According to Statistics Canada’s most recent census, about nine per cent of Whistler’s permanent population was aged 65 or older in 2021, up from seven per cent in 2016. The resort’s growing community of seniors might still be small, but that doesn’t mean the demographic isn’t struggling with its own set of unique challenges.
Whistler’s Mature Action Community (MAC) gathered to discuss some of those during its 2023 Annual General Meeting, held virtually on Wednesday, April 12.
The meeting kicked off with a presentation from guest speaker Isobel Mackenzie, B.C.’s Seniors Advocate. She shared how B.C.’s seniors are faring on a provincial basis and highlighted a few ways the province could better serve the approximately 20 per cent of British Columbians aged 65 or older.
Seniors are, on average, living longer, healthier lives, with a higher proportion living in their own homes, she said. With that in mind, Mackenzie said she is “concerned” about the generalized notion that B.C. seniors are wealthy, with incomes high enough to cover their day-to-day expenses, because so many have seen the worth of their homes skyrocket in recent years.
“Incomes for seniors are the lowest income, by quite a wide margin, of any age cohort,” Mackenzie said. The median income for a senior in B.C. is about $33,000 a year, she pointed out. That means “half of our seniors live on less than $33,000 a year,” Mackenzie said. “A minimum wage job is about $33,000 per year.”
She pointed to a local example from a few years ago, where officials weren’t able to secure enough senior residents to fill the new below-market-rate Whistler Housing Authority rental units that were purpose-built for seniors. “The reason they couldn’t find the seniors for the units is seniors couldn’t afford the affordable rent in Whistler,” said Mackenzie. “You can’t pay that on this income, and I see versions of that in different parts of the province where people have come in and created what is supposed to be affordable housing for seniors.”
MAC highlights new strategic plan at 2023 AGM
Helping Whistler exist as an “inclusive, supportive community where residents can actively and comfortably age in place,” is MAC’s vision for the resort, as stated in its new strategic plan.
“The provincial outlook really comes down also to our local community,” MAC chair Kathy White told attendees as she presented an overview of that plan at the April 12 meeting.
The group is quickly approaching its 30th anniversary, after being incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1995 with the mission to connect, engage and advocate for Whistler’s seniors.
MAC has been particularly busy over the last year creating the strategic plan implemented in January of this year, following up the previous plan that was in place from 2019 to 2021. As White told members, that plan highlights specific goals, priorities and action steps MAC aims to carry out in line with its five main values—collaboration, fun, accountability, inclusion and respect—divided into four key focus areas: supportive services; health and well-being; organizational capacity; and IDEA, or inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility. Some of the specific objectives laid out in the plan include a rebrand and name change, creating a seniors’ resource hub website, continued advocacy for seniors’ housing within the 4500 Northlands development, identifying gaps in Whistler’s social and health services for locals 55 or older, and applying for more grants.
AGM attendees also heard updates from membership chair Peter Dagg—MAC counted 115 members in 2021, with a database of about 800 current, former and prospective members, he said; and from MAC finance committee chair Barb Oliver, who said a series of successful grant applications helped MAC fund several of its initiatives after the organization decided to eliminate membership fees early on in the pandemic; as well as a rundown of the Whistler Housing Authority’s recent sales and current eligibility criteria for seniors from housing chair Michael d’Artois.
MAC’s outgoing social committee chair Charalyn Kriz was also on hand to recount a few of the organization’s wins from the past year, like the communal pedal wheelchair MAC acquired through a Real Estate Association of Whistler grant (it can be borrowed free of charge from the Meadow Park Sports Centre) and the pilot project that launched the Making Connections Dementia Friendly Social Club.
After officially launching earlier this year, the weekly program kicked off its third block on April 5. It welcomes seniors with early stage dementia and their caregivers to Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church every Wednesday morning for a 45-minute “gentle fitness” session, followed by brain-stimulating games and activities, before wrapping up with some socializing over a light lunch, all facilitated by a team of four volunteers. The program’s fourth block is set to kick off on May 3, with capacity for 25 participants. The four-week program costs $25 per person.
