Western Standard - Meeting the needs of Alberta seniors living in lodges

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00:10:19.460 My name is Don Natchuk and I'm the current chair for the Greater Edmonton

00:10:24.280 Foundation Seniors Housing. And I want to, on behalf of the staff and the residents

00:10:30.520 and the Board of Directors, I'd like to welcome you all here to Otwell Lodge.

00:10:39.000 The Lodge program is a very important support and provides supportive options for our seniors.

00:10:43.720 And we're really pleased that the Minister and his government are here today

00:10:47.800 to continue in reviewing the services that we provide.

00:10:51.080 this means a lot to me it means more to me it means to me on a lot to me on three levels as a

00:10:57.180 matter of fact one as a citizen I'm very pleased to see that we are taking care of our seniors

00:11:02.320 it means a lot that we're doing that second as the chair of the of the GEF board directors

00:11:09.020 as the chair I'm very pleased to see that we're moving forward and improving our services on a

00:11:13.860 daily basis but guess what I also am very pleased to see this happening because on a personal level

00:11:20.000 I'm very pleased to see this because my mom lived in this exact lodge, and I'm so pleased to see that the minister is here continuing that wonderful service.

00:11:28.640 She said it changed her life, minister.

00:11:31.040 So thank you so much for what you're doing.

00:11:34.020 Jason Nixon was sworn in.

00:11:37.800 By the way, if you look at Mr. Nixon and I, people often confuse us that we may be related.

00:11:43.420 So just so you know, we are not.

00:11:45.240 We are not.

00:11:46.080 Jason Nixon was sworn in as the Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services on June 9, 2023.

00:11:54.080 He previously served as Minister of the Environment, Parks, Minister of Finance and President of the Treasury Board.

00:12:00.080 Jason Nixon was first elected as member of the Legislative Assembly for Rimby Rocky Mountain House Sundry,

00:12:06.080 May 5, 2015, re-elected on April 16, 2019, and again on May 29, 2023.

00:12:16.080 Prior to his service as an elected official, Mr. Nixon was a successful entrepreneur.

00:12:22.080 He was also the Executive Director at the Mustard Seed, where he spent several years running an addiction treatment facility.

00:12:29.080 This speaks volumes to the Minister's background in this area, and we're very proud to honour him today.

00:12:35.080 today mr. Nixon with different height requirements well thank you first of all

00:12:48.360 the GEF seniors housing and the Otwell place for hosting us today thank you so

00:12:53.440 much to see you here today it's a real pleasure to see so many people come out

00:12:57.360 for what I think is a very important announcement when it comes to housing in

00:13:01.300 general in our province, but particularly for senior housing in the province of Alberta.

00:13:06.520 Alberta's senior lodge program is actually the oldest social housing program in the province

00:13:11.720 of Alberta. There are over 10,000 lodge units across Alberta, and almost half of those are in

00:13:18.240 rural communities, like the communities that I call home, as well as, of course, in places like

00:13:21.880 Edmonton, where we are today. Senior lodges are integral to our communities to ensure seniors can

00:13:28.280 age in the communities of their choice remain close to their friends remain close to their

00:13:33.320 families and to the communities that they help build in my mandate letter from premier smith

00:13:39.000 i was asked to do the following work with senior lodge providers to undergo a planned review for

00:13:45.160 the purpose of expanding seniors lodges and facilities to keep up with the increased growth

00:13:50.200 and demand we need to know ultimately what works and what does not work in our lodge program

00:13:56.120 especially as our population ages and the demand for seniors housing continues to increase

00:14:01.640 and so i'm excited today to announce that the government of alberta is fulfilling this goal

00:14:06.200 we are convening a panel to thoroughly review the seniors lodge program ensuring it is

00:14:11.160 sustainable and remains a pillar of our community for generations to come this review will also look

00:14:16.920 into how we can best support the transition between lodges and continuing care with our

00:14:21.960 friends over in the department of health to ensure that we can continue to meet the needs of seniors

00:14:26.840 with when they need to access more care this panel will be composed of 11 members and will

