Montreal – Building on provincial and municipal initiatives from coast to coast to coast, the Government of Canada must now play a leadership role in establishing a national seniors strategy for Canada, according to a new report from the IRPP Task Force on Aging. The report contains over 30 concrete recommendations to meet the needs of older Canadians, from the points of view of care, community and the organization of work.

The report, Designing a National Seniors Strategy for Canada, draws on a comprehensive review of the latest research on issues affecting older Canadians, a consultation exercise that included a series of interviews with experts and stakeholders, as well as a round table discussion. The consultation process was led by the Task Force on Aging, whose members are Graham Fox, IRPP President; Scott Haldane, President and Chief Executive Officer of YMCA; the Hon. Anne McLellan, former deputy prime minister, now senior adviser at Bennett Jones LLP; Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai and the University Health Network Hospitals in Toronto; and Mark Taylor, Deputy Mayor of the City of Ottawa and policy sponsor for Ottawa’s Older Adult Plan.

According to the task force, only the federal government can compel all the players to adopt a truly integrated and comprehensive approach and ensure that seniors across Canada receive comparable services, regardless of where they live. The task force members also insist that the strategy must go beyond health care and include “age-friendly communities, social and economic policy, and the social determinants of health.” Moreover, the strategy must avoid turning into an intergovernmental tug-of-war that puts the individual at the centre.

The task force recommends that the federal government take the following measures:

• Focus future enhancements to GIS/OAS on the goal of ensuring no older Canadians fall below the poverty line. This will require targeted efforts to enhance the generosity of GIS/OAS for certain groups, particularly those who live alone;
• Promote health literacy, informed decision-making and advance care planning;
• Compel the provinces and territories to come to an agreement on minimal service standards for home, community and long-term care. To be clear, however, these standards should not be dictated by Ottawa and should emerge from a provincial/territorial consensus;
• Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of age-friendly community initiatives across the country, identify best practice and compel the sharing of information across jurisdictions; and
• Explore ways in which additional — and more flexible — income-support and enhanced job- protection measures can be provided to caregivers.

“Over the last decade, we’ve learned a great deal about how to meet the needs of older Canadians through solid policy research and promising local and provincial pilot projects,” said task force member Graham Fox. “The challenge now is to scale up what we know to the national level. And that can only be done successfully if Ottawa leads.”

Designing a National Seniors Strategy for Canada can be downloaded from the Institute’s website (irpp.org).

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Media Contact: Shirley Cardenas tel. 514-594-6877 scardenas@nullirpp.org