Prentice announcement on seniors' home fire safety falls short

Our Executive Director Bill Moore-Kilgannon was at Premier Jim Prentice's media conference at an Edmonton seniors' home yesterday afternoon on fire safety for seniors facilities. The $70 million announced will not cover the estimated $250 million needed for the 2/3 of spaces requiring upgrades. Public seniors facilities have until December 1st to say if they are not up to code, even though the media has already reported that 455 out of 657 are not.Further, Moore-Kilgannon sat at the announcement with a woman named Joan, who lives on the 15th floor of the facility where the announcement was made (it's home to over 400 seniors). She said there is only one staff person at night for the entire building and that most seniors are not physically able to go down stairs. They have not had a fire drill in over a year.It's sad that in this rich province we will only remedy some of the potentially dangerous situations our seniors are in. Shame on our government for telling us we can't afford to protect ALL of our seniors.