00:14:32.920 be co-chaired by my friend emily brandon lunte and alberta seniors and community housing

00:14:37.800 corporation president arlene adamson both are here with me today i chose both of these individuals

00:14:43.640 to chair because first off emily lunte worked for my department in the housing division before he 0.52

00:14:49.240 went into elected office has an immense amount of experience when it comes to the work that

00:14:54.520 my department does on this important issue and i could think of no one better in caucus to advocate

00:14:59.560 and to be able to make sure that we end up with the best senior lodge program for as i said

00:15:03.800 generations to come and arlene is a huge resource for our department uh for me personally uh has

00:15:09.720 taught me more about this issue than anybody else in the province is somebody that we've come to

00:15:13.720 rely on uh for the important work that her organization does and the important work that

00:15:18.600 uh all of the organizations that are running our senior lodge program across the province do and i

00:15:23.000 could think of two no better people uh to be able to make sure that we get this right and to work

00:15:27.720 with that panel i will say that this uh the work of the panel will actually will commence this year

00:15:33.160 it is long overdue the last time the lodge review uh lodge program was reviewed was 2015 and there

00:15:38.440 there is a tremendous amount of things have changed between 2015 and now. The panel will hear

00:15:43.660 from Albertans and consult with a variety of stakeholders and take their feedback on what

00:15:47.920 the needs of the Lodge Program are, and I'm very excited to hear what that feedback is and then

00:15:52.720 ultimately to be able to work with the government to take action to secure a Lodge Program in the

00:15:57.820 future. This is part of our overall objectives when it comes to housing, which remains one of

00:16:02.640 the highest priorities of the government, whether it's from the emergency housing situations that

00:16:06.980 we see really prominently in the news right now around our homeless situations in our largest

00:16:11.620 cities, all the way to our seniors' housing. Housing remains a priority for our governments.

00:16:17.600 Why you see us continue to invest a significant amount of money in this issue, Albertans'

00:16:22.580 taxpayer money, to be able to ultimately make sure that we have enough homes for everybody,

00:16:26.440 that affordability remains within our market, and that we can keep our economy going and our

00:16:32.380 province continuing to be the fastest growing place in North America and the best place to

00:16:36.340 live, I think, in the world. It's why we have continued to invest $9 billion with all of our

00:16:42.180 partners inside affordable housing to be able to make 25,000 new units of housing in our province

00:16:47.660 by 2031. It's why we will continue down that road. But what is important as we work on this issue is

00:16:54.120 that we make sure that we don't lose sight of the important demographic of seniors inside our

00:16:58.420 community and the role that housing, and my department in particular, plays in making sure

00:17:03.300 that we have adequate seniors housing for, again, our entire province. And I do want to close on why

00:17:09.420 I think it's, we often say it's very important to get this right, obviously, for our seniors,

00:17:14.940 because they built our communities, they built this province, and we are enjoying the privileges

00:17:19.680 of living in the communities that they built right now. And it's important that we create a space for

00:17:23.560 them to be able to age in place in their communities and be around their friends and family.

00:17:28.540 But it's also actually important for our communities. I want to really stress this.

00:17:31.860 I always say back home, our community is better when grandma and grandpa is living with us in our community.

00:17:37.240 And if we do not get our lodge program right, then we can't have that happen.

00:17:40.980 And so it's very critical, not just for seniors, though that's certainly one of the main reasons why we're focused on this.

00:17:46.700 It's just critical for the future of our society and our province to be able to make sure that we can continue to live with those who built our community.

00:17:53.020 And so I thank you again for being here for this announcement.

00:17:55.720 Look forward to your questions in a moment.

00:17:56.960 But before we do that, I'd like to bring up one of our co-chairs, my friend, the Honourable Member from Leduc, Beaumont, MLA Brandon Lente.

00:18:12.060 Good morning, everyone. Not quite as tall as Minister Nixon, but we'll make do.

