Private Member's Statement
April 29, 2008: Assistance for Seniors
Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This is a plea on behalf of a group of senior citizens living in a seniors’ complex in central Edmonton who have serious concerns about how the rising cost of living is affecting their lives. In particular, they are being impacted drastically by increases in rent, in utility costs – and that doesn’t even include the cost of telephones for local calls – in prescription drugs, and in food. They certainly understand that they are not alone in this situation. However, they feel that since most of them are now living below the poverty line and are by now too old to do anything about the situation themselves, they are at the mercy of decisions and programs which come from the provincial government.
For this reason, they are petitioning the provincial government to do the right thing and assist them and others like them who live everywhere in Alberta. They can’t stop the cost of living from rising, but the government, out of its gigantic surpluses year by year, can find ways to help them. The seniors did the work that needed to be done. Now they only ask for a bit of the help as they come to the end of their days. They think that’s only fair. It is true they receive increases, some of them every year, but they are very small compared with the astronomical rise in the cost of living. More to the point, even these small increases are almost eaten by the increasing rent, so in fact they don’t even have small adjustments for the rising cost of living. They have been subjected to these unfair conditions for too long, and they’ve asked me as their MLA to lay their concerns before the Legislative Assembly in the form of a petition, which I will do later as a tabling.
They are asking the Assembly to lower their rent back to 25 per cent of income, like it was a few years ago, instead of the 30 per cent they pay now. And that’s without utilities. In fact, they are paying more than the 30 per cent because utilities are so high, and it comes to a total of about 70 per cent of their income. It is too much for most of the seniors here who have many problems buying their medical supplies, which are not covered by Blue Cross, as well as buying vitamins and supplements, which are also not covered, and now dental fees are higher than Blue Cross can cover even if they have 100 per cent coverage.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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