Mississauga Seniors councils information meeting March 14,2013

MISSISSAUGA SENIORS’

COUNCIL

Information Meeting Minutes

DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 2023

TIME: 10.00 AM to 1.20 PM

LOCATION: Parkland on the Glen, 1655 The Collegeway, Mississauga,

L5H 0A9

CONTACT: Grace Miksa

TELEPHONE: 905-820-8210

activities being carried out. She invited all to register for the forthcoming

events.

Following presentations were made during the Information Meeting:

1. Al Mathias, Executive of MSC spoke about various activities of MSC

including the meeting with senior representatives of Government to further

the cause of the seniors.

Below is his presentation (As delivered):

President Bob, Invited Guests , MSC members and friends,

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President Bob Harrick has asked me to say a few words today and so I promise not

to be too long and not indulge in verbal diarrhea.

I’d like to start off by mentioning two meetings that Mississauga Seniors Council

(MSC) had with our Politicians. President Bob together with our Treasurer, Donna

Tien and myself met with MPP Sheref Sabawy – on April 5, 2022. Minister

Raymond Cho, Minister for Seniors and Accessibility, could not attend – at the last

minute.

City property taxes could be burdensome to some Seniors. Our request was that

the Provincial Govt. consider a plan, similar to the one in BC, whereby Seniors

could be given financial assistance from the Province, by way of deferral of these

taxes until the property is sold: that is when the Senior moves to a LTC facility, or

passes away.

After some discussion, MPP Sheref informed us that:

– he had met with the VPs of the CIBC and HSBC banks and they had agreed to

offer Seniors a “line of Credit” to pay off their annual property taxes, with the

annual payment of the interest ONLY; and the principal to be paid off when the

Home was sold. No doubt the Banks would have first Lien on the Property.

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Bob requested the approval of a Rebate or Exemption of the current Provincial

$100 deductible to Seniors, for all medical expenses and /or prescriptions.

MPP Sheref understood our perspective and agreed to take the matter up further.

He promised to look into this and get back to us.

Bob suggested an increase to $40,000 as the Income threshold to allow for

Seniors on Low/Minimum Incomes – now tied to the Federal GIS – (currently $20,

growing age group in Ontario. And the government estimates that Ontario will

have close to three million seniors by 2023, and that two-thirds of low-income

seniors in Ontario do not have access to dental insurance.

Ontario residents aged 65 and over with an income of $19,300 or less, or couples

with a combined annual income of $32,300 or less, and who do not have dental

benefits, will qualify for the program.

So we suggested that if the threshold could not be increased, then at least a

“graduated” approach be used to allow seniors, earning marginally above the GIS

threshold, to be able to get partial help towards their dental costs. MPP Sheref

agreed to look into this.

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2. MEETING WITH NEW FEDERAL MP CHARLES SOUSA January 16, 2023

Members of MSC who attended: Bob Harrick, Donna Tien, Prem Sodi and Al

Mathias:

Bob talked about:

– the huge impact of inflation on Seniors;

– the inequality of OAS Benefits for Seniors and how the Federal Govt had

arbitrarily drawn a distinction between Seniors “75 years and older” and “65 to

– MSC also talked about other issues that may not DIRECTLY affect Seniors, but

affect them as part of the Community at large, and so we CANNOT turn a blind

eye to those issues. Some issues are:

1. Financial scams that are taking place and how some Seniors get taken in.

2.Gun Control: We all want of mothers, wives, children and grandchildren to be

able to walk SAFELY down our streets, therefore there is the urgent need for

tighter Gun Controls. We realize that this comes under Federal Government

jurisdiction, however, we have to find ways to address this.

3. Religious intolerance that is taking place;

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As the 17

th

century English Poet, John Donne said : “No man is an island, entire

of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”.

In a lighter vein, before we left, Donna mentioned about the social/dancing events

that the Seniors organize and said that we would invite MP Sousa and his wife to

these events. Charles said that he would be delighted to attend.

RESOLUTION of Meetings with Government Leaders. Meetings like these two

last couple of years with wearing Masks and segregation, did not allow us to

follow through aggressively.

We are now in the process of conducting and finalizing an “in-house” survey of

all the Seniors Organizations, that are members of MSC, to verify how many of

their seniors would actually participate and take advantage of the benefits that

MSC is fighting for. It is very important to know that, because, as we all aware,

Politicians want to know how many Votes they can capture, if they spend time

working to accede to our requests. It is the Votes that matter to them!

Currently we have a MSC sub-committee reviewing and updating the

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The topic that is close to all our hearts is that concerning Health Care in the

Hospitals, LTC and Nursing Homes. A lot has been said, and is being said, about

the processes being followed, the shortages of nursing and hospital staff and the

care that Ontarians receive – some good experiences and some horrible stories.

For example on Jan 17, 2023, Dr. Robert Bell who is professor emeritus in the

surgeries to for-profit providers

instead of creating community surgery centres,

overseen by public administrators.

Community surgery centres

, sometimes referred to as Ambulatory Surgery

centres, are specifically designed to handle high volumes of low–

complexity surgeries. While hospitals need to spread their resources across many

different departments (emergency care, imaging services, intensive care, etc.),

surgery centres are purpose-built to perform high volumes of operations such as

cataract replacements or knee and hip surgeries. Studies show that community

I guess we have to wait and see how Health Care for Seniors moves along. The

Toronto Star continues to update us on issues: articles like Time is running out

for Virtual ER visits (T/Star Wed Mar 8) ; Visits to Doctors on the phone and

articles by Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health.

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And then there is Bill 124 which capped wages for public sector @1% for 3

years. This affected our hard working and over worked Nurses, and created the

worrisome risk of retaining and attracting nurses back to the OR and other

departments. We could lose experienced staff to the for-profit surgery providers,

if they are allowed.. Investing more broadly in for-profit surgery providers

should not be on the table.

However, on Nov 30, 2022 Justice Hoehnen declared the Act, Bill 124, to be

MSC wants to get involved. They do affect us in one way or another, some maybe

not directly.

When I retired at 65, I was told: You are entering the Golden Years, Enjoy!

Because the Golden years last from 65 to 75. After that, the painful years start.

That statement is true, L and G, but so far I have been lucky!

The second Important fact I realized is that I was now FREE! Free to speak my

mind, and my pension would not be affected; and if I did not agree with any

Govt. or Commercial or Public policy, I could speak out without fear. I did not

have to worry that I may be speaking against Govt. policy or the policy of any of

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So the issues I believe Citizens have to tackle are:

1. Gun Violence. I touched on this earlier. Does the normal citizen have to

carry a gun? If we respect each other’s rights and freedoms, irrespective of our

Colour, Caste or Religious beliefs, and if, when we disagree, we agree to

disagree, where is the need to carry or use a gun? Since Gun Control comes

under the Federal domain, we have to rally the Feds to tighten the laws and

make them very stringent! With No ifs or Buts! And I have strong suggestions in

3. SUPPLY MANAGEMENT.

For months Canadians have been facing rising food costs. Food bank usage is

up. People are having to make impossible choices between rent and food. And

worst of all, relief doesn’t seem to be coming. Meanwhile Loblaws, the country’s

biggest grocer, is seeing its profits skyrocket. And public outrage is growing.

Loblaws is feeling the heat. Ahead of releasing their 2022 profits last week —

which saw a 10% jump from the year before — their PR team was on the

defensive, trying to deflect widespread criticism that they’re price

gouging. There is growing public anger about their business practices.

An open letter was sent to Loblaws CEO Galen Weston, stating that for

grilled the CEOs of the three large grocery chains, Loblaws, Metro and Express,

but they refuted the increase to food prices saying that their profits were made on

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other pharmaceutical products! Refuse to show Singh the numbers, asked him to

believe them!

MILK BEING DUMPED!

A viral video is showing just how much milk Canadian dairy farmers have to

pour down the drain. It‘s a dirty, awful secret many people don’t know about, and

it’s due to a national supply management system that determines how much milk

a farmer can produce — and, in turn, the said farmer is only allowed to sell or

WASTE!

I have written to the Hon Jagmeet Singh Leader of the NDP. We have to find a

way to have this milk collected, processed, stored and shipped to hungry nations

around the world, where children are starving from mal nutrition. And all these

expenses can be charged to a Federal Budget item: “Aid to developing

countries.” That would be a win-win situation!

We have recently been able to contact an Organization called “Leadnow”. Their

vision is for a Healthy Environment, Just Society, Fair Economy and Open

Democracy! They are independent of Party Politics, driven by the belief that

democracy is both, an end and a means, and their power comes from the