Federal minister hears concerns from local seniors

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This article was published 13/11/2018 (2522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bob Galston has been living in a retirement home for six months and loves it there, but has one question that concerns him: will his children have access to the same quality of life and standard of living?

On Monday, Galston, 83, had a chance to ask someone in power.

Federal Seniors Minister Filomena Tassi was in Winnipeg to meet with seniors like Galston, who lives at Seine River Retirement Residence, and ask how they’re doing and about their most pressing concerns.

“We’re very fortunate to come into a place like this,” said Galston, who lives there with his partner Dorothy Talman.

“I’m a little worried that my children won’t be able to,” he said. They’re concerned about the lack of employee-pension plans and job security for generations that come after them, and how they will fare when they reach retirement age.

Tassi, who’s been travelling across Canada hearing seniors’ concerns about things like income insecurity, housing, health care, isolation and elder abuse, said the federal government is doing research to come up with a strategy for Canada’s aging baby boomers.

“Our government realizes it’s embarking on uncharted territory,” Tassi said, who represents a Hamilton-area riding.

“In the 2016 census, for the first time, seniors 65 and older outnumber youth 14 and under,” she said in an interview.

“The fastest-growing population in Canada is 85 and older. It’s a good thing in terms of people are living longer, but what it means is that we have to make preparations to ensure that seniors are going to have lives to which they look forward. We recognize the contributions they’ve made to communities, to our families, to our places of worship, to our workplaces, so we want to ensure that seniors can look forward to those years ahead.”

“In terms of the future seniors — those that are coming — one initiative our government has undertaken is to increase the CPP for the first time in 20 years,” Tassi said.

“My children who are 22 and 24 — by the time they’re (at retirement) age — they’re going to receive a CPP pension up to 50 per cent more, so we are making those sorts of investments,” she said.

“There is no question that we have to put investments in place,” and Tassi said they’ve already started doing that.

Lowering the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement to 65 from 67 prevented 100,000 seniors in Canada from slipping into poverty, she said.

The income supplement was enhanced for the most needy, vulnerable senior singles, Tassi said, and that lifted 57,000 out of poverty.

Looking to the future, the $40-billion National Housing Strategy is a 10-year plan with a co-investment fund that ensures senior housing needs are protected, she said. The federal government has a poverty reduction strategy and is investing in research to see how to best accommodate present needs while preparing for the future, Tassi said at the seniors residence on St. Anne’s Road.

“My heart lifts when I walk into a place like this. It’s so welcoming and so warm,” she said after going for a short walk with Laurine Neufeld and a handful of residents on an unseasonably cold day.

“I like to walk outdoors,” said Neufeld, who walks at least twice a day and takes part in drumming and other activities at the residence, which has a nurse on-site and transportation to shopping and appointments.

“You can be as busy as you want to be,” Neufeld said. “It’s a pretty neat place. I’m blessed to be here.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca