Let’s end the culture of disposable elders

In a residence for the elderly (RPA) in Montreal, 124 residents received a six-week notice to relocate. According to the owner, RPA is not profitable and a conversion to condos would be much more profitable. Despite the efforts of the tenants and the Quebec Association for the Defense of the Rights of Retired and Pre-Retired Persons (AQDR), nothing can prevent it according to the law. Finally, tenants will get better compensation, but not the right to keep their home.

Posted at 1:00 p.m.

Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch
President, Quebec Association for the Defense of the Rights of Retired and Pre-Retired Persons

If you feel like you’ve read this story in the media lately, think again. It dates from 2011, when the Monaco residence closed. Almost 11 years have passed since then and all that has changed is the acceleration of the phenomenon of eviction of our elders. The residents of Mont-Carmel are the latest high-profile examples of this situation, which has gone on for far too long.

The recent editorial in The Press+ and signed by Philippe Mercure represented the clearest presentation illustrating two easily identifiable issues, but which have not been resolved by our successive governments. However, solutions exist.

On the one hand, RPPs should not be considered as simple investments subject to the same market rules as common goods. When an investor decides to make a profit by operating an RPA, he must take into account that he is providing a collective good to one of the most vulnerable clienteles in our society.

You shouldn’t be able to opt out so easily of an essential service like seniors’ housing.

The government must define closure standards so that operators wishing to change the vocation of their building are obliged to obtain authorization from the Ministry, but above all so that things are done decently.

The living conditions in RPAs represent neither more nor less than a resounding failure to ensure a dignified quality of life for our seniors on the part of our public system. Increasing the number of inspectors and inspections seems to have become an impossible task when we are a modern and affluent society, among the most developed on the planet. It’s not serious and the time for excuses is over. One unannounced inspection per year, per residence, must become the minimum.

We cannot sell the dignity of our elders. From the residence of Monaco to that of Mont-Carmel, offering financial compensation represents a consolation, but the latter is very thin when we note the acceleration of the phenomenon of expulsion of the elderly and the inaction of our governments.


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