Evidence of meeting #11 for Status of Women in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seniors.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Patricia Fleischmann  Police Constable, Community Mobilization Unit, Toronto Police Service
Jared Buhler  Elder Abuse Intervention Team, Edmonton Police Service
Isobel Fitzpatrick  Detective Sergeant, Coordinator, Eastern Regional Abuse Issues, Ontario Provincial Police
Isabelle Coady  Detective, Elder Abuse Unit, Ottawa Police Service
Leslie Craig  Inspector, Manager, Crime Prevention Section, Ontario Provincial Police

5:25 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Irene Mathyssen

Mr. Hsu has five minutes, please.

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Thank you.

I want to thank all of you for coming here today. We're almost at the end. My question is pretty simple, and it's to all of you. You've already partially answered it.

If you had an extra dollar, what would you put it toward? What would be the first thing on your spending list?

5:30 p.m.

Cst Jared Buhler

My personal wish list would be for somebody to work with me on these cases. I'm the only person assigned to this unit within the Edmonton Police Service, and there's no hope of getting anyone soon, from what I'm told. I've been asking for a couple of years.

The fact that we have a constable investigating these types of crimes systemically shows the value we put on it. So my personal wish would be for a partner.

5:30 p.m.

Insp Leslie Craig

I'd come back to what I said earlier, which is to support the seniors in our communities. Although there are things out there like psychogeriatric resource consultants, community care access centres, and a lot of social agencies that support seniors, one of the things we hear is that there aren't enough people to support the seniors who are living in our communities, speaking from a rural perspective in the OPP.

It comes back to the whole thing that the four of us know: why don't people report? Let's say a senior is isolated or living out in the middle of the boonies, for lack of a better word. Her son is living with her as her sole support and takes her to get food or to doctors' appointments. He is also abusing that power of attorney, but of course that senior is not going to report it.

Having agencies and organizations that support seniors would have an impact, and could probably address it long before it even came to the level of a police investigation.

5:30 p.m.

Det Isabelle Coady

We're in a better position. There are two in my unit. I would like a third party, not necessarily an investigator, but a social worker or somebody with a social background who would take care of all the social work. When I do an investigation and have a person at risk, I end up doing a lot of the social work. I can do it, and I do it because I have to, but I think my time and energy would be better placed doing investigative work. So if I had somebody who was trained in that field and working side by side with me, it would really increase my effectiveness.

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON

Thank you very much. That's all I have.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

The Chair NDP Irene Mathyssen

Thank you very much, Mr. Hsu.

I would like to say thank you very much to Constable Buhler, Inspector Craig, Detective Sergeant Fitzpatrick, and Detective Isabelle Coady. You've presented clearly and with sensitivity and profound concern on a subject that we are very concerned about as well.

I thank you for your testimony today and your patience with me, the chair.

The meeting is adjourned.