The overarching message from B.C.'s seniors advocate, Dan Levitt, was that services for seniors in B.C. have deteriorated significantly over the past five years. Mr. Levitt speaks at news conference at the B.C. legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Dec. 11.Dirk Meissner/The Canadian Press
A word of caution for anyone thinking of getting old: don’t. At least not in British Columbia.
Every year, it seems, someone is issuing a report or giving an interview highlighting just how bad things are for seniors in the province. A year ago, it was Isobel Mackenzie, B.C.’s then-seniors advocate, clanging the bell about rising rents, which she said were forcing many people in their so-called golden years to live outdoors.
Others have highlighted the dire shortage of long-term care (LTC) beds, and the exorbitant costs of those in private care homes.
Ms. Mackenzie’s successor, Dan Levitt, tabled a new report last week that offered an equally bleak landscape for many seniors in the province. The overarching message from Mr. Levitt was that services for seniors in B.C. have deteriorated significantly over the past five years.
Given the grey wave crashing over not just B.C. but the entire country, it’s no surprise that the demand for things like hip and knee replacements are up. Mr. Levitt found that waitlists for knee and hip replacements increased 53 and 59 per cent respectively in the past five years. As someone who was on one of them, I can assure you it’s no fun. Those who waited too long to get their deteriorating joints examined now find themselves waiting in unbearable pain for a surgery date.
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, in 2023, 65 per cent of those in B.C. waiting for a hip replacement had one within the national guideline of six months, while only 57 per cent had their knee replacement within that standard. That’s not exactly headline news, but the fact Mr. Levitt found that the wait lists for seniors waiting for these procedures has grown precipitously over the past five years is concerning.
Of course, governments were warned about this crunch for decades – warnings that seemingly went unheeded in many jurisdictions.
When the advocate looked at the situation with housing, matters were equally dire.
While there are certainly fortunate Canadians who aren’t concerned about their finances in retirement, there are many others who aren’t in the same boat and are struggling every day just to get by. One in four seniors in B.C. earn less than $23,000 a year, which falls below the poverty line.
The seniors’ advocate found that over the five-year period he examined, the waitlist for subsidized assisted living units increased by 37 per cent, while the rate of subsidized units per 1,000 seniors actually decreased 15 per cent.
There were 6,464 people waiting for publicly subsidized LTC in 2024, a 25-per-cent increase from last year and 2.5 times the number waiting five years ago (2,595). The average wait time for people on these wait lists was 242 days.
That is a nightmare scenario for many.
Of course, if you’ve got money, there are spots out there for $5,000 to $10,000 a month in a private long-term care facility. But as I say, there are many who don’t have that type of savings account. Or there are some who maybe had the means for a while, but they outlive their bank account’s ability to sustain the costs – and then they find themselves stuck.
More and more people are finding themselves in that position because we’re living longer. Those were some of the more encouraging numbers in Mr. Levitt’s report. The number of people 85 years and older has grown 10 per cent over five years and 28 per cent over the past 10 years. The life expectancy at 65 years in B.C. is an average of 22.4 years. One can expect to live in reasonably good health until the age of roughly 82.
The problems Mr. Levitt has highlighted in his report aren’t exactly new. And governments right across the land are struggling with many of the same ones.
Mr. Levitt proposes the B.C. government adopt a cross-ministry strategy to help seniors, rather than the siloed approach that seems to exist now. Mr. Levitt argues that a new system needs to come with hard targets and tangible performance numbers. Only then will the government be held to account for the way it’s managing the province’s aging population.
“New challenges are emerging that have disproportionate impacts on seniors such as a lack of affordable, appropriate housing and the rising costs of living for necessities like food and medical supplies to support healthy aging,” Mr. Levitt wrote.
Within 10 years, one in four British Columbians will be a senior. So the problems the government is facing now aren’t going away – and in many ways, they’re only going to get more challenging.