Advocacy
CARP lobbies seniors minister for pre-election policy wins
One on one with the Minister of Seniors Filomena Tassi
WHEN Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Filomena Tassi as federal seniors minister last summer, he asked her to go across the country on a listening tour to meet with older individuals and seniors organizations and bring their concerns back to the policy table in Ottawa.
Since Tassi’s appointment – in fact, since the Liberals’ first year in power when they made a flurry of seniorfriendly policy changes – there has been a lot of travelling and talking but very little happening at the policy table, a state of affairs that hasn’t gone unnoticed by CARP or its members. “The issues this government has not dealt with are beginning to pile up,” says Laura Tamblyn Watts, CARP’s chief public policy officer.
Tamblyn Watts notes that as much as 10 per cent of Liberal support among CARP members has shifted to undecided. “That’s a serious wakeup call to this government.”
In late January, Tamblyn Watts met with Tassi at CARP’s headquarters in Toronto, primarily to record a podcast updating the minister’s work but also to reinforce the advocacy goals of CARP’s national policy platform, FACES (available at www. carp.ca/faces).
Trudeau, Tass ia nd Liberal pollsters realize the importance of winnng the seniors vote, which helped the party win its 2015 majority.
So Tassi’s visit was more than just a chance for her to meet with Canada’s largest senior organization. It was an opportunity for her party to shore up support for the party among seniors. For CARP, it was the chance to tell the minister of seniors that the Liberals are being closely scrutinized.
Outlining her next steps with the ministry, Tassi said she was “going to build on the work our government has done,” which includes committing to a dementia strategy, authorizing Dr. [Eric] Hoskins’ pharmacare report, [investing] $6 billion into home care and palliative care and spending $40 billion on a national affordable housing strategy.”
Tassi responded positively to CARP’s suggestion of a National Seniors Strategy that leverages the investments made for senior programs by provincial and territorial governments. “Moving forward we want to ensure that we get it right and that we don’t miss any of the pieces.”
Until a National Seniors Strategy transpires, there are several “missing pieces” that Tamblyn Watts feels the government could address before the next federal election. These “quickwins” (see below) are policy initiatives that could be announced in the budget; they wouldn’t involve major policy overhauls and won’t cause massive changes to the tax system.
“Now is a critical time for this government to address these important issues,” says Tamblyn Watts. “But we need to see some movement happen soon. Because time is running out.”