00:18:19.540 So thank you so much for being here and thank you Minister Nixon for that introduction and

00:18:26.260 for your incredible work leading this file. I know it's an extremely important issue and

00:18:32.420 we certainly appreciate all of your leadership and hard work. So as mentioned, my name is Brandon

00:18:39.220 Lunte and I'm the MLA for Leduc Beaumont. I'm very excited to co-chair the Seniors Lodge review panel

00:18:47.460 with Arlene Adamson from the Alberta Seniors and Community Housing Association.

00:18:53.460 I know Arlene has a long history of serving and advocating for seniors in the province,

00:18:59.700 and I look forward to working with her and the rest of the panel on this important review.

00:19:06.740 Supporting Alberta seniors is a key priority for our government, and the work of this panel

00:19:12.660 will enable the Seniors Lodge program to continue to play an important role in that support.

00:19:19.780 Since 1958, the Seniors Lodge program has been ingrained in many Alberta communities,

00:19:25.700 and our panel will engage stakeholders and listen to the voices of residents from across the province

00:19:31.540 to preserve this legacy. A key objective of the panel's mandate is to consider innovative ways

00:19:38.580 to make the most of existing senior large spaces and ensure that seniors can age gracefully in

00:19:44.660 their communities together we will strengthen and shape the future of the seniors large program

00:19:50.980 ensuring it continues to meet the evolving needs of seniors communities and housing providers so

00:19:58.260 thank you once again for for joining us here today and with that i'm happy to bring up the

00:20:02.740 the co-chair of the panel Arlene Adamson gradually gradually this might

00:20:15.680 goes down good morning everyone thank you for being here thank you Minister

00:20:20.020 Nixon I'm honored to support this work of your ministry and your priority you

00:20:25.500 have made it a personal commitment to help make sure that the lodge program

00:20:29.840 is reformed and revitalized for Albertans and the Lodge program is critical to Albertans and part of

00:20:36.880 the work of housing and affordable housing in our province. I'm honored to be able to co-chair this

00:20:44.240 with MLA Lunte. I'm excited given his depth of knowledge in the housing sector and his passion

00:20:49.920 for this work. It'll be an exciting opportunity to work with the committee members as well

00:20:54.960 who will represent both the depth of knowledge that's needed to inform the conversations and

00:21:00.720 the outcome of this report and recommendations and this review that will ultimately see legs

00:21:06.480 to improve the seniors housing across our communities the seniors lodge program is unique

00:21:11.200 to alberta and so it's difficult to compare us to other provinces alberta leads the way in

00:21:17.760 ensuring and has for decades that seniors have affordable housing in our community and it's an

00:21:22.640 affordable option for seniors who need accommodation and on-site services the lodge plays a critical

00:21:28.320 role in alberta across many municipalities and we recognize that the needs of seniors have evolved

00:21:34.160 and so too do we need to make sure that the program evolves particularly given the rising costs

00:21:41.200 and you know the evolution of aging and we need to ensure that people have safe and great places

00:21:46.080 to call home asha and our members are highly skilled at this work we believe the lodge review

00:21:51.440 is an excellent opportunity to ensure the program can continue to meet the needs of seniors given

00:21:56.400 one in five is projected to be over 65 so it's as minister said it's long overdue we're excited

00:22:02.400 that this ministry has made a commitment to this work and we're glad to have it underway

00:22:06.960 it's been an important thing that we've been advocating for for decades so many seniors call

00:22:13.040 lodges home we have some with us today in ges lodge here and they personally understand the

00:22:19.360 importance of evolving services as they age they live the reality of the importance of having

00:22:25.600 housing that you have a sense of community a sense of belonging and you can remain in community that

00:22:31.760 you have friends and and family outside but they also understand the very important factor that

00:22:36.560 it has to remain affordable and this lodge review will help to achieve that body of work and ensure

00:22:42.480 that it's the lodges remain a viable option for Albertans as the demands for housing and services

00:22:47.120 continue to grow over the next decades lodges operate in the majority of communities across

00:22:52.960 alberta and these communities are all different what works for rural and urban isn't exactly the

00:22:58.640 same and so it'll be important for us to look at that body of work and ensure that every community

00:23:02.720 is thriving and has what it needs for people to age successfully and for each lodge um and

