Thank you, Mr. Garrison.
That leads me to two complementary subjects, access to long-term care, and recognition for elderly members of minority groups.
As you know, seniors are not a homogeneous group. There are huge differences based on gender, age and ethnocultural communities. Elderly people aged 65 to 100 can certainly be broken down into different age groups. And there are also First Nations seniors, LGBTQ seniors, and so on.
For example, research into LGBTQ seniors has shown that many who have lived their lives completely free of prejudice for a number of years, by which I mean they have openly affirmed that they are members of these communities, begin to hide their sexual or gender identity when they move into a long-term care facility because they are afraid of being discriminated against.
As for access to long-term care, we know that it's extremely limited. Eligibility is based on assessment by health and social services workers. We know that there are long waiting lists. This means that there is a lot of work to be done in terms of reviewing our eligibility criteria. Private facilities have grown as rapidly as they have for a reason. One of these reasons is that the public sector can't deal with current demand.
I'd like to continue, but I'll stop there. You have certainly raised two fascinating subjects.