Home Care – we need more action, fewer excuses
Susan Eng blogs for the Health Council of Canada
The health care system serves us best when it helps us live our lives how and where we want even when we have medical challenges. People want to stay at home as long as possible and need comprehensive community-based care to keep them out of institutions. A bonus in these times of austerity is that the system stands to save billions. Read more
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Ontario Minister for Seniors Linda Jeffrey’s Address to CARP
Minister Jeffrey discusses new Retirement Homes Act
Dear CARP Members,
I received some very exciting news just recently. My son called from Calgary to tell me I’m going to be a grandmother later this year. This was a much anticipated announcement because Kevin and Paige have dreamed of starting a family ever since they got married two years ago. Read more
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Bill 2, an Act to amend the Taxation Act, 2007 to implement a healthy homes renovation tax credit
CARP submission to Ontario's Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs
CARP is calling for a new vision for aging at home that addresses the diversity of needs and challenges that Canadians may experience that also contributes towards building a sustainable healthcare system. CARP’s new vision of aging at home requires a commitment to sustainable funding and standards for an integrated system of continuing care that meets the variety of needs and challenges of all Canadians as they age.
As a step in the right direction, Bill 2 – the Ontario Healthy Homes Renovation Tax Credit Act – has the potential to make it safer and easier for Ontarians to age at home, while reducing costs to Ontario’s healthcare system. Bill 2 also represents an opportunity to build on the promises delivered in Ontario’s 2012 budget. Read more
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CARP New Brunswick Meets with Minister of Social Development
Seniors groups team up to write submission and sway the Minister
CARP New Brunswick met with five other senior’s groups, Department of Health Officials and the Minister of Social Development today to discuss the issues that affect the province’s seniors. Read more
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Susan Eng Returns to CBC’s Power and Politics; Explains the Impact the OAS Changes will Have on Younger Canadians
Video
Susan Eng Returns to CBC’s Power and Politics; Explains the Impact the OAS Changes will Have on Younger Canadians. Read more
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Old Age Security changes to have far-reaching effects
Seniors in low-income bracket may need to turn to welfare, experts say
It’s unlikely changes to Old Age Security announced in the recent federal budget will convince anyone to work longer, experts say, but the same changes could force some seniors on to provincial welfare rolls if they turn 65 and are physically unable to keep working.
Those who are 50 years old or younger today will need to save an extra $13,000 in today’s dollars, just to catch up if they want to retire at age 65. Read more
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Well-pensioned MPs won’t have to worry about OAS age change to 67
Among those who don’t have to worry are federal politicians, whose gold-plated pensions ensure they will be well positioned to retire before age 65 anyway. MPs presently qualify for a pension after six years in office and can start collecting at age 55. Flaherty did hint at MP pension reforms in the near future but you can be sure MPs won’t be sweating the change in OAS eligibility the way average Canadians might be. Read more
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A fairer drug system for Ontario seniors (Media Release)
CARP calls on government to use ODB savings to bring in more comprehensive care for seniors
Ontario is asking the five per cent of seniors with the highest incomes to pay more of their own prescription drug costs – so the province can invest in more home care and supports for all seniors.
The Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) program helps all seniors with the cost of their prescription drugs. All seniors are eligible for the ODB regardless of their income level. Read more
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How Much Regulatory Protection do Investors Need from the Financial Sector?
Can we tust the financial sector to appoint their own third party mediators
Today workplace pensions are no longer the norm and the Federal government is pushing future retires to invest their savings with the private sector – it seems like we need consumer protection more than ever before.
Although there is yet a glimmer of hope left for a National/Canadian Securities Regulator, for the time being the project will have to be shelved because the Supreme Court of Canada nixed it, saying it encroached on provincial autonomy.
To make matters worse, TD and Royal Bank have parted with Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments and taken their funding with them. Now, OBSI says it may have to close up shop entirely. Read more
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Previous Issues of CARP Action Online
CARP Post-Budget Poll Report
CARP members are weigh in again on the OAS
Strong majorities of members disagree with both the budget overall and the raising of the age of eligibility for OAS, and twice as many will vote against the government as will vote for it because of these issues.