00:23:08.480 community be to be viable to meet the diverse needs this review gives us a chance as well to

00:23:14.240 determine not only how Albertans who live in lodges want to see services evolve but also

00:23:18.880 Albertans who are looking forward to aging in their senior years what will they need in lodge

00:23:24.400 program to ensure that it is possible for people to age well in community this review is also an

00:23:30.960 opportunity for us to strengthen the partnership between municipalities and the government of

00:23:35.200 Alberta and the operators which are vital to continue to ensure that the lodge program is

00:23:40.960 successfully delivered in communities the lodge program is misunderstood it's thought to be

00:23:46.800 long-term care and let me make that clear it's not it is housing and it needs to be supported

00:23:51.680 with the right supports to be successful i couldn't be more excited you know as as both an

00:23:57.840 operator of this and a representative of all of our members who operate lodge program

00:24:01.840 we have a strong voice we will have great input to this review i know that we have experts out

00:24:08.080 there that will lean in and look for solutions and pave a pathway forward through this review

00:24:13.360 to ensure that the ministry has what it needs to be able to help execute the program in a new way

00:24:20.240 i would also be remiss if i didn't also say not only is this necessary for seniors and people

00:24:24.800 who are aging in our communities it's also necessary because the lodge program is a

00:24:28.800 significant workforce of people who come to work every day to support seniors as they age to make

00:24:36.480 sure we're running great buildings to make sure that that people are connected and so this review

00:24:42.480 will make an impact on our staff across the communities and the volunteers who come into

00:24:46.720 the lodge program as well so as the minister said it's great for community we need to be

00:24:51.200 interconnected in the lodge we need to make sure that it's recognized as a vital part of the

00:24:56.320 community and this is an exciting time for our ministry asha is well positioned with our members

00:25:03.360 to support the review to support the implementation and we know our members will contribute with

00:25:08.160 ideas and solutions to ensure the continued success of the lodge program that has played a

00:25:13.040 vital role for 60 years and we know it'll be set up for the next 60 years to do just the

00:25:18.240 same for the future of albertans thank you very much we'll now move on to questions from the

00:25:24.640 media we'll start with reporters here in the room and then move to the phone lines please state your

00:25:29.440 name and your outlet and we'll do one question and one follow-up first question please hi it's

00:25:35.600 jeremy thompson with ctv edmonton uh minister uh appreciating this review is focused specifically

00:25:41.200 on the lodge system i'm wondering uh if there's sort of scope in in government to look at sort of

00:25:46.320 retirement living in in general there's been a lot of concern about um you know the life lease

00:25:51.440 system people looking for more regulations and assistance there can you can say anything about

00:25:55.200 that? I think it's an excellent question and one of my objectives with this review is to make sure

00:26:01.380 that we don't just limit it to the work that we do in seniors community and social services but

00:26:05.540 we recognize the interlinks between other departments when it comes to making sure

00:26:10.880 that seniors can live in successful communities. Ultimately our responsibility as Arlene just said

00:26:17.120 is to create home, to create a community, to be able to make sure that seniors can live in that

00:26:21.420 community and have good quality of life but we we do that with the support particularly of

00:26:25.660 albert health services when it comes to things like continuing care uh and um on other rules

00:26:31.260 around rent issues which actually comes from the service alberta particularly when it comes to life

00:26:35.100 lease which i know minister now he's having some conversations about all those issues can be

00:26:39.340 discussed during this process and we will be sharing what we learned even if it's not exactly

00:26:43.820 about our lodge program with those other departments afterwards and minister lagrange and i

00:26:48.700 through the processes taking place with the transition around health which includes the

00:26:53.580 transition around continuing care which i sit on the integration council for my deputy minister sits

00:26:57.980 on hs board for this reason now is to be able to make sure that all that conversation is happening

00:27:02.540 once and we're looking at this as a big picture that said there's a lot of work specifically just

00:27:07.500 to do on our lodge program and we want to make sure that we're getting our end of it right but

00:27:12.620 we do recognize that we have partner ministries and certainly that can be discussed during this

