This is a question about shared risk and also about how we live together in a community. For instance, if somebody has a catastrophic illness, something like dementia, at what point does the state take responsibility for that illness? I would say that when we're pulling people out of gainful, paid employment, that poses risks for their own ability to contribute to their pension plans and to save for their own retirement. We are actually putting greater financial burdens and risks on women and on their futures, because it is particularly women who are taking on these roles.
In Denmark, for instance, in a generation, they have made care a shared responsibility between men and women by making both men and women equally responsible and able to enjoy both the benefit and the cost of popping out of the labour force.
In addition to that, when we talk about care for seniors, we need to think about the fact that it's not just health care; it's actually social care. The federal government did play a very large role in funding community support services for a very long period of time. These are small grassroots agencies that were providing things like transportation, Meals on Wheels, friendly visiting, and those types of supports, but that support has slowly declined over the course of the past 15 years. In provinces like Ontario there is more and more of an emphasis on these small organizations providing health care services, as opposed to the types of social and emotional supports that they were intended to provide.
If we want to live together in Canada as a community, then we need to share some of these responsibilities.