Shift report represents PR poorly done

Just 18 months after it was launched with some considerable fanfare, the Nova Scotia government’s action plan for an aging population – called Shift – has taken on the pallor of a political public relations exercise. And a poorly executed one at that.

e demographic lurch toward a decidedly older population isn’t unique to Nova Scotia, but the trend is especially pronounced in the province, prompting the government to launch Shift in 2017 to, it said, “change the narrative about older adults.”

Shift relegated the word “senior” to the growing heap of old labels now shunned for their negative connotation. “Older adults” is the approved nomenclature, further quali ed by the words “in all their diversity,” repeated in the Shift documents with a frequency that lends the phrase a slightly eerie tone.

Shift – or as the province prefers “SHIFT,” although it’s not an acronym – is a worthwhile venture and includes some good work by the government and a range of partners.

But when it came time to report progress, the government overreached and under-performed.

In a news release accompanying last week’s release of the Shift progress report, the government claimed there was action on more than 50 items in the plan. To achieve that level of e ort some creative pro ling of generic programs was required to highlight their bene t to “older Nova Scotians in all their diversity.”

Programs like income assistance, the tax cut the government claims lowers the tax bill of 500,000 Nova Scotians, collaborative care, mental health and addiction services, the Accessibility Act and even the plan to replace the old Victoria General Hospital, were all shaped to t Shift.

It looks like the politicians and bureaucrats reviewed the actual progress, found the gruel too thin, and decided to pump it up by throwing everything in the report but the proverbial kitchen sink.

“Elected school boards were eliminated to remove a potential source of irritation to older Nova Scotians in all their diversity,” the report did not say, but it came right up to that line.

e province “is committed to partnering with not-for-pro t organizations and the private sector to provide stable housing options for victims of family violence, some of whom are senior women,” the report claimed. at entry came from a department that didn’t get the memo about the term “senior.”

In fact, many of the entries in the progress report look like lastminute insertions delivered by departments under pressure to produce something – anything – that can be made to support the broadest objectives of Shift.

“In 2017-18, # new affordable were started or completed increas- ing the supply of a ordable rental housing for seniors in NS,” read an “action” item in the report. It is apparently up to the reader to discern what the “# new a ordable” presumably housing units might be.

The Shift progress report is a classic example of a government trying to maximize the political currency it earns by padding its resume with stu that’s connected, but only obliquely, to the matter at hand.

at’s politics as usual, but when a government that burns through more than $14 million a year on “communications” does PR this badly, it says the brain trust – political and bureaucratic – really doesn’t care much about the plan for an aging population.

ey certainly didn’t read the progress report before kicking it out the door.

It’s also unfortunate because the good stu people are doing to advance the objectives of Shift is all but lost in what amounts to a massive pile of prime government manure.

A partnership involving Aca- dia University and Third Sector Enhancement is helping older Nova Scotia rede ne retirement; research into the employment barriers faced by older workers is happening; and Mentoring Plus brings together retirees and unemployed young adults who need help nding a career path.

But those and like initiatives apparently didn’t carry enough bulk to ensure the government is rewarded for addressing the myriad opportunities and challenges presented by an aging population.

So, it added bulk with stu like a government working group to discuss “how government may be able to improve (its) support for walking,” or by noting that the provincial strategy for recreation identi es the importance of older adults on page nine.

Shift’s a good idea. e progress report is a very bad PR e ort.