00:27:16.380 process and i've got to ask you sort of follow up uh on uh what you announced yesterday with the

00:27:22.060 navigation center um you know we've seen already sort of some advocates in the homeless space come

00:27:27.180 up critical of of that decision you know they're they're concerned that you know police are sort

00:27:32.060 of leading the way they say you know social services should be more sort of directly involved

00:27:36.860 as well as more concerns about you know the the government's uh sort of recovery oriented

00:27:42.140 system rather than more harm reduction approach? Just what do you make of sort of the early

00:27:47.320 criticism and how did it go yesterday also? Well, let me start with how it went yesterday. I mean,

00:27:52.520 it's, you know, it's day one and more of the encampment process from the Edmonton Police

00:27:58.300 Service needs to take place for us to get to something that would resemble a statistical

00:28:01.780 answer. But about half of the individuals who left encampments yesterday interacted with our

00:28:06.540 navigations, sorry, half of the individuals that were interacted with by the Edmonton Police

00:28:10.760 service in our department yesterday encampments went to the navigation

00:28:13.580 center and ultimately would go on to receive services within our social

00:28:18.860 services system the first individual through the system at first was

00:28:21.920 hesitant to come afterwards said to all of the staff that she was so very

00:28:25.640 thankful that she was able to come and had no idea that there was this level

00:28:29.060 of resources available to her in the province and so I look forward to being

00:28:33.140 able to tell some more of those stories in the coming days once we have a little

00:28:35.780 bit more time to see how the center is working I've seen some of those

00:28:40.220 criticisms first of all my department is not law enforcement my department is

00:28:45.720 responsible for the social services sector and so with the images that we've

00:28:50.120 seen coming out of encampments we have a responsibility to our workers and

00:28:54.080 certainly those are they're not going to be the first point of contact into

00:28:57.400 areas with weapons like we've seen and some of the violent circumstances that

00:29:00.740 we're hearing about but they are on site with the Edmonton Police Service

00:29:03.960 immediately right there with with a bus that can warm people up and the ability

00:29:08.240 to take their belongings and get them to a safer location so i think the social services department

00:29:14.000 is responding in a very very big way but obviously is not trying to be the law enforcement uh end of

00:29:18.800 things because it's not our job and uh and i'm i'm quite impressed frankly with how fast they've been

00:29:25.200 able to respond to this and i think that we're going to see some real positive things come out

00:29:29.280 of this for people uh as for the conversation about again whether encampments are the right

00:29:34.720 way forward as i've said the last several days the deaths of individuals in these encampments

00:29:42.000 speak for themselves people have burnt to death uh people have uh are freezing people are losing

00:29:49.680 limbs because they're freezing and sleeping outside we know there's violence taking place

00:29:53.920 in these locations we know the gangs have taken over many of these locations there's sexual

00:29:58.160 violence taking place in these locations uh they are not a safe place for vulnerable people in fact

00:30:04.000 vulnerable people are being victimized in these locations and i have no doubt that our emergency

00:30:09.680 services sector uh shelters our social services sector is a more appropriate place to get those 0.97

00:30:15.120 individuals help and we're going to continue down uh that road i will also point out that most of

00:30:19.760 the commentary that we see do not appear to be from people in encampments they appear to be from

00:30:25.600 organizations who a court of king's bench judge just said the other day when throwing out their

00:30:30.000 case we're not advocates of this population and we're not experienced within this population so

00:30:36.480 i will continue down that road harm reduction i mean most of that question should go obviously

00:30:41.200 to minister williams but there's overlap with my department mr williams being the minister of

00:30:46.000 addictions and mental health uh our government has been clear we've ran on this in multiple

00:30:51.040 elections that we do not believe the approach that you see in places like hastings and bc

00:30:55.840 is the approach that our our government or our province wants to take the majority of albertans

00:31:00.240 agree with us this has been campaigned on and i can tell you it's a very popular answer when i

00:31:04.480 give it things like town halls because we don't believe putting poison into people's bodies is

00:31:10.160 going to help cure uh people of the terrible disease of addiction instead we are focused on

