The elderly are not overly prone to flexing their muscles, but they have been of late.
The plaza by Victoria’s city hall this spring became an impromptu pickle ball court as seniors protested closures due to noise complaints.
A few months ago about 100 seniors — some in walkers and motorized scooters — demonstrated at a vacant school field. After not hearing back from the school district, they were demanding elder-friendly park space.
Seniors were front and centre at protests on the legislature lawn last summer against COVID-19 restrictions, old-growth forest cutting, among other controversies. The Victoria Raging Grannies recently sang for health activists “doctors for all” at the B.C. Health Care Matters rally.
These protests may be the first sign of increased senior activism. So, as they start their four-year term, the 93 newly-minted municipal mandarins on the South Island may want to take note as they set their policy priorities.
Nearly one in four residents of the Victoria Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) is 65 years and older, according to 2021 Statistics Canada figures. Considering they show up in droves to vote, it’s baffling that platforms and promises around ‘seniors’ were rarely mentioned during the civic election.
The implications of this demographic tsunami for quality governance are profound.
That aging population will drive future increases in health-care spending while also reducing potential economic growth. Both of these forces will leave the province in a more precarious fiscal position in the future, according to the Fraser Institute.
The fiscal impact of demographic change, is explored in their 2021 report, . Watch for municipal finances to be impacted with less largesse from the province.
Several local governments are slow to address this demographic tsunami.
At the Capital Regional District, seniors don’t seem to be directly on the internal policy radar, aside from its emphasis on providing affordable low-income housing and long-term care.
As a regional district, it facilitates decision-making on issues which ‘transcend municipal boundaries’ and provides services efficiently and effectively through region-wide or shared service delivery models.
There are about 80 standing or select committees (including a mountain biking advisory committee) and some commissions, none of which focus specifically on seniors.
There is no overarching report or game plan focusing on seniors, instead the CRD is guided by the province’s seniors’ advocate, says a CRD spokesperson.
It’s alarming there isn’t an expanded role for regional government after you read something like the B.C. Seniors: Falling Further Behind, a recent and troubling report by the province’s seniors’ advocate. She paints a disturbing picture after finding the province provides less support for seniors than other provinces.
In Saanich, the parks and recreation department produced an impressive document called that was adopted by council in 2017.
The recommendations have been largely adopted by council, but not fully funded, leaving more work to do, says a spokesperson.
Of note, there’s no standing committee or broad-based policy document on seniors addressing other municipal endeavours besides parks and recreation.
The Union of B.C. Municipalities selected Langford as one of 26 communities in 2014 to receive funding from the B.C. Ministry of Health to develop an . It was part of a worldwide project directed by the World Health Organization.
To its credit, the municipality made recommendations and brought in changes for eight strategic focus areas identified by WHO including outdoor spaces and buildings, social participation, respect and social inclusion, and community support and health services.
Currently, though, there’s no standing committee on seniors in Langford.
Finally, Victoria city council created a seniors task force in 2019 under the same WHO guidelines. Council adopted a comprehensive Seniors’ Action Plan 2020, which was referred for consideration in the 2021 financial planning process.
The previous council approved the formation of a seniors advisory committee and directed staff to report back with draft terms of reference and resource requirements for this committee, and to work with partner seniors serving agencies in convening an annual seniors summit.
The task force is now defunct and the report items were not advanced due to competing city work and staff capacity, according to a city spokesperson. We hope the new council carries on and makes this worthy initiative a priority.
During the last few difficult years seniors haven’t been top of mind, unfortunately slipping down the municipal political agenda. So it’s worthwhile remembering that seniors on a fixed income during an inflationary cycle are likely to get a tad cranky.
With the escalating cost of food and housing, some elderly are struggling to make ends meet, while others are struggling with a failing health care system, rapid social change and other assorted crises.
The elderly are not invisible and good governance demands they’re not forgotten.
