The coalition focused more on short‑term and medium‑term solutions that would alleviate hardship for our seniors. It took a crisis of this nature to expose many of the shortcomings that already existed but that had hardly been addressed, despite extensive investigations and research into the challenges faced by our seniors.
Abuse is still happening. Some would say that it's organizational abuse. However, the current issue is much bigger than previously suspected. That's why the coalition quickly took steps to ensure that our seniors are given a little more consideration.
It was necessary to send in the army, which reported degrading and disagreeable situations. This gave us a true picture of the situation of seniors living in long‑term care facilities in particular, but also in seniors' residences. This is how we were able to elicit responses.
We're asking for better home support. The budgets never meet the needs of the people. Normally, there's a set amount of funding. However, after a while, there's nothing left. The needs that have come up in the past few months are barely or not being met. It's necessary to reinvest in home support.
It's important to consider that seniors play a role in society. Before, we rarely heard about seniors. They weren't necessarily mentioned in policies. The Quebec and federal governments didn't talk about the need to invest more in building repairs or in making sure that air‑conditioning systems worked properly during heat waves. These matters weren't part of the discussions or among the issues raised.
A number of issues already existed. However, unfortunately, the situation deteriorated during the pandemic. We hope that the federal and provincial governments will listen to our requests.
The Canadian provinces could also benefit from certain federal measures, given the fact that seniors have a role to play, and it must be a prominent role.