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Blaney hopes to see seniors ministry

Government creates federal department for seniors
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Rachel Blaney

Though happy government has created a federal department for seniors, Rachel Blaney is not sure how much authority the portfolio will yield.

In a cabinet shuffle July 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Hamilton MP Filomena Tassi Minister for Seniors. The intent is to help government better understand the needs of seniors, and to ensure programs and services respond to the aging population of Canada.

“We don’t know if they get a ministry yet,” said Blaney, the North Island-Powell River MP who serves as NDP Critic for Seniors. “If she’s minister of state, it means she’s in a consultative role with advice-giving, as opposed to action…Unless they have a mandate where they can get things done, it will be very hard for Minister Tassi to get to the action part.

“One of the weaknesses I find with the current government is there’s a lot of consultation and very little action,” she added.

Blaney notes the number of seniors in Canada is expected to double by 2036.

“It’s also growing in gaps. This is an opportunity for them to start to fill in those gaps, so that seniors as they age are not in positions where they’re extremely vulnerable. It’s important that we look after seniors in a respectful way.”

Blaney wants to see a National Seniors Strategy with a particular focus on the most vulnerable seniors, including Indigenous peoples, women living alone, members of the LGBTQ2 community, racialized minorities and recent immigrants.

“One of the things that keeps coming up is a lot of people as they age feeling more of a burden as opposed to the asset of knowledge in them that they are,” she said. “We need to be planning into the future. We have to be building strategies today that are going to help us transition to that period of time so it’s less painful. Often what I see happening is we wait until it’s a crisis before anything is done. And seniors deserve better than to have their life in crisis.”