Political Advocacy Committee Briefing Notes December 13, 2024

Pension and Retirement Income Committee Report:

Review of the following: Alberta’s tentative plan regarding CPP; the National Dental Plan; tax credit for seniors participating in physical and educational activities; and inconsistency in income tax rules regarding massage therapy.
Election brochure – recommendation that defense of the defined benefit pension plan again be the focus for the brochure.
Tax Fairness for single seniors. Following the discussion based on the points given at https://www.singleseniorsfortaxfairness.com/, it was decided this is not a priority for ACER-CART. See Pension & Retirement Income Briefing notes (December 2024) for a more complete discussion.

Executive Committee Report:

National Pharmacare – The panel of experts for National Pharmacare has been chosen with Dr. Steve Morgan as a member of the panel. The task of this panel is to oversee the program. Over the next year, the committee of experts will offer advice and guidance on how to operate and finance a national universal single-payer pharmacare program in Canada. It is expected that the advice will go beyond the current program to become a road map that will include a wider list of medications in the future.
President’s letter to Members dated October 30, 2024 – reminder this is only the beginning. The next step is to add other medications to the formulary and a national strategy for rare diseases that would make the drugs available to combat these diseases. Some cancer drugs are not affordable on our current formulary. There is still a need to encourage the provincial governments to sign bi-lateral deals in order to implement a fully comprehensive single-payer national pharmacare program. New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Manitoba have signed on, and hopefully the other provinces will join. Provinces who sign on will be able to increase the drugs they have in their formulary because some of the other costs will be covered by the federal plan.
November letter to politicians re: Canadian Dental Care Program – asking who will do the reassessment and when it will take place.
National Pensioners Federation – email from Trish McAuliffe, wondering if ACER-CART would be interested in participating in a virtual round table session in February 2025. This would be for seniors and put on by the Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC). The purpose of the session would be to better understand the lived experiences of seniors when dealing with their television, internet, mobile and phone providers, the challenges they face, and possible solutions to address these challenges. The round table will include seniors’ groups, consumer groups, and telethons. After the session, a report will be published that businesses can use to improve services for seniors.
ACER-CART Strategy Plan – At the executive meeting in January, the executive will be dealing with a strategy to come up with a document with 4 key concerns (pillars). For example: Manitoba’s 4 pillars are (1) Information and Communication, (2) Member and Community Advocacy, (3) Organizational Growth and Governance, and (4) Member Services and Partnerships. Strategic plan documents are also available from British Columbia and Alberta. Determining 4 pillars will be the start of the ACER-CART Strategic Plan.
ACER-CART Board of Directors’ Meeting – Reinforced the importance of keeping the directors informed. RTOERO letter has been shared with other like-minded organizations.

Communications Committee Report:

Federal Election Brochure – Documents (one-pagers) will include Seniors’ Issues Information, Aging in Place, National Pharmacare, Privatization of Medical Services and Voter Information. If possible, a draft of the brochure will be available for approval at the January executive meeting.

Political Advocacy Committee Report

Minutes reviewed & passed at this meeting.

Health Services Committee Report

Election brochure submission – A one-pager was developed on Ageing at Home, one of the key issues identified by ACER-CART. The brochure can be used as a resource to facilitate voters to become familiar with the issues and to evaluate the platforms of the political parties.
A chart in the form of a checklist will be developed to show the services available in different provinces. It will show wait times, access to primary care services, vaccinations, and other areas as may be decided by the committee.
The webinar by the Canadian Health Coalition, entitled “Assisting Strategies for Long-Term Care Labour Force” with presenters Patricia and Hugh Armstrong, and Marta Szebehely from Sweden can be accessed on the Canadian Health Coalition website. Sweden is looking at moving away from home care into institutionalized care. Their reason for doing so is that there is an unnecessary financial burden on families. Families must make up the deficit if the person is at home instead of in an institution, or they must pay for private care, which is a lot more expensive. The Armstrong prospectives include reduce, reorganize, replace, recruit, and retain.
McMaster University request for ACER-CART to partner in a 2-year program – a letter from the ACER-CART president has been forwarded to Dr. Anthony Levinson indicating our agreement for this study of dementia.
McMaster Optimal Aging Portal is shared in our Communications
See Health Services Briefing notes for November 2024 for more.

Federal Election Preparation

At the January Executive meeting, the election format on how to approach and communicate with our members and the political parties, including questions for the candidates and the possible use of New Mode will be on the agenda. It was felt that whatever questions were developed should be shared with members so they would have them available to ask at meetings.

Alberta Friends of Medicare

In January, two executive members will meet with Friends of Medicare to discuss issues of mutual concern, especially privatization of health care.

Future Meeting Dates:

Executive meeting January 12, 13 (Toronto)

Executive meeting Thursday, March 20

Board of Directors February 4, and April 15

Political Advocacy Committee Friday, March 14, 11