Status of Women committee  I'll follow up on your concept of interprovincial equity. You made a very good point that we seem to be talking about stuff that's within provincial jurisdiction. But if the senior level of government doesn't take leadership on these things, there will be as much poverty 10 year

Status of Women committee  I think if you look at many of the culturally specific agencies--and I think there's a culturally specific agency for just about every immigrant group--if they were funded or mandated to provide seniors services, they'd already have the networks to find the people, and presumably

Status of Women committee  It is, yes. Comprehensive seniors services run a pretty broad range. There are social-recreational programs for the healthy senior. You know, that's where you go and you have tai chi and cribbage and things like that. There are also any number of types and varieties of congrega

Status of Women committee  Can I go first? I'll try not to take up all your time. Yes, I agree that we must have institutions and that they must be good and they must be humane. We have to have institutions for, essentially, two kinds of people: the people who can no longer make rational choice, who are p

Status of Women committee  I am not really equipped to project what I think might be best. I would expect that the increase to the GIS would most advantage our clients right at the moment. In order to prevent as much poverty as possible as we all grow older, I think it's a CPP issue. I think you're quite r

Status of Women committee  I dare say it would. You can't very well argue against any of those points.I think what needs to be understood, though, is that when you talk about affordable housing, it's one thing to have your housing subsidized, but if you're stuck within four walls and there's no one to help

Status of Women committee  Yes, they should, with the proviso that they are not exclusively medical-modeled. The community worker who changes the light bulb in the corridor going to the bathroom is not providing health care. But if the client falls and breaks her hip because there's no light in the corrido

Status of Women committee  Yes, and I truly think that ours is the solution.

Status of Women committee  Is that directed to me?

Status of Women committee  Yes. They particularly require culturally sensitive service. When I talk about providing services through the community agencies, that's one of the reasons for it, that they might very well be ethno-specific agencies or what have you. We had the light-going-on experience of hir

Status of Women committee  Yes, we do. We provide CCAC-contracted service.

Status of Women committee  Maybe that would be better responded to by you.

Status of Women committee  I will go back to that blanket of community support services. The problem with rural areas is the distance. It's the travel time between people. That would certainly have to be taken into account. It would be a cost that's higher in a rural area than it is in a densely populated

Status of Women committee  Neighbourhood Link expends $3 million a year on its seniors programs. We have 2,600 clients. You would divide $3 million by 2,600 and then divide it again by 52 weeks, and it comes to $22. What that doesn't deal with is the fact that we have the healthy senior social recreation

Status of Women committee  We actively deliver service, and our principal program is called client intervention and assistance. It's very difficult to explain that in a nutshell, but it's all of the things that a caring niece would give her aunt or uncle. It's what the client directs. Now I've lost track