00:31:16.000 creating environments where true recovery can happen i'm proud to be part of a government's

00:31:20.320 made 10 000 more addiction treatment spaces continues to work on things like addiction

00:31:25.200 recovery centers and is focused on recovery ultimately. And you're right, there's a difference

00:31:31.700 in view. There are some, including the official opposition and some on Edmonton City Council,

00:31:35.740 who would like us to go back down that road of harm reduction. We disagree. And that's not where

00:31:41.100 we're going. And I think our government has been very, very clear about this. And I could tell you,

00:31:45.220 you know, the other thing I find interesting about this is how excited other jurisdictions

00:31:48.100 in this country are about what's happening in Alberta. I mean, Minister Williams, I keep getting

00:31:52.080 speaking requests all over the world to come talk about what is taking place in our province i think

00:31:57.600 we should be so excited that we are part of a province that is going to reach out to vulnerable

00:32:01.360 people and say we can make you better and we will not accept that continuing to take poison and

00:32:06.400 ultimately costing you your life is an acceptable solution to this problem so um i hope i answered

00:32:11.760 your question sure tried thank you next question please well how much will this review of this

00:32:17.600 news lodge program cost and will the results or final report associated with this review be made

00:32:23.200 public um i don't i actually don't have the very specifics on the on the actual work of the panel

00:32:29.200 it would be minimal and it's certainly not something that we've had to go ask for new

00:32:33.760 money for from treasury boards would be being absorbed within my current budget the real cost

00:32:38.080 will come from the results of the panel and so as they come back and provide us the recommendations

00:32:43.200 that's where the serious conversation will come from you know what money is uh you know what the

00:32:48.320 cost of those recommendations will be uh what implementation would look like and that's when

00:32:52.240 there would be uh serious conversations coming forward on uh money um the we will certainly uh

00:32:58.800 be making uh the results of what we hear back uh from the panel public uh and ultimately we'll be

00:33:05.200 coming forward with a with a plan to be able to uh implement what we hear and be very clear on

00:33:11.040 where we're headed with the lodge program for the next several decades okay and i forgot to mention

00:33:14.880 my name is madeline coming through cdc hello madeline we know that albert's population has

00:33:19.280 been growing recently and yet the pace of growth is faster in urban and suburban areas than it is

00:33:24.240 in rural and as you mentioned a lot of these lodges more than half are in rural areas and

00:33:28.640 some are struggling to fill vacant units is the government prepared to disproportionately spend

00:33:34.720 more proportionally spend more on small rural lodges where seniors may want to stay um given

00:33:41.200 that the growth is faster in urban areas where do you see the future for some of these lodges that

00:33:45.840 are struggling and that say they need more support well this is why we need to have the review first

00:33:50.240 of all because everything you say is correct as far as growth rates and the different circumstances

00:33:54.560 between rural and urban and so we'll one of the things that i'm most looking forward to is a

00:33:58.640 suggestion on how to deal with the fact that lots of our aging infrastructure in rural alberta is

00:34:03.280 likely going to need to be renovated in a different way to provide accommodations that's more

00:34:07.600 applicable to modern seniors a lot of that infrastructure was built before i was born

00:34:12.240 and so it was just built in a different time and for a different uh a different process and so we'll

00:34:17.600 we'll see what that looks like i do want to be clear that this government will continue to stand

00:34:21.680 rural alberta alberta i am a rural alberton uh and my seniors deserve just as much as urban seniors

00:34:28.480 to be have a chance to be able to live and age gracefully in the communities that they built

00:34:34.320 and rural alberta provides a tremendous amount of the gdp and other things that we have

00:34:41.680 uh in our province so we have to be able to make sure that those communities can

00:34:45.360 can can continue to go forward uh no different than edmonton or calgary and they're going to

00:34:49.280 require different needs the reality is though that we do have to have a serious conversation

00:34:54.240 about how we use rural senior lodge infrastructure

00:34:58.100 that already exists,

00:34:59.100 and how we build rural senior lodges in the future

00:35:01.840 to fit with the demographics

00:35:03.080 that we are seeing come forward right now

00:35:04.560 with the aging population.

