This week I attended a meeting in The Battlefords of seniors from across the province. It was stressed to me that Senior’s Centres across the province were under financial stress and that they had made representation, without success, to the provincial government for financial assistance. I said I would work with my colleagues in the Legislature to support their request. As a result a news release was issued out of Regina and I have attached this, as well as the news story that appeared on the CBC website earlier in the week.

Sask Party Ignoring Funding Requests from Sask. Seniors

Posted: June 11, 2009

Battlefords NDP MLA Len Taylor charged today that the Sask Party government is ignoring its commitment and responsibility to senior citizens in Saskatchewan. Taylor attended a conference of Saskatchewan seniors this week and said many of them are upset at the lack of attention being paid to seniors issues especially as they relate to quality of life concerns.

“What I heard from many seniors and their organizations this week is that their calls to this government for much needed assistance are falling on deaf ears,” Taylor said. “I’m calling on the Sask Party today to recognize the contribution that Saskatchewan seniors have provided to our province.”

Taylor said a specific concern raised by the Saskatchewan Seniors Association Inc. was the lack of funding for community seniors centers across the province. High natural gas, power, and telephone rates have made it, in some cases, impossible to maintain these centers as a gathering place for senior citizens in rural Saskatchewan.

“The Sask Party has increased these utility rates to the point where seniors’ centers across rural Saskatchewan have been forced to close and where many others are being forced to question their futures,” Taylor said. “These are vital institutions in  small towns all across Saskatchewan that provide opportunities for seniors to maintain socially and physically active lifestyles. For the government to ignore pleas for their survival is outrageous.”

Taylor said given the relatively positive economic position of the province he questions why the request for funding by Saskatchewan seniors has been ignored by the Sask Party.

“This government has millions of dollars to spend on domed stadiums and temporary Olympic pavilions but nothing for the seniors of our province,” Taylor said. “It displays quite clearly that the quality of life for seniors, rural seniors, simply isn’t a priority for the Sask Party government.”

Dozens of seniors centres in Sask. could close, association says

CBC News

With costs rising, about a quarter of the recreational seniors centres in Saskatchewan are in danger of closing in two years, the Saskatchewan Seniors Association says.

According to Len Fallows, president of the association, about 100 of the centres have closed across Saskatchewan over the past decade. Another 40 to 50 are in danger of closing over the next year or two, he said.

The centres are places where people meet to play cards or pool, share potluck meals, hear educational sessions and get health-care advice.

In sum, the centres are vital gathering places for seniors who would otherwise be socially isolated, Fallows said.

“When they become isolated from each other, then they start to deteriorate in health, both physical and mental health,” he said. “And eventually there is a cost to that.”

Some of the centres have been going broke trying to pay rising utility costs — heat, power and phones — and membership fees and fund-raising just aren’t keeping pace, Fallows said.

“It’s very difficult to be asking people in excess of 80 years of age to continually try to raise money year after year after year,” he said.

The association is asking for $1 million in government grants to shore up the centres, but so far the province hasn’t offered anything, he said.

The future of seniors centres was expected to be one of the topics of discussion at the Saskatchewan Seniors Association annual meeting in North Battleford, which began Tuesday and concludes Thursday.

The following news release was posted today in Regina for the provincial media. Everyone should know the courageous story of Nico Hawryliw and support the call for provincial support for his drug costs.

NDP Calls on Sask Party to Fund Cancer Treatment

“Our government promised to put patients – those patients – first; to strengthen cancer care and it’s a promise that we’re going to work very, very hard together with patients themselves and obviously health care workers and groups like the cancer agency, we’re going to work very, very hard to keep.” – Brad Wall, January 30, 2008

NDP Health critic Judy Junor and Battlefords MLA Len Taylor joined together today to pressure the Sask Party government to fund a lifesaving cancer treatment known as Dasatinib. The drug is used to treat a rare form of brain cancer and has recently come to light through the efforts of the Hawryliw family of North Battleford whose son Nico has been diagnosed with the disease.

“The NDP is standing behind Nico and the entire Hawryliw family in their efforts to lobby the government to fund this lifesaving treatment,” Taylor said. “Nico is an incredible young man who has faced this disease with strength and courage. He deserves the chance to fulfill his dreams.”

Both Junor and Taylor echoed the sentiments of the Hawryliw family who said the Sask Party is acting on a double standard in this case. In early 2008, after extensive lobbying from families in Saskatchewan, the cancer drug Avastin was approved by the government. Junor and Taylor are wondering why Brad Wall and Health Minister Don McMorris decided funding for lifesaving cancer treatment was important then but not now.

“The Sask Party has, in the past, made the decision to cover the cost of treatment for people in circumstances similar to Nico’s,” Junor said. “I definitely believe that something should be done for this young man and I am adding my voice to that of Nico’s many supporters in requesting the government cover the cost of this much-needed drug.”