Yes, and you've touched on something near and dear to my heart. I was in Ontario and opened many not-for-profits and co-op buildings that were geared to seniors, and they did have the component—that care within the community, the access to meals, the little extras you were talking about. And it made such a difference. In addition to that, they were bringing in children from child care centres to be mentored by the seniors. They were surrogate grandparents, and it had quite a tremendous effect in terms of their longevity and their general overall health. It was a very exciting thing to watch.
I want to talk quickly about a couple of other things. I was very interested in the caregiver program you were talking about. It seems to me it would free up nursing home beds.
In my situation, my father just had a second stroke, and there is nothing in the city where we live. There's a wait of two and a half years. He's now 65 miles away from home in a rural area. My mother is 73 and can't visit back and forth, and his well-being depends on that contact. It's a terrible dilemma for them; they've never been apart. It would seem to me that this kind of care would be much more intelligent.
I'm wondering whether home care, caregiver programs, long-term care should be part of the Canada Health Act.