Group feels calls for independent seniors advocate ignored in meeting with Manitoba seniors minister

After a single meeting with Manitoba's seniors and long-term care minister, a seniors' advocacy group says they feel ignored and don't have much hope they'll be listened to again by the government ahead of the next provincial election.

The Winnipeg branch of Canadian Association of Retired Persons penned a letter to Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Scott Johnston on Monday, criticizing him over a meeting he had with members last month.

"The reason that we sent it now is because we were very disillusioned," said CARP Winnipeg vice-president Carmen Nedohin, who attended the meeting.

"We just felt he really didn't want to hear from us, there was no interest in it whatsoever, he kept repeating the same things over and over and over again."

Nedohin said the purpose of this first meeting was for CARP leadership to meet with Johnston to discuss different issues facing seniors.

The group also hoped to focus on the possibility of creating an independent seniors advocate position. 

An advocate with the national seniors group CanAge as well as the provincial NDP and Liberals have called for such a position to be created. 

Nedohin said CARP prepared a proposal for what such a position would entail — something akin to the Manitoba Children's Advocate with the authority to raise or intervene in certain serious cases.

Examples of such situations include allegations of abuse similar to those that emerged last week from Oakview Place in Winnipeg or the dozens of seniors who died of COVID-19 at Maples Long-Term Care Centre during the pandemic, said Nedohin.

"After what happened at the Maples and other places, they would have had a chance to call witnesses, call an inquiry, do whatever needed to be done, regardless of of what political party, what political stripe is in power," she said. 

She said CARP tried to explain in the meeting that they've heard feedback from a number of seniors' organizations in Manitoba that are supportive of the creation of an independent seniors advocate, but were too timid to raise the issue with the province for fear of losing funding.

Johnston showed no interest in such a position, said Nedohin, and instead discussed a ministerial advisory committee made up of people who have or previously worked in the long-term care sector or with seniors in some other capacity. 

Committee members include the CAO of Deer Lodge Centre, CEO of Actionmarguerite, executive director of Brandon Seniors for Seniors Co-op, several physicians including a retired palliative care specialist, a medical director for a seniors centre at Deer Lodge, a former health-care attendant and more.

Johnston said that committee would be involved in surveying Manitobans' views on what the newer ministry should be focused on — including issues in the long-term care sector — according to Nedohin.