Good morning. I am Sharron Callahan. I am the executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Sector Pensioners' Association and the chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador seniors' and pensioners' coalition. Collectively, this coalition represents the membership of 13 affiliated associations to which the NLPSPA provides leadership and infrastructure support, so our outreach is quite large.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about the pressing issues impacting older persons in our province and across the country. I'm sure the issues are pretty common everywhere. I'm sure you will acknowledge that none of these issues are new or something that you have not heard before. These issues are focused on health, wellness, financial security and social interaction.
I apologize to the interpreters if I go off script a bit at times.
Seniors' issues are everyone's issues, as the impacts of these are felt within families, their communities and the service systems that are needed. I want to start, however, in somewhat of a positive, solution-focused direction, rather than on a negative note.
I want to begin by talking about ageism. Every time one listens to any news or social media broadcast—and governments are no exception to this rule—it begins with a negative tone on the aging population. We are seen as a burden. We are seen as the reason for all that ails us in society, and our demands for service are taking away from our younger citizens. Yes, it is true that there are many older persons who require care and support, but there are many others who are still high-functioning and able to continue to contribute to the social betterment and the economy of this country.
My first ask is that we need an older worker strategy that promotes and supports older persons who wish to return to work or to continue to work beyond retirement while at the same time supporting employers to be successful in their line of business. Across Canada, there is a crisis of unavailable employees, for multiple reasons. I'm not going to go into those. Minor changes to tax rules, businesses offering more workplace flexibility and some accommodation for mobility challenges could have a huge positive impact on resourcing the employee crisis that would be productive both for employers and for older persons alike.
Older workers have proven attitudes and attributes of loyalty and reliability, but unfortunately these do not outweigh the negative ageist stereotypical attitudes: that we are resistant to change and that we have decreased capacity to learn and decreased productivity, which attributes employers unfortunately have assigned to younger workers. A cultural shift in thinking and positive promotion could go a long way toward shifting these opinions.
Also, you need to look at some of the internal processes within the federal government. I am 76 years old. I returned to work three years ago, but you have taken away my old age pension because of a limited supply of income. You need to look at that. That's my personal case.
I wanted to speak about matters of health. I'm well aware that health delivery is a provincial/territorial responsibility, but it is critical that health transfer funding allocated for particular programs have an accountability attached to it. Don't let the money go into general revenues, to go for purposes other than what it is intended for. Problems already identified include increasing shortages of health care workers, facilities overload, wait-lists for treatments, emergency room and bed closures, delays in the promise of a national pharmacare program, the quality and safety of long-term care, a lack of available qualified persons for at-home caregiver services, and the list goes on.
Canada needs a health transformation, just as we do in this province, but we cannot wait 10 years for a protracted plan. This needs to be given priority in funding allocations over the next two to three years.
I'll skip through some of it because my time is running out.
I want to refer to the high cost of living and financial security. I certainly see Barry's point about rolling it down to the individual consumer. All past initiatives to put money into the hands of Canadians are great. Notwithstanding these, however, the continuing increases in the cost of living, heating, fuel and social activities are just draining people's pockets. They cannot keep pace anymore and any hope is fast diminishing for most folks.
All I ask of you is to fix it. Do something about it. Stop talking about studies and everything else. Take some action.
Can I offer a bouquet? I want to offer a bouquet for some of the programs that the Government of Canada offers.
The New Horizons for Seniors program is a welcome program. It does a lot. However—and I think Deatra mentioned this—the barriers to getting funding are complicated. The process is a bureaucratic nightmare, and you have to have a degree in computer technology in order to get it. A lot of senior-based organizations that depend on that funding, and could use it, give up in the long run.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to present these few issues. I have a whole lot more, but that's it for now.