Absolutely. That's a wonderful question, and I've got a great plan, but it will take me longer than ten minutes to explain it.
I believe sincerely there should be a blanket of community support services across the country. I think what it would take would be to break down some of the silos that presently exist. It clearly is of benefit financially. If you look at the system as a whole, and all taxpayers' money went into one pot and was redistributed out, two-thirds of our clients who live in their own homes would be eligible for subsidized nursing home beds at $700 a week—yet we keep them at home for $22 a week. So there's this huge difference, and that money could be so much better spent than on nursing homes. So if the investment in community supports were made, fewer people would need to draw on the more expensive health care and long-term care facilities.
I did bring a study that Neighbourhood Link undertook with the University of Toronto and Ryerson. Unfortunately it's only in English, but I understand that the executive summary is going to be translated and be distributed to the committee. That specifically looks at supportive housing, but it can certainly be extrapolated to the services in the community.
I'm not sure I've completely answered what it would take. If we said a person is evaluated as eligible for a nursing home at a full subsidy of $700 a week and we said to the community agency, the government will fund you to spend up to 60% of that to keep that person at home, then whatever that individual needed—And somebody will need transportation and personal support, and somebody else will need nursing and housekeeping, and so forth. You can spend up to 60% that the client directs and the community worker organizes, for example. And where there are no community agencies such as mine and the many that are in the Ottawa area, in those spaces there are already good community agencies. They may be dealing with newcomers or youth or families, or what have you, but they would be the ones who could best provide the senior services.
The fact that no senior service exists in Hamilton doesn't mean there aren't good community agencies. It's better to start with one that already exists and already has roots in the community than to try to develop a brand-new one, because all you're doing then is building one more silo.