Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses today who have done a good job of reminding us of the larger context within which this private member's bill sits.
What I can say, of course, as a New Democrat, is that we are concerned and have made part of our confidence and supply agreement with the government a commitment for a safe long-term care act to be introduced to take care of the fact that long-term care is not covered in the Canada Health Act. That would allow us to address some of the broader issues in the way the system operates, the funding and the standards. We are aware of the Liberal promises, and we are aware of the agreement we have with them, so we look forward to that coming forward.
What we have is this private member's bill that I think clearly responds to the large number of COVID-19 infections and COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic. What I'm wondering here is whether there is something useful that this bill can still do, even if it doesn't address those broader issues that this committee addressed in its study on elder abuse or the larger needs of the long-term care system.
We heard testimony on—and I'm going to ask Ms. Hajek, as I think she made reference to this—the conclusions of the studies of the crisis during COVID-19 that caused the Canadian military to have to enter long-term care homes. They found a significant difference in the performance of public and not-for-profit long-term care homes and the performance of for-profit homes when it came to the number of COVID-19 infections and the number of COVID-19 deaths, both among residents and the staff.
I wonder, Ms. Hajek, if you could comment on those conclusions.