Human Resources committee  I don't have any specific numbers, but I know that the number of older people who are above 65 and are continuing to work is growing. That's a growing segment of the population who is deciding to continue to work. Yes, there are financial reasons for that, but there's a lot of pe

Human Resources committee  Yes, absolutely, they do. Certainly, as we see more people living into their late eighties and nineties, many of their children who are in their sixties and seventies are potentially still working and also caregiving for their older parents. Yes, there are certainly out-of-pocke

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. There certainly are campaigns out there to have a UN charter on human rights for older people. The pandemic has bolstered the advocates for this even further, particularly given what happened in long-term care. Canada did endorse this global strategy and action plan,

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We certainly hear all the time about how burdened caregivers are, and when we've done consultations around the province of Manitoba, we've certainly heard that there's a lot of need for respite care. There just isn't enough respite care, and one can only imagine how c

Human Resources committee  I can answer that if you'd like. Yes, I absolutely think that. In part, generationally, we see the age cohorts changing. Their lifestyles have been very different from that perspective, I think, even pre-pandemic, yes, in terms of even what families will encourage older people t

Human Resources committee  Oh my goodness, in terms of surgeries or therapies, there's a whole host. If we think from a primary prevention point of view, that was what I was kind of trying to get at in my original statement around the physical therapies and exercise programming. I come from that backgrou

Human Resources committee  In terms of one specific medical condition, no. I think it goes across all the cardiovascular...diabetes, cancer and so on. I would imagine there are issues with all of them.

Human Resources committee  I don't have a lot of specific data that I can cite, but certainly we've seen in Winnipeg where there are lots of individuals who have food insecurity issues. Right now, in this third wave that we're experiencing, they're having to be provided with emergency kits, whereas, as I s

Human Resources committee  Yes, I do, and—

Human Resources committee  In a lot of aspects of the data, at least that we're receiving here in Manitoba, which I assume is filtering through federally, we might have race-based data, and we might have age-based data, but we don't have a lot of the more fine-tuned data across all individuals. Hopefully,

Human Resources committee  I'm sorry. Was that directed to me?

Human Resources committee  Your question was around whether this whole situation has created more problems in terms of anxiety and mental health. Yes, certainly. I wouldn't say that's across the board. I think it's a bit of a stereotype to think that all older people have fared poorly during the pandemic

Human Resources committee  There are people on the low-income scale who certainly need more support. Any time programs are being designed for older people, I think it would make a lot of sense for those programs to be targeted to those who are in great need. Again, there's a lot of heterogeneity in the ol

Human Resources committee  That's a big topic, but an important one. We saw right from the very beginning of the pandemic that ageism was seeping in, even by people who weren't likely intending to be ageist. We heard messages such as, “Oh, it's not that serious because it only affects older people.” There

Human Resources committee  More funding is absolutely required across the board, although I'm not going to get into which jurisdiction should be providing those funds. We're all, as individuals, taxpayers and the money has to come from somewhere, but we'll need to see more funding in the system, in additio