I attended the CARP mayoral candidate debate and questioned Mayor Bigger as to why after four years he could not return my call.
I explained that I had met with him prior to the election, and outlined my concerns with senior care and used my Aunt Mable as an example. He appeared genuinely concerned as I explained that there was an overcrowding issue, and limited options when a greater level of care was needed. I gave him a $500 donation with the belief that he was an honest man who would do right by our city and seniors in general.
Not only did he not return my calls, he had his assistant inform me that it was a provincial matter and in turn my local MPP told me that there wasn't anything she could do.
In response to my question, Mayor Bigger stumbled through a response that included “upgrading rooms.” Decor was not my concern, it was the fact that some seniors were being housed four to a room. Most of them had a TV going, fridge humming, bed, dresser, wheelchair and possibly a chair from home.
In many instances, one of the residents were in their final stages of life, and the others are left to bear witness to the process and family grieving. There is no privacy or dignity for any of them.
I could not see my aunt having to stay in this overcrowded room and was given the option of a single room that housed two people. In addition, with the basic cost of the room, I was required to pay an additional $600 including the government basic rate paid for a senior citizen without any independent means. It was my hope that she would be able to get into St. Gabriel's Villa. She was second on “the list” when she entered Falconbridge Extendicare, and when she died two years later, she was 27th on the same list. I have to reiterate that there were no other options.
Mayor Bigger replied that he was always concerned when seniors “decline” a room, and in that case, I am inviting Mayor Bigger to spend the rest of the election week in one of these rooms. His quality of care and comfort should not supersede residents who once worked, ran the city, raised families, and paid taxes.
It was clearly far easier to ignore this issue rather than to accept my offer of assistance in making the process fair and legitimate. The governments — municipal and provincial — involved in this warehousing of our senior citizens should be made to be accountable to the taxpayers of Ontario.
On behalf of Aunt Mable, I thank the staff members involved with these seniors on a daily basis who treated them with respect and great affection. They shared the same substandard level of housing and services as did the senior citizens, however, they rose to the occasion in order to provide care with humour, affection and great respect.
Sharon Gorham
Sudbury