The Seniors Advocate Act was one of the last pieces of legislation to pass in the final week of the spring legislative session (19 days - the only 19 days in the last year).
The government has been lobbied for years to introduce a bill that would establish an independent office that would represent our senior citizens and investigate the abuses and challenges elders often face.
I so wish I could report the act was a welcome response to the needs of our seniors... but that isn't what the government pushed through. The new seniors advocate bears little resemblance to what was wanted: the advocate will be appointed by cabinet; be a deputy minister; and will report to the Minister of Health.
Of even more concern, the advocate is specifically not allowed to investigate individual complaints and must refer those complaints to the responsible jurisdiction. In other words, complaints must be referred to the very area of the system that is causing the problem in the first place.
A recent report from the ombudsperson strongly recommended that the government create an independent seniors advocate who would report to the legislative assembly.
The report recommended an office equivalent to those of the Representative for Children and Youth, the Auditor General and the Office of the Ombudsperson.
These officers of the legislative assembly are independent of government, have specific mandates, which enable them to investigate and make recommendations, and independently report to the legislative assembly. These reports are of the highest quality and receive extensive media, public, elected and government scrutiny. They bear weight and usually result in changes to the way government operates.
That is what seniors want and what they need. And what they did not get.
And another sad part of the story is the fact that the Official Opposition Critic for Seniors has had a private member's bill for a seniors advocate sitting on the order paper since 2009.
Despite many motions to bring it forward, the government had a total lack of interest in any idea not its own. Until, lo and behold, the last few weeks before an election - when a government bill suddenly appears.
But the government doesn't care for independent officers of the legislature and the legislation fell short of the real need for a proper, independent seniors advocate.
The other independent MLAs and I supported an opposition amendment that would have changed the advocate's role to that of an independent officer. The amendment failed: all amendments fail with this government. But in the end, we all supported the bill on the premise that something was better than nothing and one doesn't want to throw the baby out with the bath water. The seniors' advocate can at least look at systemic challenges and can report - to the minister - on issues that he or she believes to be important to the welfare of seniors generally.
We can only hope that circumstance and courage will let the advocate do the job that needs to be done: but when you are a deputy minister and report to the minister, public criticism of your own ministry is a little difficult. Real, independent oversight is critical when bureaucracies hold people's lives in their hands. So we wait and hope that time will bring change and that a truly independent seniors advocate will one day become a reality.
