Human Resources committee  One of the things I think we'd be being very remiss if we did not touch on before our time is up is just the absence of appropriate housing stock in Canada. I think in some ways it could or should be stimulus-tied. When we were at our peak in the eighties, we were developing 25,000 units, or thereabouts, of supportive housing stock through a national housing strategy and in connection with CMHC on an annual basis.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I'd be happy to hear the thoughts from others as well. There is some great work starting to happen through the Treasury and Policy Board of the Government of Nova Scotia and through HRSDC and Service Canada. It's quite exciting and interesting to see. I'll give you a small example.

Human Resources committee  I'd like to speak to that for a moment, if I could. The old antiquated notion that takes us back to the fifties is if you can play containment on this, so it's us and them, and if you just put those folks who are troubling us on the other side of the line over there, then those of us who are on this side of the line will be just fine.

Human Resources committee  I'll give you a broad answer first, and then I trust that the folks to my right can answer in more specific terms. The broad answer is that the challenge for those of us who are service providers in the community is, on a daily basis, one of funding. One of my biggest frustrations and biggest points of bewilderment is trying to get the message through about the importance of the federal government to understand its working nature with provincial governments and the desire to strike funding formulas that have a long-term view.

Human Resources committee  Great. First of all, thanks for having us. This is a great opportunity and an important opportunity. If ever you want to tease folks from the community, ask them to concisely describe what they do in five minutes. So we'll do our best to rise to that challenge, and again, thanks for the opportunity.