Mr. Speaker, our senior citizens are our most marvellous resource. They have made a great contribution to the country; whether it is risking their lives at war, building our infrastructure, designing our very enviable social safety net, preserving and transmitting our value system.
Everything we have, everything we are, everything we believe in, we owe to these men and women who are now seniors. Is it not time that we began to repay the debt we owe to these people, to begin watching out for those who have watched out for us for so long.
I am thinking particularly of the poor among them, the abused among them, the sick among them, the disabled. It is true that we have old age security and medicare, but it is time to go the extra mile, to reach out to those people really in need, those who want to stay in their homes, those who want to preserve and maintain their independence, those who want to live out their lives as they would choose to do it.
That is the challenge to us.