Good afternoon, and I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important gathering.
Deciding what constitutes an acceptable quality of life for older adults is no small undertaking. Most observers agree that two of the most important determinants are good health and sound finances—areas where the trends are relatively positive. For example, today's seniors are living longer and generally healthier than previous generations. Thanks in part to long-standing government programs such as old age security, the guaranteed income supplement, and the Canada Pension Plan, most older adults are in relatively good shape financially, notwithstanding my colleague's comments.
To good health and economic well-being I would add access to housing that fits with the senior's individual circumstances. For some, the issue is affordability; for others, it's the type of housing or its location. Where you live in many instances determines how you live. The physical design of the built environment—that's the neighbourhoods and transportation networks that determine how we interact with our physical surroundings—is a key determinant affecting quality of life for seniors. I'd like to explain that.
A few years ago, CMHC's “Housing for Older Canadians” publication, which the CUI, Canadian Urban Institute, helped to write, noted that today's seniors prefer to age in place until poor health or economic circumstances force them to relocate to retirement homes or long-term care facilities. Postponing or even avoiding such decisions is an option for some, but as the number of elderly seniors continues to grow, the question arises as to whether housing and neighbourhoods can be successfully adapted to meet the needs of an aging population.
The most challenging of these built environments are the many car-dependent suburbs constructed since the Second World War. Neighbourhoods where people must drive or be driven to work, school, or shopping work well for successive generations of households during their family-formation years, but as residents age and become less mobile, many lose the ability to drive or cannot afford a car. When amenities such as grocery stores, medical facilities, or community centres are too far away to reach on foot, older adults who no longer drive become less active and are at risk of becoming isolated. Canadians are living longer, but most of us will outlive our ability to drive. We must find solutions. From this perspective, our current suburbs are no place to grow old.
A positive step was taken in 2007 when the Public Health Agency of Canada launched the age-friendly communities initiative, a World Health Organization initiative dedicated to promoting active aging. Since then, more than 500 cities and towns across Canada have made commitments to become age-friendly. The CUI's research shows, however, that although cities are using the age-friendly concept to engage effectively with seniors to identify local needs and priorities, little progress has been made to upgrade the quality of the built environment. Our survey of the 25 largest Ontario cities committed to becoming age-friendly indicated that none of these cities has yet acknowledged their commitment to become age-friendly in their land-use plans.
I'm nevertheless pleased to report some progress being made on the policy front. The Ontario government's latest growth plan for the greater Golden Horseshoe explicitly directs cities in the region to recognize age-friendly design and development as a municipal priority. At the local level, the City of Toronto recently agreed to acknowledge age-friendly design and development in the city's official plan when the process of updating the plan begins next year. This kind of acknowledgement is an essential precondition for a municipality's ability to begin the time-consuming process of retrofitting car-dependent suburbs and ensuring that no opportunities are missed to improve the quality of the built environment when neighbourhood plans are recalibrated as part of the development process.
Our research has also identified the value of identifying best-practice examples of neighbourhoods and individual developments that can contribute to an age-friendly city. These places can be used to inspire proactive planning policy, attract the attention of private sector developers, and, more importantly, demonstrate to the buying public that age-friendly options are available.
Finally, I'd like to suggest how the federal government can help. As I've noted, the Public Health Agency of Canada already coordinates and promotes age-friendly communities at the national level. If the CMHC's capacity to undertake innovative research in areas such as age-friendly development were to be restored, these two federal institutions could then combine their efforts to work collaboratively with communities, developers, and the public. This would enable them to accelerate our collective understanding and appreciation of the need for age-friendly housing and neighbourhoods at a scale that makes a difference in quality of life for Canadians as they age in place in those familiar neighbourhoods.
Thank you.