Influx of seniors has B.C. cities making changes. Will they be enough?

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In Denice Thompson’s downtown White Rock neighbourhood, every other person is over the age of 65 — a massive percentage of seniors compared to most residential pockets of Metro Vancouver.

In her community, filled with low-rises and towers north of the city’s famous pier, the streets are lined with pharmacies, optometrists’ offices, coffee shops and a high-end baby store where grandparents can spoil their grandchildren.

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But as governments and municipalities prepare for the anticipated surge of seniors over the next decade, Thompson says, they need to expand their planning beyond eyeglasses, lattés and baby sleepers.

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“The seniors now are not like the seniors 50 years ago. We are a lot more active now, more educated, maybe more travelled,” the 77-year-old said. “We want to be able to age in place, which means not going into a retirement home.”

People Thompson’s age want gyms where they can exercise, green spaces to walk, activities to maintain social connections, and affordable housing and accessible homecare services.

And, she believes, they must advocate those changes.

“We are a strong voice, but we need to be stronger,” said Thompson, a longtime member of the South Surrey/White Rock chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, or CARP.

Governments at all levels must ramp up services and infrastructure over the next decade, when the final — and largest — group of baby boomers enters their retirement years, said Simon Fraser University professor Andrew Wister.

People aged 65 or older account for roughly one out of every five British Columbians today. That growing tally is expected to peak in 2036, when nearly one in every three people will be seniors, according to SFU’s Fact Book on Aging.

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“We are moving into a whole new phase of population aging right now. It is the most rapid that we’ve ever seen in Canadian history,” said Wister, who is the director of SFU’s gerontology research centre.

“Where we are today, we are just scratching the surface.”

B.C. may be better off than other provinces when it comes to some impacts of the grey wave, as people here tend to be more active and smoke less.

“We are doing well in some respects, but we have a lot of challenges as well,” Wister said.

Those challenges include addressing emergency room closures and family doctor shortages; improving staff ratios and quality of life in long-term care homes; creating more available and accessible public transportation; and combating ageism and social isolation, which have become “an enormous problem,” Wister said.

When it comes to how municipalities can address some of these issues, the World Health Organization created guidelines two decades ago for how cities can become “age-friendly.” They focus on removing barriers faced by older people in areas such as parks, housing, employment, communication, community support, and health services.

More than 60 B.C. municipalities have been labelled “age-friendly” cities since the province started issuing the designation in 2012, including just over half of Metro’s 21 cities. To qualify, these cities must create a committee to focus on how to improve seniors’ well-being, assess the community for needed changes, and publish a plan.

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White Rock, West Vancouver and Surrey were among the first cities to join the program, presumably because of their population bases — 36 per cent of White Rock residents were 65 or older last year, as were 32 per cent in the lower half of West Vancouver, and 29 per cent in the western part of South Surrey, according to an analysis of B.C. Stats by Postmedia data journalist Nathan Griffiths.

That compares to seniors comprising just 10 per cent of the population in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant and in Langley’s Willoughby district.

When Griffiths drilled deeper, using 2021 Census data, which focuses on smaller areas, he found four Metro Vancouver neighbourhoods where half of all residents are 65 or older: West Vancouver’s waterfront Ambleside-Dundarave corridor; a portion of South Surrey’s Semiahmoo district, which borders on White Rock; and two side-by-side tracts in White Rock, between 148 Street and 154 Street, where Thompson lives.

Pensioners may be drawn to certain communities based on the weather or available services, where immigrant groups settle, and housing costs being lower, at least when they moved there, Wister said.

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Seniors’ voices should be included

Although governments have known for a long time that seniors would become the province’s fastest growing demographic, they are not well prepared. There isn’t enough affordable housing, long-term-care wait-lists are long, and services such as HandyDART don’t keep pace with growing demand, said Dan Levitt, B.C.’s seniors advocate.

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“We need to make sure that we’re prioritizing seniors in our provincial budget, in our city planning, and that there are things like seniors’ centres in every town,” he said.

And, he added, seniors’ voices should be included in these plans to “shape the best possible future.”

TransLink, for example, can ensure bus stops have shelters, businesses such as grocery stores and banks can train employees how to support someone with dementia, and cities can create healthy aging programs to keep seniors active, Levitt said.

The city of White Rock often holds focus groups to collect views from seniors on changes that need to be made, such as how to expand the well-used Kent Street Activity Centre for people over the age 55, said resident Heather Martin.

For a dozen years, Martin has chaired the Semiahmoo Seniors Network, with representatives from governments, non-profit agencies and businesses, and residents who advocate for the well-being of older adults in White Rock and South Surrey.

“I think the businesses do realize that there is a predominance of seniors in the community, and they do take their needs into consideration,” the 77-year-old said. She noted a grocery store that opened last year in downtown White Rock is accessible for people who use mobility devices and has wider aisles.

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While Martin believes the city is trying to address seniors’ needs, she argues provincial and federal governments must do more. There is a wide range of need, she said, from building more community centres for older people to opening more homeless shelters for the increasing number of pensioners who can no longer afford their rent.

“There are many more seniors now who need these places, and they need warming centres,” Martin said.

Her network’s goal is to keep local residents informed about the services and activities happening near them, as this type of information can be hard for seniors to find.

In West Vancouver’s Ambleside and Dundarave strip, where many older people live in tall towers by the ocean, the busy seniors centre is a focal point for older residents.

The centre, managed by volunteers and West Vancouver district staff, offers a shuttle bus to local businesses by donation, an annual health expo with speakers and exhibits, a café with discounted meals for members, a thrift store, and fitness and dance classes.

Like West Vancouver, Surrey has also seen a proliferation of older residents. Fast-growing Surrey updated its decade-old age-friendly strategy last year to address lessons learned during the COVID pandemic and the heat dome crisis, as well as climate concerns and the needs of Indigenous communities.

