Health committee  Actually, the Public Health Agency of Canada is doing a lot of work on knowledge sharing and is supporting Canadian towns. I think that the best way to check what is being done in the rest of Canada would be through that agency. Although I am a member of some national committees, I am still not familiar with how each province works.

Health committee  It is a matter of funding. Canada does not fund in the same way Quebec does. It's as simple as that. Since this fall, Quebec has had a comprehensive program in place. That program is funded by the ministère de la Famille et des Aînés and a number of other departments, including, I believe, the department of municipal affairs, regions and land occupancy, or the ministère des Affaires municipales, des Régions et de l'Occupation du territoire, and the department of transport, or the ministère des Transports.

Health committee  It comes from the budget of the ministère de la Famille et des aînés, which is actually made up of two departments, the department that deals with family matters and the one that deals with seniors' issues. The minister responsible for seniors, Marguerite Blais, implemented the Villes amies des aînés project in Quebec, an infrastructure that helps increase seniors' social participation.

Health committee  Social participation is certainly reduced if a person has poor mobility or is in a wheelchair. If someone is unable to go out, it's even worse. However, in organizations or in Villes amies des aînés, or senior-friendly towns, there is a desire to try to reach these people. We are not talking about immediate or direct participation.

Health committee  I am a professor at the University of Sherbrooke, in the school of social work. I have been doing this research for three years. Tomorrow, I am meeting with the administrators of Quebec's ten largest cities: Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, and so on. We will spend a whole day working with city representatives on how to increase seniors' social participation and how to make their cities more open to using arrangements they already have available, in particular.

Health committee  I would first like to get back to the fact that, in Quebec—I can talk about Quebec—the program is funded by the ministère de la Famille et des Aînés. Two million dollars are invested annually to help towns implement what I call “the model”. That model has already contributed to an increase in seniors' participation in in-house steering committees.

Health committee  Okay. A person's social participation is certainly reduced if they are in a wheelchair or in a confined environment.

Health committee  I will answer in French. Can you hear me?

Health committee  Housing or living at home were key issues for all the focus groups, both in Quebec, as part of pilot projects, and in other parts of Canada or in towns elsewhere in the world. According to the prevailing models in Canada and Quebec, living at home usually means living in an apartment where we have always lived only to spend our last days in a nursing home.

Health committee  Thank you. I am going to speak in French.

Health committee  Thank you for receiving me. I am very pleased to be here today. I would like to tell you about the Age-Friendly Cities Project, or Villes amies des aînés in French. It is an international project that has received Canada’s full support from the very beginning. More specifically the Public Health Agency of Canada has played a crucial role since the project was in its infancy.