Mr. Speaker, I suggest that the member would want to look at the Anne Golden report to see the details. These are facts in reporting on the situation in Toronto. It does not paint the situation for every community.
However, 70% of aboriginals do live off reserve and, unfortunately, within the homeless of Toronto, about 15% of the demographics of the homeless represent aboriginals off reserve. The single largest service provider for aboriginals in Toronto who are homeless is called Anishnawbe. It specifically knows where its clients are and provides them daily with their food, their clothing and all the things that they need, including cigarettes and alcohol. That is part of the reason why 70% of aboriginals are off reserve. It is not because they are poor. Many are just out integrating into other parts of Canadian life, and that is part of it.
The urban magnet as a concept is well established. In my community of Mississauga, which is a 15 minute drive from downtown Toronto, a survey was done to find out how many people were living on the streets. Five were found. However, 10,000 people were living on the streets in the greater Toronto area. They were not in Mississauga because it did not have shelters, or community supports or services. It said that Toronto had it all. If communities abandon their responsibility to provide supports and services, then naturally people will migrate.
The member is quite right when she says that 35% of the homeless in Toronto suffer from mental illness. Part of the reason is that Ontario closed down 10 of its mental health institutions. We cannot compress these services. People who suffer from various mental illnesses need medication. They probably are unable to care for themselves. By and large, most of them come out of a mental health institution, are given a bus ticket and told to go to a shelter.
That is not the way we should treat people who suffer from mental illness. I agree with that. We have to embrace the fact that we have people in our society who suffer from illnesses or other social conditions and require our attention, our compassion and our love. I believe that the homeless in Toronto, in fact the homeless all across this great land, represent people who no one love.