Aging securely in Ward 9

The years following retirement should be golden and fulfilling. Our task in government at all three levels in Ontario is to ensure that seniors have the opportunity to get out of their homes and mingle with their peers; be able to get around easily and economically; participate in community activities and groups; have the facilities and supports they need to live in their homes as long as they remain comfortable and able to look after themselves; and be able to find affordable and modern senior accommodation when the time comes to live among their peers and friends in a managed care setting close to the community they know.

Mississauga needs to work with the Province to maintain and strengthen a secure regulatory regime to ensure fair treatment of seniors by organizations that serve them. Mississauga needs to work with the federal government to obtain the funding seniors and the city will need to expand and maintain senior-friendly facilities and supports  within the city. And Mississauga needs to continue to review its own land use policies to enable buildings and other facilities to be built, refurbished and maintained to allow older residents to be able to transition from their own residences to managed care settings within their community.

As an MPP in the decade of the 2000s, I worked within the Ontario Seniors Secretariat, then the forerunner to today’s Ministry of Seniors Affairs, to help establish the first regulatory framework to govern the operations of seniors residences and long-term care homes. I know how to seek the right type of agreement with another level of government. I learned where to go to find public funding. I worked with many of the major private sector entities that serve the growing seniors sector.

And finally, along the way, I became a senior myself, and began the journey that so many of my former neighbours in the Meadowvale neighbourhood where I spent my 30s to my 50s shared as they themselves now pass through their 60s and beyond. My consultations with seniors were always made more productive when I brought Merlin, our senior cat, who would wander about the room, greeting attendees, and usually settling in somebody’s arms for a long cuddle. Merlin is now past age 19½, and can’t be as active as he once was.

Thinking ahead toward 2030

• We need more medical services here in the northwest Mississauga corner. Mississauga needs to work with developers as they refurbish commercial and retail space to build offices suitable for clinics and for specialists to locate their offices;
• I’ll work with our Mississauga paramedics to ensure they have the resources to respond rapidly at the very moment you need them most;
• We will have regular get-togethers, both in-person and over the web, to explore how our Ward 9 seniors can find out about, apply for, and benefit from every public and private sector benefit offered to them, and for which they may be eligible. See the video above for two such examples;
• Day surgery for procedures that used to require overnight stays no longer needs to be performed in a hospital. Surgical and treatment procedures that seniors require can be performed closer to their communities. Industrial space can be rezoned and redeveloped for medical arts uses to attract the service providers, and offer seniors what they need closer to where they live.

There are more of us seniors than ever before. We will be a major factor in government as seniors, just as we were as baby boomers. I know how to get things done for seniors. My work in bringing in capital and operating funds for the Trillium Health Partners hospital new facilities we now use shows it. Much of the modern expansion of the hospital, especially the Credit Valley campus, were built on my watch in the provincial government, with funds I lobbied hard to bring to Mississauga.

What can you do to help me help seniors?

1. Vote for Bob Delaney! Elect me as your next City Councillor in Ward 9. Help get me working for you;
2. Put a lawn sign on your property. Click or tap here if you live in Mississauga Ward 9 (Meadowvale and Central Erin Mills) to request a lawn sign;
3. Donate. Corporations are no longer allowed to donate to political campaigns, and that’s a good thing. There is now a generous rebate for donors to municipal campaigns, similar to the federal and provincial tax credit. A full 75 percent of your first $300 in donations comes back to you after the election. Click or tap here to make a donation to the Bob Delaney Campaign.

Bonus information

• As the COVID vaccines allow more of us to intermingle more freely, do you have the identification you need as an older adult to verify who you are, where you live, and what you are entitled to? Many seniors do not. Click or tap here for more information. For example, expired or outdated identification can prevent you from boarding a flight, or opening a bank account;
• The Province of Ontario has long published a comprehensive volume for older adults called A Guide to Programs and Services for Seniors in Ontario. It’s a free download. It belongs on every tablet and laptop of every senior in Ontario, and covers programs at the federal, provincial and many municipal offerings.

Questions?

Send me an e-mail. Click or tape here. Those who worked with me as an MPP know that I did answer my mail and return my calls.