“Seniors should be the most cherished citizens in any community, having served their families, friends and co-workers for a lifetime, and having built Alberta into what it is today. A United Conservative government respect and support Alberta’s seniors by restarting the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative, building the new the long-term care beds they need, encouraging more home care options, and maintaining existing seniors’ benefits.”
A United Conservative Government Will Support Alberta’s Seniors By:
- Prioritizing capital funding for the immediate creation of new long-term care beds to community, non-profit, and independent providers.
- Returning to using the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative partnerships to ensure more units are built more quickly and cost- effectively.
- Allowing for the creation of innovative community options (more care at home, and new personal care homes with a maximum of 15 people) for seniors who need more care than can be provided at home alone but who require less care than provided at supportive living facilities.
- Maintaining all seniors’ benefits.
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The NDP has failed Alberta’s seniors. Of those seniors assessed as needing continuing care, the percentage admitted to such care within 30 days has dropped from 60% in 2016 to 52% in 2018. For those admitted to acute care beds in hospitals and who needed placement in a continuing care facility, the average wait time rose from 40 days in 2016 to 51 days in 2017.
The NDP government’s response to this community care crisis is to claim to have built 2,000 new long-term care beds when, in fact, the NDP only met their 2015 target of 2,000 beds by counting at least 1,758 beds from the previous Progressive Conservative government’s program relying on private firms. The beds the NDP have built since are costly, with government projects at $600,000 to $1 million per unit—10 to 15 times the previous $70,000 per-unit cost contracted under the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative.
