Parties asked to commit to creating seniors advocate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2023 (768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new advocacy network, whose members were horrified by the number of deaths in personal-care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, is calling on Manitoba political party leaders to establish an independent seniors watchdog within 180 days of taking office.

The non-profit organizations, including the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) Manitoba chapter and the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg, are asking the leaders of the Progressive Conservative party, NDP and Liberal party to promise to establish a seniors advocate who reports to the legislative assembly. During the early months of the pandemic in 2020, a wave of COVID-19 infections resulted in 57 deaths at Maples Personal Care Home and 30 deaths at Parkview Place.

“We think the election is a good time to look at what kind of commitments political parties are going to make and that it’s good to sort of try and influence and bring issues onto that agenda,” said Tom Simms of the Community Development Education Association. His mother was 92 when the non-profit Lions Place, in which she is a resident, was sold to a for-profit Alberta real-estate investment firm in February.

A seniors advocate would function in a manner similar to the Manitoba advocate for children and youth, but would focus on key issues such as personal-care homes, health care, aging-in-place, home care, transportation, culturally appropriate services, housing — including services for unhoused older adults — and income support, Simms said.

The NDP and the Liberals have both spoken in favour of the creation of a seniors advocate who would identify systemic problems and have the legislative authority to demand accountability. They and the PCs have until Sept. 22 to pledge whether or not they would establish the watchdog in their first six months in office.

CARP’s president in Winnipeg, Carmen Nedohin, said the party leaders are being asked to sign a giant pledge form more than one metre wide.

“I think that it’s really easy to come out and say, ‘This is what we want to happen,’ and invite the leaders to be part of the process,” Nedohin said Monday. “And it’s also easy for them to avoid. This way, if we have that large visual (pledge form), people are going to be able to see for themselves: these are the ones who signed on and this is the one who didn’t, if that’s the case.”

At a recent campaign announcement, seniors minister and candidate for Assiniboia Scott Johnston wouldn’t commit to a re-elected PC government establishing a seniors advocate, saying a commissioner has been appointed to guide the creation of a new, independent investigation office for persons in care, which will report directly to the legislature.

“We’re not opposed to looking at advocacy, but now that there’s a commissioner in place who’s going to be doing that review, we will make our further decisions based on that review,” Johnston said. In July, the Tories announced they would disband and replace the Protection for Persons in Care Office following the auditor general’s “sickening and repulsive” findings of personal-care home abuse.

The process is expected to take commissioner William Burnett, a former Manitoba Court of King’s Bench and Court of Appeal justice, 18 months to two years to complete.

“That’s when there will be more clarity with regard to seniors advocacy, from our perspective,” Johnston said Thursday.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Wednesdays

A weekly dispatch from the head of the Free Press newsroom.

Sign up for Paul Samyn | Editor's Note

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

The role of a seniors advocate would go beyond watching out for those in care, said Simms.

“I think the pandemic really showed the cracks in the system and people are really shocked and upset about what’s going on, but then it kind of fades into the background,” he said. “I think that’s why we need to look at being very vocal and present and looking at the political approach: how do you look at system change? It’s hard to do that as an individual or a family.”

When his mother and other seniors were notified their home at Lions Place was up for sale, there was no agency or body with any clout to advocate on their behalf.

“We need to look at system change, and we need to have our elected leaders being responsive to what people in the community are saying,” said Simms.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.