Human Resources committee  You know, I would be remiss to not say that we have a very bad history as Canadians in dealing with some of these issues with aboriginal people, most notably taking kids away from their families and putting them in residential schools. That's created a huge fracture that's multi-generational, and it's going to take time to heal.

Human Resources committee  I do. South of the Fraser has a very significant homeless problem. There is a street in Surrey that has a large number of homeless people. We recently saw the death of a youth who was aged out of care who died in a tent in Surrey. That was just recently. We're seeing homeless issues on both sides of the Fraser Valley, north and south.

Human Resources committee  I have to call on personal experience here. In the last year, both of my kids have been diagnosed as gifted and with learning disabilities. I have had a new understanding of what our parents and their children face in our school system. It is underfunded. The children are not being connected when they have learning disabilities, anxiety, or any challenge that is outside that middle child.

Human Resources committee  Every city in metro Vancouver will say the same thing: when it comes to mental health treatment and care in this province, we do not have enough resources. We have families who wait significant periods of time to connect to the services they need. The reality is that poverty and mental illness are connected.

Human Resources committee  We have a number of people who have been on our streets and in our shelter over time who have different levels of physical disabilities. We had a woman who was a leader in our homeless camp. Her name is Linda, and she's a pretty phenomenal person. She has struggled her whole life.

Human Resources committee  Yes. The temporary shelter was put together to move people out of the Cliff Avenue camp. It was meant to be a six-month endeavour. It is an open mattress shop with cots next to each other and one bathroom. It was never meant to be open for 18 months. It has been extended over and over again while the provincial government tries to figure out how to deliver supportive housing in this community.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We know our community well. We work together, especially in this community, where we have a very connected environment of service provision. We have eyes on the ground all of the time. We know what we need in this community. We shouldn't be subject to higher levels of government making decisions about what we need in this community, decisions that are partisan-based or steeped in politics.

Human Resources committee  I do find that the media are fairly effective. There's a fairly good understanding. There's a very significant difference in metro Vancouver between the very, very urban area, which is acclimatized to dealing with people who are vulnerable, and the suburban area, which is not as acclimatized.

Human Resources committee  I understand that there are concerns about the jurisdictional nature of funding and how we make decisions, but the reality is that our Canadian values trump politics. They have to, because that's who we are as people. That is what we're known for internationally. For me, my re-election does not matter when I have a mattress shop full of people sleeping next to each other on cots with no privacy and no dignity.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. I think there has to be prevention in any housing solution that we're dealing with. The Housing First money is spent under a very good principle: we invest in housing first because people can't think about getting their lives forward without having safe housing, a shelter, a roof over their heads.

Human Resources committee  The civic facility that I mentioned, which has the potential for post-secondary education and a museum and archives, has upgrades to our leisure centre that our kids access, but it also includes—this is one building that's on the same site, essentially—the youth mental wellness facility.

Human Resources committee  I think the greatest need is housing. What I hear around the table in metro Vancouver is that we're really struggling. It's well known that our vacancy rates in metro Vancouver are very low, the cost of housing is very high, and we have people with many children who are packing into these smaller units.

Human Resources committee  I think it's the connection to any kinds of supports, supports to wellness and the transition of children into the school system. You have kids now going into the school system. There is an under-resourced and underfunded education system here in B.C., so that's certainly a challenge.

Human Resources committee  There are two issues. There's the issue of the currently homeless population that costs a lot of money to reverse. Those people may or may not ever be able to seek gainful employment. There's a lot of damage done by the drugs that are on our street now, fentanyl. A number of people have to be revived many times.

Human Resources committee  There has to be more inclusion in terms of the position of the municipalities or the level of government above our citizens. We see day to day what's going on and what's working and what's not working in a city. Most of the time when we're engaging, we're engaging in bilateral conversations with cities and federal governments or cities and provincial governments.