Christmas Message from the President 2023

December 11, 2023

Dear ACER-CART Colleagues,

I acknowledge that Christmas this year will be difficult for many of our members. The tremendous rise in the cost of living with our pensions no longer meeting these costs, high interest rates, social isolation due to the re-emergence of COVID and the number of seniors who have contracted RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) will affect many of our retired teachers.

ACER-CART is also going through some difficulties as well with the Retired Teachers Organization of Ontario withdrawing its membership in the organization. The current executive emphatically believes that ACER-CART will continue to thrive as a strong and effective organization during this period of transition.

The New Year will bring its own possibilities and challenges. Improving the situation for retired teachers and seniors will be the top of the ACER-CART agenda and I know that we will continue to be a vibrant and effective voice for members at a national level in Canada.

ACER-CART will continue to advocate for national policies that are necessary in building a strong social and economic fabric to respond to the needs of aging Canadians. We will continue to advocate for a National Seniors Strategy and focus on the need to provide care in seniors’ own homes with support structures within the community.

ACER-CART will continue to advocate for the implementation of a universal, comprehensive, single-payer, public national pharmacare program. In the new year please participate in the Public Advocacy Committee’s strategy of using New Mode, an advocacy and civic engagement platform, in communicating with your Member of Parliament and Member of the Provincial Legislative Assemblies.

As we go forward into the New Year with the hope of better times, on behalf of the executive of ACERCART, I wish you a beautiful Christmas season of peace, of joy, of laughter and good will. It is in the spirit of reverence and gladness that I wish our very best for a Merry Christmas and a hope that the New Year brings happiness and good health to all.

Yours most sincerely,
Bill Berryman
President