Chance Meeting With Premier Stelmach on the Indpendent Seniors' Advocate

2008/02/28

9603 96 Street
Edmonton, T6C 3Z1

Honourable Ed Stelmach, Premier
Room 307, Legislature
10800 97 Avenue
Edmonton, T5K 2B7

Dear Mr. Stelmach,

It was good to be able to visit with you this afternoon for a few minutes at the Calder Seniors’ Centre in Edmonton about the establishment of an Independent Seniors’ Advocate (ISA) as an Officer of the Legislature .

It was even better, in the interests of all seniors and all those who will become seniors, that you agreed
I was to write to arrange to meet you after the election about the ISA, “should the Good Lord allow you to remain Premier of the Province.” I wish to meet with you whatever happens in the election. The ISA initiative should be supported by all parties in our Legislature. Your party is the only one that has not yet endorsed the idea.

In our brief conversation at Calder, I indicated that I was spokesperson for the Circle of Chairs of seniors’ advocacy groups which has been working for five years now to establish the ISA as an Officer of the Legislative Assembly. These seniors’ advocacy groups have a combined membership of over 20,000 Alberta seniors. We came close to succeeding with our quest when Mrs. Yvonne Fritz was Minister for Seniors. Our proposal (attached), under her leadership and that of MLA Carol Haley, was favourably received by the then Standing Policy Committee for Health and Community Development. That was in January of 2006.

The current Minister, Mr. Melchin, has not been supportive of the ISA concept but did ask our group of Chairs to meet with his seniors advisory council on the concept. Fifteen chairs and vice chairs of the Circle came from across the Province to that meeting only to find that the government seniors council, chaired by MLA VanderBurg, had only three members out of twelve present. We were unhappy, to say the least, about that. Mr. VanderBurg was honest when he indicated the last thing the government would want is another Officer of the of the Legislature , “…because these people create their own bureaucracies, and we can’t get at them.” The Circle’s position is that the ISA must be independent or it will be completely ineffectual.


The ISA would utilize trained seniors themselves to guide those of us in distress through the very complex maze of resources available at all levels of governments in order to relieve that distress. This process will make better use of all the resources that now exist. The ISA will also be in a position to refer cases, where evidence indicates, to the police, Ombudsman, Human Rights Commissioner, etc. With each case handled by the ISA, evidence will be gathered on how effective the resource system for seniors is. The ISA will then be able to use this evidence to make recommendations on how to improve services for seniors. No such comprehensive evidence is currently available.

Once the election is over, I will be in touch to meet you about this very important, cost effective and innovative proposal.

Sincerely,



Brian Staples, Spokesperson for the Circle of Chairs seeking an Independent Seniors’ Advocate.