00:35:06.220 We'll now move on to questions from the phone line.

00:35:08.320 Operator, can I get the first caller, please?

00:35:12.200 Kyle Moore, Kix FM.

00:35:16.040 Hi there, my question here is for Minister Nix.

00:35:19.340 And certainly we have touched on the fact that

00:35:22.640 You know, in a lot of smaller rural communities, a lot of the seniors' lodges there are kind of older buildings that probably haven't had a little bit of work done on them in a while.

00:35:33.120 How much will this sort of panel take into consideration the fact that some of these buildings are a little up there in years?

00:35:41.100 Again, the condition of buildings, how we handle and use that infrastructure is certainly on a table for a conversation going forward.

00:35:47.240 At the same time, we're not going to fully just wait for the panel recommendations specifically on that.

00:35:54.200 We're already taking action.

00:35:55.640 My department this year is spending $110 million on capital maintenance and renewal.

00:36:00.620 I announced $16 million this summer to be added to our existing budget when it came to capital maintenance and renewal

00:36:06.480 with a focus on rejuvenating or renovating units that were offline or incapable of being used to help house people

00:36:15.720 and to get them online quickly that was very successful i believe that came with 400 new

00:36:19.720 units coming back online we made an announcement about that just before christmas so definitely on

00:36:24.380 the table one of the things that has to be talked about but we are already moving to deal with that

00:36:28.220 capital maintenance issue and i hope i'll have more to say after we put the budget through the

00:36:33.080 legislature here in a couple months about that issue do you have a follow-up yes and a bit of

00:36:39.640 a follow-up to that uh you mentioned earlier that uh this this review also kind of look at some of

00:36:44.880 the transitions between lodges and continuing care homes and some of that continuing care stuff can

00:36:49.820 also be a little tricky to find in smaller rural communities. Will there be kind of some work

00:36:54.660 involved to get a little bit with the health departments on that and try to help to

00:36:58.520 see what if the help with those getting those options available for seniors who may need that?

00:37:04.400 For sure there will be. I mean a lot of that work is taking place with the fact that

00:37:07.860 me and my department are part of the transition work that's taking place in health around

00:37:12.000 continuing care for exactly this reason my deputy minister sits on alberta health services board now

00:37:18.160 along with the deputy minister of mental health and addictions and the deputy minister of health

00:37:22.240 specifically to be able to make sure that the work that we're doing is being discussed as how it

00:37:27.280 relates with health and same as the work that i'm doing when i sit on the integration council with

00:37:31.760 minister lagrange lots of our lodge facilities are actually in the same facility as continuing

00:37:36.640 care facilities particularly in rural alberta so of course we have to have a conversation about

00:37:41.120 what that connection looks like and we are we will continue to make sure that health is part

00:37:46.160 of our conversations on the direction that we're headed and of course on the direction that they're

00:37:50.080 headed with us focused on community us focused on building housing and community and transportation

00:37:56.400 mechanisms and other social services mechanisms and communities to make sure that seniors can age

00:38:01.760 in that community and of course health focused on providing the health services in that very

00:38:05.600 same community. Do you have a follow-up? Oh, sorry, next question, please.

00:38:14.560 Catherine Grudowski, Alberta today. Hi, thanks for taking my question. I do have a

00:38:20.320 follow-up kind of on that. So obviously we don't know what that continuing

00:38:25.280 care restructuring Albert health restructuring looks like right now. So I'm hearing that you're

00:38:30.960 kind of going to be the in-between between this panel and the the continuing care review work or

00:38:38.080 will it be your deputy minister or both or will there be somebody else will be designated how

00:38:42.560 does how does the communication work i guess well when the continuing or sorry when the health

00:38:47.200 transformation was announced it was made clear that there'd be four new organizations one of

00:38:51.440 them being continuing care uh that continuing care organization is being stood up through a process

00:38:56.960 that was laid out by minister lagrange which involved an integration council that is made up

