Human Resources Committee on June 17th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 42 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021. Proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. The webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Tuesday, February 2, 2021, the committee will resume its study of the impact of COVID-19 on seniors.

I would like to welcome our witnesses to begin our discussion with five minutes of opening remarks, followed by questions.

Our first witness today is Serge Séguin, chief executive officer of the Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées.

From the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres, we have Connie Newman, executive director of the age-friendly Manitoba initiative.

For the benefit of our witnesses, I'd like to offer the following additional comments.

Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of either Floor, English or French. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mic should be on mute.

We will begin with Mr. Séguin.

Welcome to the committee, Mr. Séguin. You have the floor for five minutes.

[Serge Séguin, Chief Executive Officer, Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

The Association québécoise de défense des droits des personnes retraitées et préretraitées, commonly called the AQDR, was established on May 1, 1970. It is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization under part III of Quebec's Companies Act. We currently have 25,300 members across AQDR's 41 sections in 16 administrative regions of Quebec.

Today the committee is studying the impact of COVID‑19 on seniors. The timing is good because the AQDR also surveyed its members on the same subject in late 2020. From October 30 to November 8, 2020, we conducted a survey of our Internet-connected members, approximately 17,000 out of a total of 25,000. Some 1,214 members answered 96 open and closed questions. The open questions elicited 4,000 comments from respondents. The research firm Infras, in Lévis, Quebec, has certified that the survey was 90% representative.

From the survey answers, we developed an analytical report in which we stated 15 demands and 31 recommendations for the Government of Quebec, more particularly its department of health and social services and Quebec's minister for seniors and caregivers, Marguerite Blais. We grouped those demands and recommendations together under four headings. The first two, quality of life and health and social services, are two components involved in maintaining quality of life and health and social services during the pandemic. The third theme is improving health and social services after the pandemic, and, lastly, the fourth is acknowledging and supporting caregivers.

All survey documents are accessible on the home page of our website at aqdr.org. We have provided the committee with the URL so it can access the documents from our survey on the impact that COVID‑19 has had on our members.

To date, we have met the three persons responsible for seniors for the three opposition parties in the National Assembly of Quebec. We have also met the minister responsible for seniors and caregivers to discuss our survey and recommendations to the government. We have requested a meeting with Quebec's minister of health and social services, Christian Dubé, but unfortunately have not yet received any responses, although the minister has received our survey report and that of Infras.

In addition to the recommendations that have come out of this survey, we request that an estates general be held to determine seniors' needs and the services that must be provided to them in the next few years and to prepare ourselves for any future pandemics.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Séguin.

Next we're going to hear from the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres.

Ms. Newman, welcome to the committee. You have the floor for five minutes.

[Connie Newman, Executive Director, Age-Friendly Manitoba Initiative, Manitoba Association of Senior Centres]

Thank you, and thank you for the experience. This is very interesting.

I'm Connie Newman, executive director, as you're aware, of the Manitoba Association of Senior Centres' age-friendly Manitoba initiative. I work with a team of six older consultants as we connect with 60-plus member centres throughout the province and over 90 age-friendly communities throughout Manitoba.

Today I am a caregiver for three people whose homes are personal care homes—three different homes, three different residences. I'm fortunate; my three special friends—they're not family—all survived COVID. I have experience. I'm also one of many my age who are tech savvy, sort of.

I'm going to share with you a collection of thoughts, both my own and from others who I connect with on a regular basis.

Personal care homes are institutions. They are supposed to be homes. Why do they present as hospitals and/or institutions? Collectively, we must improve regulations, provincially as well as nationally. Regulations must be monitored. Funding transfers to the provinces must have standards attached.

For families with loved ones in personal care homes, challenges were heightened when in-person visits became impossible due to COVID-19 restrictions. There was, in some cases, almost total isolation from one another and periods with no visits. Visits were shorter, less frequent and with encumbered conversation connections.

Caregivers and volunteers pre-COVID provided much-needed support to their loved ones, family and friends. COVID hit, and that support was left to staff, who did not have the time to focus on the person as caregivers and volunteers did.

Now to community: 93% of older adults are living in the community, often known as aging in place. I became involved in the age-friendly concept early in my career. It takes an entire community to raise a child. I believe it takes an entire community to look after its own older adults.

