Seniors advocate needs more teeth

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2024 (667 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP government has demonstrated its commitment to honour their election campaign pledge to establish a legislated independent seniors advocate. They did so by announcing in its first speech from the throne that “our government will never forget the way seniors were neglected in the pandemic. We will never let this happen again … and we will create a Seniors Advocate — a strong, independent voice for our seniors and families.”

As well, in the spring of 2024, the provincial government introduced legislation, Bill 37, The Budget and Tax Statues Amendment Act, which included The Seniors’ Advocate Act, creating an independent office that would report to the legislative assembly rather than the government, similar to the role of the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth.

Community consultation is a key element in developing effective legislation. This helps ensure the content of the legislation reflects the aspirations and needs of the citizens in our province. Seniors look forward to working with the provincial government on a range of issues, including concerns regarding long-term care, assisted living, aging in place, home care, housing, pharmacare and culturally relevant services.

The Seniors’ Advocate Act, in its present form, is an excellent start to identify the role and authority of this new office. However, critical elements are missing that need to be addressed in order to strengthen the legislation.

Firstly, the content of the proposed Seniors’ Advocate Act is very similar to the Advocate for Children and Youth Act. Nevertheless, the latter has a section on investigative powers that is not contained in the Seniors’ Advocate Act, including the power to compel persons to answer questions, order disclosure and order to comply with the assistance of the court to direct a public body or person to comply with an order made by the seniors advocate.

Secondly, the recently updated changes to the Protection of Persons in Care Office (PPCO) provides that office with significant investigatory powers that are also not present in the proposed Seniors’ Advocate Act. This includes “the ability to conduct examinations under oath, to compel the production of documents, to obtain subpoenas, to make application to the court for assistance, and to carry out investigations on their own (PPCO) initiative.”

Thirdly, in January 2024 the provincial government amended regulations for abuse within the Protection of Persons in Care Act to include various forms of physical force, sexual abuse as well as a range of intentionally caused emotional or psychological harms.

This definition is too narrow. Extending beyond individual incidents of in-care forms of abuse requires attention to institutional abuse, structural violence and corporate neglect. These forms of abuse are often ignored because we are conditioned to see harm done by individuals and not the abusive role played by organizations that foster abusive conditions and practices.

Definitions of organizational elder abuse have helped identify how funding, business models, short-staffing, ageism, failings in organizational culture, staff recruitment, training or supervision, and ineffective management can contribute to an abusive organizational environment, even if individuals within the organization are not themselves ill-intentioned.

The Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition, which focuses on issues of older adults from Indigenous, racialized, LGBTTQ+, and persons with disabilities communities, along with the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, recommend that the proposed Seniors’ Advocate Act needs to be strengthened by: (1) identifying definitions of both individual and organizational elder abuse in the legislation and/or regulations; and (2) adding the investigatory powers to the legislation and/or regulations similar to the investigatory powers that has been recommended for the new Protection of Persons in Care Office.

A major limitation of the Protection of Persons in Care Office is that it only addresses issues of abuse for people in-care. The Seniors’ Advocate Office should have the same investigatory powers as the new PPCO to protect, not only seniors in-care, but also older adults living in the community from both individual and organizational abuse.

These proposed amendments are essential for the seniors advocate office to have the capacity and authority to protect older adults in Manitoba and to improve the quality of their lives. The last thing anyone wants is toothless legislation that limits the role of the seniors advocate to effectively make change in our community.

Lucille Bruce is a member of the Manitoba Seniors Equity Action Coalition. Carmen Nedohin and Marnie Strath are co-presidents of the Manitoba Chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons.