Human Resources committee  Michael Nicin will start, and then I will complete it.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Michael. While I hold many titles, I want to speak to you, first and foremost, as one of Canada's only 305 geriatricians who work with older adults and their families challenged by complex health and social care issues like navigating long-term care needs. The aging o

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I think there's an opportunity here for federal leadership, for sure, because I think all of our provinces and territories have been struggling with how to balance and provide long-term care. In Canada, we stand out internationally, because we spend the vast majority

Human Resources committee  Sure. People are looking to the Canada Health Act, but again, the Canada Health Act also is what we use for hospitals and physician coverages. Remember that at every provincial and territorial level, our hospitals are organized according to level, and they're funded in their ow

Human Resources committee  Certainly. You could enshrine long-term care, and I would say long-term care as we define it at the NIA as that whole spectrum of home care and nursing home care, but again, what we did in the recent federal transfers was transfer $6 billion over 10 years with, in my view, limite

Human Resources committee  In terms of a process and timeline, again, I was appointed to the ministerial advisory board on dementia. That was something set out in legislation with clear targets and guidelines, and we helped to establish the national dementia strategy last year. The key is, that could be a

Human Resources committee  Thanks, Mr. Casey, and members of the committee. I'm Dr. Samir Sinha, and I'm the director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing. The NIA is a Ryerson-based think tank focused on addressing the realities of Canada's aging population. Additionally, I serv

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for that question, Ms. Falk. The report we put out last fall really spoke about that shifting perspective, where 60% of Canadians said they were reconsidering whether they or a loved one would want to live in a retirement or long-term care home in the future

Human Resources committee  That's an excellent question.

Human Resources committee  Yes. Currently we have more older Canadians than younger Canadians, but we have nine times as many pediatricians as we do geriatricians. There are only 305 registered geriatricians in the country. Again, when we talk about palliative care specialists, there are not as many as th

Human Resources committee  This is an important question. It is an important task ahead. My colleague here is also the chair of the sister committee, if you will, which is the CSA committee that will be helping to develop the complementary set of standards. We're both working closely together as chairs and

Human Resources committee  I would wish to say that I can always point to one country that has it right. I'm particularly a fan of Denmark in the way they have actually thought about an entire continuum of care approach. They're thinking about how they can really focus on wellness and prevention and how th

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for that question. This is what we're finding when we look at reports, not only at the federal level but also at the provincial and territorial level. We're seeing from many of these reports that Canada as a whole, and in many of our jurisdictions, was not a

Human Resources committee  The work of the Canadian Red Cross and the NIA, where we've come up with clear policy recommendations are things that I hope will be reflected in our new national long-term care standards. They will speak to emergency preparedness and pandemic preparedness. This is a mechanism wh

Human Resources committee  Many thanks for that question. When we think about COVID, many people talk about it as being the great equalizer, that it touches everybody, but it touched certain populations, like our BIPOC populations, in particular, more so than others. There are a number of reasons, becaus