In 2008 the World Health Organization told us to get ready for the change in population. It is 2021 today. We have more older adults than we have teenagers. There's a population shift. Many are living longer than ever, many of us healthy and trying to maintain our health. Many older adults do not have family in their communities. The community is a social connection. We all know that social participation is a determinant of one's own health, no matter what age. COVID hit, and we were not ready for the population shift. We sure were not ready for isolation.

I'm an age-friendly champion. In many daily connections, I am constantly involved with age-friendly domains: social participation, communication, housing, transportation, community health, building outdoor spaces and civic participation. When I think about them in a community in Canada, where there is an age-friendly focus, COVID was there. The community was working together for each other of all ages. When looking back at these domains, underlying COVID impacted seniors with transportation or a total lack of it. Programs for those aging in community—that's 93% of us—must be maintained, enhanced and encouraged.

In Manitoba we have support coordinators by community and district, who are tasked with connecting individually to older adults and assisting, where they can, in connecting them to services. During COVID they did their best in attempting to maintain some sort of connection. Zoom connections saved many where good Wi-Fi existed; 211 by phone became a lifesaver.

People with dementia and their caregivers are among the most valuable in our communities, and the COVID-19 pandemic has put those families at even greater risk.

Persons with dementia and caregivers were negatively impacted by the gap left by the suspension of formal programs. We have adult day programs that stopped running. Lower-income seniors living on their own or in congregate settings.... We need to ensure that their basic needs are being met—Maslow's hierarchy for those seniors.

On Internet access, who is responsible for ensuring equal access to the World Wide Web? Is it fair, if a person lives in a rural or remote area, that they do not have the same quality of access to information? Why is it that low-income housing in an urban setting does not have Wi-Fi access today? Devices are cheap. Training is a minimal cost. Wi-Fi for equal access must be an all-government focus.

We must continue to collaborate with the World Health Organization on the “Decade of Healthy Aging”. Since COVID hit, I have spent several mornings listening to those wise ones from all over the world. We must learn from each other. We know that COVID has impacted older women living in rural and remote areas, and the data today is impacted or under-reported. Many more are suffering mental health issues and more significant anxiety and depression from prolonged isolation. We're seeing now, today, a lot of hesitancy to get back and involved.

The opportunity for social connection and engagement is limited by going virtual. Many older adults have limited Wi-Fi access or may choose not to use it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Newman, could I get you to wrap it up there, please? There will be a lot of time to expand on your remarks during the questions and answers.

[Connie Newman]

Thank you. I'm sorry.

With regard to COVID, seniors and elder abuse, 8.2% of older adults are experiencing abuse. Justice at all levels of government must pay attention to existing laws, education and the meaning of those laws. We need to watch for ageism. We, as a civil society, along with governments setting policy, must work together to ensure that no one is left behind, no matter what age. The failures of COVID must be lessons learned moving forward.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Newman.

We're going to begin, now, with rounds of questions, starting with Ms. Falk, please, for six minutes.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Before I start my time, I'm just wondering if you can confirm that, for the total of seniors meetings, today counts as half of a meeting versus a full meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

That's confirmed.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you.

I'd like to thank both of the witnesses for coming here today and contributing to this study, and for their advocacy on behalf of older Canadians. Thank you for that. As we gain a fulsome understanding of the impact of the pandemic on seniors, your testimony will help paint a clear picture of how we can better support seniors.

Ms. Newman, I would have to agree with you. I am a member of Parliament for a rural riding, and I believe that access to the Internet is imperative. We need that, especially when everybody is locked in their homes and kids are doing school and seniors can only FaceTime or Zoom with others. I absolutely agree with you.

We have heard about the importance of choice and autonomy in helping seniors age and live with dignity. Ms. Newman, could you share with this committee what role, if any, age-friendly communities played in supporting seniors throughout the pandemic?

[Connie Newman]

Definitely. In the smaller, rural communities in Manitoba, I know that support coordinators, along with others in the community, connected with each other. In large urban centres like Winnipeg, those same seniors support coordinators were able to make the connections and be visible by phone or online with those who were isolated. It's the network aspect of age-friendly communities; it's who is talking to whom.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Sure. That completely makes sense.

