It’s not easy to respond in small form
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an open letter to Algoma-Manitoulin NDP MPP Michael Mantha and has been printed here at the author’s request.
Re: Your Report Card Survey Received Yesterday
Mr. Mantha:
I am using email to respond to your “Report Card Survey” as, frankly, it is difficult to explain things in a logical and meaningful way on a small form, but I understand the reasoning behind these mail outs.
The subjects you address in the mail out are indeed valid to many residents of the north. However, speaking from a personal standpoint, and bringing in comments from friends and acquaintances, there are a few items which seem to arise in conversation more often, and you have touched on a couple in your mail out.
Seniors Housing
Elliot Lake is experiencing an aging population, like any other municipality in the province. However, given Elliot Lake became a “retirement community” years ago, making retirees our largest demographic, we are somewhat ahead of the “age curve.” As you know, many existing seniors depend on OAS, CPP, and perhaps, meager company pensions. Thus, affordability becomes a prime factor. While many seniors would prefer to live in single homes, some, unfortunately cannot do the things needed for basic upkeep as they age, but, cannot afford to pay others for even such routine things as grass cutting, snow clearing, or routine furnace maintenance, to name a few. For many, this means moving to an apartment, but in Elliot Lake, some of those units which were provided to the city when the mines closed, have become less and less competitive with comparable units in locations which have many more conveniences and necessities (such as medical facilities). Factor in also that most, if not all, apartment units here are early vintage, with less than adequate insulation and inefficient windows, while being electrically heated with tenants responsible for the hydro bill, and we all know where these costs have gone and will continue to go. In short, Elliot Lake, and I suspect many other Northern communities, are in definite need of some various levels of affordable seniors housing.
I say “various levels” as some seniors still require some assistance in order to continue to live almost independent lives. I’m sure you are familiar with the concept of assisted living, which permits seniors to live happily on their own, while being able to avail themselves of assistance for things such as shopping, minor housekeeping, occasional meals when cooking becomes a temporary burden, and, in some cases, just a little company from someone who cares. Assisted Living Accommodation is badly needed.
This brings me to the next level, full service nursing homes. Last reports I read cited some tens of thousands of bed shortages for full time or respite nursing care for seniors (or disabled) and nowhere is this shortage more obvious than in the North. Facilities locally are, with one exception, not even considered as fully registered and regulated nursing homes, but fall into the retirement home category, although they attempt, and to a degree, do a good job, but waiting lists are sometimes years long. There is no question of a desperate and growing need for Full Service Nursing Homes here and elsewhere in the North.
Wait, on the subject of seniors housing, I’m not done. I’m sure you would agree that anyone deserves the right to pass on with dignity and as comfortably as humanly possible. The local hospital has one palliative care room, but in a town with perhaps one of the “oldest demographic populations” in the province, one room does not even begin to fill the need. Some terminal patients are able to receive both minor nursing and volunteer palliative care in their homes, but some need much more, on a 24/7 basis, so they are forced to take needed beds in our only hospital, where full time professional nursing care is available. Elliot Lake and surrounding area has a growing need for a full service hospice. We took years of encouraging people to come here to live and enjoy their lives until the end, and yet, as they age, assistance becomes more scarce, health care practitioners are hard to come by, there are waiting lists years long for those who can no longer live on their own, and when the end comes closer, the best care they can get is a sterile hospital room, cared for by nurses who are already over burdened, and comforted as much as possible, by concerned family and dedicated volunteers. Not a bright looking future for those of us who see we are not immortal.
Now I’m done as far as seniors housing is concerned, but I’m far from done. More to come.
Keith Moyer
Elliot Lake
