You mentioned something about housing. That's something we haven't really discussed today. The flavour of the month in aging is home care. Home care dictates that you live in a home or you live in a residence for seniors. The Canadian government has not been in the business of offering affordable housing for almost a decade now, or more than a decade; I think it was 1993. Although it's a provincial jurisdiction, and there are lots of discussions about that, there are no transfer payments that have been going out from the federal to provincial governments, and affordable housing is very much a need.
The recommendation we're making is to keep seniors at home or in an autonomous residence as long as possible. First of all, the quality of life is much better. Second, you have support systems that are usually given by volunteers and by the community. Third, it's so much cheaper than having a person in a chronic-care or hospital situation. So far, 3% or 4% of seniors are in those types of institutions. We can diminish that--seniors are much more healthy now--by at least half a percent, but there are no residences, no affordable housing.
It would be such an easy investment. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see it. People are very anxious to go in. At the residence I operate, we have a waiting list of four years. It's absolutely ridiculous; four years.
Consequently, the affordable housing thing has to be looked at very seriously.