Thank you, Mr. Long, for your comments and for your question.
There are a number of examples, as you've outlined, where this government has made investments for seniors. I know you are continuing to do work to better define abuse. That has some very important legal implications. The funding that was offered for long-term care homes through the safe long-term care fund was absolutely needed and appreciated through the last few years of the pandemic.
Specifically to how the federal and provincial governments work together, it's imperative that this jurisdictional question not become a barrier that stops action, but becomes one that opens engagement. When I talk about a pan-Canadian health human resources strategy, and we see the work that the provinces are doing to recruit.... It's critically important work, but it becomes a situation of too many chefs in the kitchen; we're all bumping into each other and, perhaps unintentionally, recruiting care providers and health human resources experts from various provinces, as opposed to helping to develop the workforce.
There's a great opportunity to develop the domestic workforce capacity that we have. There are many opportunities, whether it is marketing the profession and working on that together or, specifically, working to recruit men to the profession. I've noted that 90% of our workforce are women. There are some really interesting examples that were launched by the government in the U.K. to recruit men into care, which had great success.
As we look to the example of how the safe long-term care fund was structured, and perhaps even to the example of how child care funding is being offered across the country, there are ways in which the federal and provincial governments can collaborate to address some of those key challenges. Of course, the long-term care sector would be very pleased to be part of those discussions and support as well.