The majority agree there is no good reason to change OAS and that the government’s promise to reimburse the provinces for the missing funds is not a good idea, primarily because OAS is seen as a pension, not a government payout and there is no taste for applying for what is seen as ‘welfare’. Reducing the claw back limit from $69,000 is seen as a better idea than raising the eligibility age. Those who take a position on the schedule of the age change say it is appropriate. Read more
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CARP Members on Hockey and the Kid’s Big Comeback
The CARP Poll does Canada's national pastime
CARP members are more fond than is usual of hockey, and as many as one third watched a single NHL game (Sidney Crosby’s first comeback in November, 2011), awareness of Sidney Crosby is universal and close to half say they will watch at least part of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Read more
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Financial Advisers Flunk Undercover Sting
A new study finds advisers often put client interests second to their own
By now, you may have realized that you aren’t always the most rational manager of your money. Chasing returns. Buying into bubbles. Selling into troughs. Keeping too much in cash or company stock. Heck, even if you keep a textbook, well-diversified portfolio of low-fee index funds, you’ve still probably felt tempted over the last month or so to buy Apple at $600. (You may turn out to be right in retrospect; that won’t make it rational.) Read more
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OBSI and the National Securities Regulator’s Demise
Recent news from the banking and investment world suggests that finding yourself on the wrong side of a financial dispute will become increasingly problematic.
In December of 2011, the Supreme Court disallowed the federal government’s plans for a national securities regulator (NSR) and now, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI), Canada’s banking ombudsman, is struggling for survival. Read more
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Caregiver’s Diary: Life At Serenity Towers
My father has to find his own way to good decisions, but they become increasingly elusive as he gets older.
Tomorrow will be a difficult day as I will be talking to him about his HOUSE IN THE MARITIMES. He left it before Christmas with a realtor trying to sell it at his vastly inflated price. Unbeknownst to him I have been paying someone to walk through the house twice a week to check on heat and water, and to change up the lights and to keep the mailbox and front step tidy. I have also been paying a man to come and clear the snow. Soon the same man will be paid by me to cut the grass. Read more
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Ask the Doctor Anthology: Dr. Mailis-Gagnon’s Columns
Catch on columns you might have missed!
By now, faithful CARP Action Online reader will be well acquainted with our resident pain expert: Dr. Angela Mailis Gagnon. She is the Director of the Comprehensive Pain Program and a Senior Investigator at Toronto Western Hospital’s Krembil Neuroscience Centre as well as the Chair of ACTION Ontario. Read more
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Ask the Doctor: Pain, your car and your wallet: What do they have in common?
Any Progress? Not much to report!
You must think that this is a very strange title for an article on chronic pain by a pain doctor. However, you will soon realize that there is a very strong connection between pain, your wallet and your car. Read more
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Common Securities Regulator Post-Budget Update
A glimmer of hope for national securities regulation
As part of the initiative to establish a Canadian securities regulator, in May 2010 the Government referred the proposed Canadian Securities Act to the Supreme Court of Canada for an opinion as to whether Parliament has the constitutional authority to enact the proposed legislation. On December 22, 2011, the Supreme Court determined that the proposed Act as drafted was not constitutionally valid under the general branch of the federal power to regulate trade and commerce. The Government of Canada respects this decision and will act in accordance with it. Read more
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Licensing of Ontario retirement homes begins
As of this week, homes will have to abide by the new Retirement Homes Act
Investigators are using new provincial licensing rules to target 50 retirement homes in Ontario suspected of elder abuse and neglect.
The homes already face serious complaints and must prove they can care for seniors before getting one of Ontario’s new retirement-home licences, says Mary Beth Valentine, CEO of the Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority. Read more
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Seniors in need, caregivers in distress: What are the home care priorities for seniors in Canada?
A summary of the new Health Council of Canada Report
Currently, where homecare is offered, the number of hours of care that are provided are often capped. As a result, informal caregivers often have to pick up the slack. This means that the average hours of care provided by family caregivers has to increase significantly as a seniors’ needs increase. And yet the same increase does not take place in the public sector. This leaves caregivers to take on considerable responsibility and stress from caring for seniors with the highest level of need. Read more
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