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The city has held free forums for seniors on safety and elder abuse, health and wellness, and transportation, with some in languages other than English for its multicultural population, said Sahra-Lea Tosdevine-Tataryn, manager of Surrey’s age-friendly strategy.

Residents have flagged concerns such as sidewalks at street corners not sloping sufficiently for their walkers or wheelchairs to navigate. “I’ve had seniors have troubles rolling on them with their mobility devices. So those kinds of things we bring to the attention of our planners,” she said.

Last weekend, she organized a housing forum where older residents could learn about future housing plans in Surrey, Fraser Health services that can help them live independently, and the United Way Healthy Aging program to keep them active and engaged in their communities.

“This is helping seniors to navigate the services and (knowing) what’s available,” said Tosdevine-Tataryn. “Social connections are so critical for our seniors’ health.”

Affordability is the No. 1 concern

The Lower Mainland, B.C.’s most populous area, has the largest number of people aged 65 and over. But seniors represent just 17 per cent of the overall population, a lower proportion than many other regions.

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In comparison, seniors make up one-third of the population in the Sunshine Coast, Okanagan Similkameen, and Nanaimo, according to SFU. These areas may be popular for people on fixed incomes because the cost of living is lower than in expensive Metro Vancouver.

When Levitt travelled the province after taking over the advocate role a year ago, he said affordability was the top concern raised by pensioners he met.

The median income for a senior in B.C. is $34,000. Many of those who own a home are still “cash poor.” And 14,000 older people applied for affordable seniors housing in 2023-24, but only six per cent got a space, research by Levitt’s office found.

He applauded B.C.’s expansion of the rent-subsidy SAFER program, but said the province also needs to raise the supplement for low-income seniors, offer the shingles vaccine for free, and fully fund home support by eliminating copayments from clients.

Levitt also praised Vancouver for launching a seniors housing strategy that focuses on having enough affordable homes and services for older adults, and encouraged other cities to follow suit.

Governments in B.C. should act with urgency because 29 per cent of residents are expected to be over 65 by 2036, compared to just 22 per cent across Canada, the SFU fact book predicted.

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Needs will ramp up over the next 20 years as the oldest baby boomers enter their 70s and 80s, said SFU’s Wister.

Many B.C. seniors already face financial challenges, according to the fact book, such as: One quarter live alone, and one in five rent; 20 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women over age 65 are still working; and poverty rates among those 65 and older remain the second-highest in Canada after Nova Scotia.

A lack of money and know-how prohibit some seniors from accessing new innovations, such as the “power assists” for wheelchairs that are being researched in SFU’s gerontology centre, or new phone apps that assist with daily living. Wister argues there should be a focus on ensuring those most in need can access these types of valuable tools.

About 300 organizations in B.C. provide various services for older adults to help them age in place, but these community groups need more government money to expand, he said.

Wister is leading a federally funded study into how to support these organizations to create programs that combat social isolation and loneliness. This will be critical to support this large segment of society as it ages, he said, and must be inclusive of diverse groups such as people with different cultural backgrounds and those in the LGBTQ+ community.

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“We’re trying to get at some of the more marginalized groups of older adults … ones that are slipping through the cracks,” he said.

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Walkable streets and green spaces

In White Rock, Thompson walks along the recently updated Johnston Road, which divides the two Census tract neighbourhoods where half the residents are seniors. The sidewalk is wide, the previous “lumps and bumps” are gone, and the button-activated crosswalk now makes noise for the visually impaired and has flashing lights to warn motorists that pedestrians might need a bit more time to get across.

These are the types of improvements that need to be made on all city streets to help people who walk slowly, or perhaps rely on canes, walkers or wheelchairs, to navigate them, she said.

Just a few blocks west, on Oxford Street, there are large cracks in a sidewalk that is on a slant to accommodate a former driveway.

“If you are going for a walk, that’s a hazard,” said Thompson, a retired Vancouver Police Department civilian employee.

After living in her White Rock condominium for two decades, she said what the city needs is more green space with easy-to-manage trails.

The White Rock waterfront has a beautiful walking path, but to get there seniors must walk down (and eventually back up) very steep streets, which are tricky to navigate even with railings and cement grips on the sidewalks. City Hall has talked about installing some type of escalator or other type of electronic people mover, which Thompson would like to see become a reality so older residents of the so-called “City by the Sea” can actually get to the ocean.

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In Centennial Park, a few blocks west of Thompson’s downtown neighbourhood, city hall created the “generations playground,” which has a jungle gym for children beside workout equipment appropriate for seniors.

The city’s Ruth Johnson Park is also well-used by seniors, who often bring their grandchildren with them, said Thompson, who lifts weights three times a week in a local gym.

A lot of people in their 60s don’t have time today to volunteer, as they often take care of elderly parents or look after grandkids, she said. But Thompson, who has been a member of CARP for 13 years and often shares her opinions with White Rock city council, said it is important they get involved in lobbying government to invest more in services and infrastructure for the aging population.

She bristles at the suggestion the growing number of seniors is a drag on the economy, arguing they have previously made important contributions to Canada’s finances, and that improvements made today will benefit future generations.

“What you do will impact your children and grandchildren when it comes to medical care, food security, financial security, pensions, old age security. The younger seniors need to be aware that those can change, especially with what is happening across the border,” said Thompson, in reference to the U.S.-Canada trade tensions.

“Someone needs to be an advocate for these people as they age.”

lculbert@postmedia.com

With data analysis by Nathan Griffiths, Postmedia

Over five weeks, we are chronicling Metro Vancouver’s place in the country, the promise of greater prosperity, and the blueprint to get there. See the “How Canada Wins” series intro and other local stories HERE.

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