in those rural and northern communities are going to be lacking and they will continue to be underserved.
The housing—