Evidence of meeting #136 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seniors.
A video is available from Parliament.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Excellent. Thank you very much. I think we're going to have to get more information on that.
I'm going to move over now to Dave Van Kesteren.
Dave and Kellie, you have the floor.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
I wish I had more time. There's a theme here that I recognize. I also want to say that my mother stayed home, as well. She came to this country with five children. Can you imagine? She had to learn the language, and then she had another five. I'm on the back-end of the five. I know all of the stories you're talking about.
There seems to be a theme that I'm hearing from all three of you women—the role that faith played in your upbringing. Can you just touch on that? Does anybody have a quick response to that?
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Primarily, I think having so many children so rapidly caused me to not have a choice at all. I had to stay out of the workforce. At that time, where we were living had absolutely no day care. It was extremely difficult to get a sitter. The minute I mentioned their ages, the phone would go down and that would be that. I didn't have that option at all, and I knew then that I was not going to be able to go back to work.
I guess my fate was that I had a lot of children very rapidly and that changed everything in my life. I did want to go back to work, but it was just not possible.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Oh, faith. I'm sorry. I heard fate. Faith; I think this lady is better able to answer that.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
The slogan, “faith, family and friends”, is very true. Family should be first, I would say, but faith is a very important part of our lifestyle. It doesn't have all the answers, but it's our bedrock.
I'm so grateful to have the knowledge that there's somebody bigger than me taking care of all of this. Yes, I did mention a lot of faith-based things in my story, but that is our story.
We have not raised angels by any means, but I'm not sure what it would have been like if we hadn't had the faith that we do.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
Lynn—that's my mother's name—maybe you want to touch on that as well.
10:15 a.m.
As an Individual
Faith was very much a part of our decision and also our daughter's. She and her husband really didn't have enough money to raise a family and for her to stay home, but after talking to the minister about how important it was, she stayed home, even against our advice. I think that made a valuable contribution to their children, and later on she made up for it.
Yes. We put the value of God first, family next, and then work and the rest of the world.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Thank you all for presenting.
My mom was a stay-at-home mom and had a grade 10 education, and for better or worse, this is how I and my siblings turned out.
I have a quick question for you with respect to health care. Each of you touched on it. I know two of you are nurses. I'm a pediatric surgeon myself.
With respect to your position as seniors, are you finding it challenging to access the things you need as a family? You all mentioned that, because of making a choice to stay at home, you don't have those additional benefits that we know do come with employment as well. CPP is one thing, but health benefits also come with employment.
Do you find that a challenge for your families?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
Can I answer this? Yes, I do.
When you get older, it costs a lot more for drugs. I've currently been put on a drug that I have to pay for, which is $5,000 a year.
One of the biggest things I miss in not working is the perk that your travel medical is covered forevermore. We do not have that perk. I consider it incredible when you do. We no longer can travel. My insurance to travel now is currently $2,000 for the year. My husband is 84, and his is more. Hence, we no longer can travel because of this, but if we had this paid for the rest of our lives.... We have friends who are practically at death's door, and they are able to go to California, to Mexico, to Europe. We cannot.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
It creates an inequity in your lifestyle compared to your colleagues.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
I think it's one thing that we don't appreciate as Canadians, that when you make a choice to stay with your family, of which I think I've been a beneficiary, there are significant limitations that are outside of just strict financial ones.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
Thank you. I know we are limited for time, so I'm going to pass to my colleague so she can ask a question as well.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
I want to thank my colleagues for letting me ask a question before we vote.
I want to thank all our witnesses.
My question is for Ms. Lecnik, who worked in private seniors' residences.
In my constituency, we have a coordinator named Lyne Lebœuf who advocates for the rights of seniors and the rights of retired people and families. She says that seniors who live in private residences are often subject to abuses of power by managers. One of these people, a woman, had lived for 15 years on a certain floor of a residence and was forced to move to a lower floor.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
Anne Minh-Thu Quach NDP Salaberry—Suroît, QC
She ended up having an accident, and she died two weeks later. The nurses had never required her to move to receive additional care.
Do you think that community groups should receive more government funding to better inform seniors of their rights?
10:20 a.m.
As an Individual
My own mother is in a nursing home now, and she will go through depressions and tell me how terrible people are, but when she's feeling good, then everyone is fine. I just explain to her that what she has is almost as good as you can get. I think our age group is going to have to worry because we won't have enough young people to take care of us. As far as I can see, the government is doing a very good job in taking care of people; you can't watch everybody.
I'm sorry I can't be more helpful in that.
10:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
Lynn, we're at 10:24 right now, and I said we'd only take up to 20 minutes. We are going to have to adjourn today's meeting.
I would like to thank Lana, Mary and Lynn for their excellent work today. I'm sorry we could not spend hours and hours with you.
The meeting is adjourned.