Are there lessons to be learned from the pandemic on how to better create age-friendly communities to combat pandemic consequences like social isolation?

[Connie Newman]

The short answer is yes.

One of the principles of age-friendly is communication, and what communication exists between all the stakeholders in a community, in a town, in a village or in a city. That, to us, is one of the critical pieces—who are the stakeholders, who's working with whom—so that we're all looking for the best for all.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Could you suggest what role the federal government could play in supporting age-friendly communities, or how the federal government could assist in that?

[Connie Newman]

I'm a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada's age-friendly reference group, and we're talking about that across Canada on a monthly basis. We have different ideas. It has become the Canada-wide place to go for information.

On lessons learned, we can all learn from each other. I get on those meetings once a month, and I hear about good things in B.C., Quebec and a few others—P.E.I. and New Brunswick. We need to share with each other.

The federal government, in my mind, right here, right now, needs to look after that aspect of the Public Health Agency of Canada's age-friendly reference group.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

What's so great about that, too, is that you're connecting with people from across the country. Even though regionally it may be different, there may be similarities or items or things you can glean from it that then can be implemented where you are, which I think is great.

I'm wondering if you could touch on how services offered by seniors centres changed, or how the needs of seniors changed during the pandemic.

[Connie Newman]

It depends upon the income level is the first thing. We all got shut down across this country. For those seniors—and the data shows it—who are tech savvy, seniors centres, many of them, went to Zoom programming two or three times a day. I have a seniors centre in Manitoba that had 75 people doing exercises on Zoom on a weekly basis: a daily basis within the week, for six programs a week. There was that flip in a lot of cases, if you had good Wi-Fi access, to Zoom programming.

We did a lot of promotion around 211, which gave older adults information. Communication is huge all the time, but the pandemic made it even more so.

Low-income seniors don't have Wi-Fi access. They can't afford it, in many cases. They're living in the community. To me, one of the biggest hits, and we have to remember that, is that 93% of older adults are living in the community and aging in place, and they're connecting to centres if they have the money for the device and Wi-Fi—

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

That's if they have access to the Internet.

Mr. Séguin, quickly, did your organization's study on the impact of COVID reveal commonalities among your membership on how the pandemic impacted their mental health and well-being?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Please answer briefly.

[Serge Séguin]

The biggest problem has been the confinement and isolation of seniors, who haven't seen their relatives, caregivers and families. That has had a major impact on us in Quebec, at both the CHSLDs, the residential and long-term care centres, and seniors' residences.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Falk.

Next we will go to Ms. Young, please, for six minutes.

[Kate Young, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to our witnesses today. There was a lot of good information.

Ms. Newman, I want to go back to you.

You just started, near the end of your presentation, to talk about ageism. We know that it's a long-standing issue that we've had to deal with. In your opinion, what are the best ways to counter ageism and promote age-friendly communities?

[Connie Newman]

That's a tough one, because ageism starts with me in part. We're all aging, but sometimes we forget that, and I think there has to be a concerted effort by those of us who are older to not use—and I get caught—the idea that it starts with, which is I have gray hair; I'm getting old and the bones are getting rickety.

It also starts with businesses that are promoting frailty. Not all seniors are frail. We have policies around ageism at all three levels of government. Just because I'm 73, why should I be treated differently from how a 40-year-old is treated? That's something governments need to look at. We've heard during COVID that some doctors in ICU units were very concerned about having to make the decision about who gets the ventilator—a 40-year-old or an 80-year-old. It is terrible to put anybody in that position.

I'll stop there.

[Kate Young, Liberal, London West, ON]

That's a very good point, and it's tragic when those decisions are made.

You have maybe considered, if I can say that, intergenerational initiatives. Are those something you think is really key here? Do we need to see more of them?

[Connie Newman]

Absolutely. When I think about age-friendly communities, there is no age for those. They are birth to the end of life, and if a community of, say, 800 is connected through intergenerational activities, through community events, we can do that by districts within a city. That's one of the principles we're pushing in Manitoba as we move forward: getting community stakeholders to connect with each other to see about community events and bringing everybody together. Some of our first nations are very good at that, and it's cross-generational.

We have age silos in policy, in government and in the school system. Those don't help when we get hit with a pandemic. They counteract age-friendliness.