00:39:02.160 of minister williams the minister of mental health and addiction myself as the minister of senior

00:39:06.000 social community and social services and minister lagrange as the minister of health and some

00:39:13.600 members at large who are responsible to oversee that work and so as that organization gets stood

00:39:18.640 up they're obviously going to be working with alberta health services who provides about 49

00:39:22.880 of the continuing care services in our province and then 51 who's provided by other agencies

00:39:28.080 in the province to have a conversation about what that new continuing care organization will look

00:39:32.160 like and certainly because i'm on the integration council and my deputy is on the integration

00:39:36.560 council and on alberta health services board our role will be to communicate on behalf of

00:39:40.480 our stakeholders in our department and then to take back any information we're receiving

00:39:46.080 through that process back to our department to make sure that we get that right this panel will

00:39:50.240 not be working on the transition process they will be providing information about

00:39:56.000 where they think we need to go on the lodge program the challenges certainly where between

00:40:01.360 continuing care and the lodge program providing that information back to us to which we will then

00:40:05.200 put into that overall process as government come to cabinet with a proposal where we're going with

00:40:09.440 the lodge program in the future and we will come out and announce that and then implement it follow

00:40:14.800 up yeah and and on for this panel um i'm wondering if there's anybody who is actually a resident of

00:40:22.400 the lodge and how residents can give their feedback as part of this work um i actually uh

00:40:29.120 there'll be 11 people on the panel i was looking to see if i have the names here so i don't want

00:40:32.160 to see them all i don't have them up here on the podium with me and i don't want to miss one but

00:40:36.400 catherine we will have my press secretary send you the names uh there'll be 11 individuals on

00:40:42.080 the panel uh that the part of the panel's responsibility would be to reach out to albertans

00:40:46.240 they will certainly be reaching out to residents of lodges during that process and providing their

00:40:50.880 feedback as well as providers employees everybody who interacts with our lodge system and i'm

00:40:56.480 looking forward to seeing what brandon and arlene and their team come back with next caller please

00:41:03.280 dan singleton the albertans

00:41:04.800 oh hi minister dan it's good to hear a rural alberton on here all right yeah i'm doing pretty

00:41:13.060 good how's the weather back home thanks a lot it's great good um i'm wondering uh we recently

00:41:19.180 had a uh a criminal charge uh at one of the lodges in the region here um results in charges

00:41:26.920 i wonder if this panel is going to be looking at security and safety of residents uh as one of its

00:41:32.820 mandates everything associated with how lodges operate and concerns that anybody has with lodges

00:41:41.020 on the table for this panel i i do want to say when it comes to elders abuse it's a very real

00:41:45.840 issue and something that our province has taken seriously invested millions of dollars in and

00:41:52.800 we're we're going to continue that work with or without the panel recommendations but we're not

00:41:57.420 limiting the panel to be able to provide any advice if they find out some information on that

00:42:02.380 issue i can't speak to the specifics on that issue as you know dan just because that one's before the

00:42:06.300 courts and law enforcement's involved but elder abuse is real which is why our government continues

00:42:10.780 to invest uh in that very important issue do you have a follow-up okay follow yeah follow you um

00:42:18.300 you're feeling uh is that the security and safety of residents is being adequately uh taken care of

00:42:23.980 at this point in our lodges no that's that's not exactly what i said dan what i said was i uh i

00:42:30.700 i'm not waiting for the panel to come back with any recommendations if there's needs to deal with

00:42:36.620 elder abuse issues and or security issues inside our lodges we would take immediate action already

00:42:42.300 based on any circumstance they're taking place and we already have which is why we've been

00:42:46.060 investing in that issue going forward so i'm not saying that everything's perfect i can't

00:42:49.980 speak specifically to that issue what i'm saying is that the primary responsibility of this panel

00:42:54.220 will not be to deal with that nor would we wait to take action to protect our residents

00:42:58.700 while we were waiting for the panel to report. And that's all the questions we have for today.

00:43:03.260 Okay, thank you very much guys.

Western Standard - January 19, 2024

Meeting the needs of Alberta seniors living in lodges

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