Seniors

EDMONTON — Yesterday’s Speech from the Throne in Manitoba laid out the new government’s agenda. The speech includes commitments to: “increase the hours of direct care for each senior living in personal care homes. And create a Seniors Advocate — a strong, independent voice for seniors and their families,” as well as a commitment to increase home care support for seniors to remain in their homes.

For years, Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta have been advocating for an independent, legislated, and properly empowered seniors advocate. Manitoba will now be joining British Columbia in having a Seniors Advocate with real teeth to conduct monitoring and analysis of seniors’ services, and to make recommendations to address issues and make long-overdue changes to the way that care is provided. Unfortunately, the UCP government has consistently insisted there is no need for such an advocate here since cutting the position in their last term.

EDMONTON - Today Public Interest Alberta is releasing their Priorities for Change for Alberta Seniors. 

“Seniors in Alberta face a wide range of issues and challenges,” said Terry Price, President of Public Interest Alberta and Chair of the Seniors Task Force.  “As adult children care for aging parents and find the system impossible to navigate; as seniors whose spouses suffer with dementia are shuffled from one for-profit facility to another; or as Albertans living on fixed incomes make potentially life-threatening choices between rent, food, and medications, they experience firsthand the failure of successive provincial governments to honour the human rights of and to care for Alberta seniors.”

EDMONTON - Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta, the two advocacy organizations behind the campaign Alberta Seniors Deserve Better, have sent a letter to Jeremy Nixon, the newly-appointed Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services. The groups are demanding to meet with the minister to urgently address the state of continuing care. 

Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare are recognizing World Elder Abuse Awareness Day by calling again on the UCP Government to bring back a Seniors Advocate.

EDMONTON - “The UCP government continues to sputter in chaos, as elder abuse remains a real crisis facing Alberta seniors. They deserve better than empty rhetoric from this government,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “The UCP government needs to recognize Elder Abuse Awareness Day by taking action starting with creating an independent seniors advocate.”

Today, Public Interest Alberta and Friends of Medicare are recognizing Alberta Seniors’ Week by calling on the UCP Government to bring back a Seniors’ Advocate.

“Alberta seniors deserve better than empty rhetoric from this government,” said Bradley Lafortune, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Seniors in this province are calling for real action on health care, affordable prescriptions, and income security.”

“That’s why we are calling on this government to bring back an independent seniors advocate as a first step to supporting seniors to live in dignity,” said Chris Gallaway, Executive Director of Friends of Medicare. “Instead, this government has ignored the calls of seniors across Alberta and continued their reckless agenda of cuts and privatization.”

EDMONTON - Today, on the two year anniversary of the World Health Organization’s declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, a coalition of seniors’ advocacy organizations are launching a campaign demanding that the government legislate a Seniors’ Advocate, a role that the UCP axed early in their tenure in the legislature.

EDMONTON - Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta join organizations from civil society, labour, and senior citizens representing hundreds of thousands of Albertans speaking out against Bill 70: COVID Related Measures Act, which is expected to be voted on by the Legislative Assembly today. Twenty-four (24) organizations have signed an open letter to demand that this legislation not be passed into law because of the dangers it poses to Alberta seniors and their families. The letter was emailed to Premier Kenney, Minister of Health, Tyler Shandro and UCP MLA Richard Gotfried, the sponsor of this bill. The open letter will be tabled today in the Alberta Legislature by MLA Christina Grey, Critic for Labour and Immigration & Official Opposition House Leader.

The Government of Alberta has recently asked community stakeholders to provide feedback on which actions would improve the disgraceful state of continuing care in Alberta. Public Interest Alberta has responded to the Government’s request to help ensure that Albertans have a continuing care system that works!

March 11 was the one-year anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Public Interest Alberta, Friends of Medicare, the United Nurses of Alberta, and the Alberta Arts Action Group held a visual demonstration to commemorate the lives that didn't need to be lost, and to recognize the work that is yet to be done to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.