A headline asked what will you do when this pandemic is over? Good question. It’s a different world we live in right now. Will you rush back to the same places, or will you lead a different lifestyle? It will be great to finally be able to give mom and dad, or grandma and grandpa, a hug once again, and do the everyday things we love to do. We are told over and over to care for the seniors as they are vulnerable, but what will they do when this is over? Believe it or not, for a lot of the Seniors in Squamish, it will not be a lot different from right now, other than for family times. Young, agile residents have an abundance of activities to enjoy right here, or within easy driving distance. There are not too many for seniors though, especially if they are not physically able. Once driving for them is out of the question, it gets worse.
The Chief had an article recently in which our Mayor, Karen Elliott, made a few comments that I found not to ring quite true. They are planning to implement a Pilot Project for the former Squamish Senior Centre building. She said, and I quote, “We are concerned for everybody in our community, Seniors have been isolated and cut off from loved ones, and youth having their lives disrupted.” “We (which I assume means the District as a whole) are trying to look after everybody’s needs and take care of every age group.”
How have they done so far? Well, not so good, actually.
In 2017, as a councillor, she proposed changing name of the centre to The 55 Activity Centre, removing the word ‘Senior’, although this building was designated ‘specifically for Senior use’ in and the agreement between Solterra and the District had a condition allowing them to build there. The reason they stated for the change was that it was offensive and people would avoid it. It is apparent now that it was so they could use it for their own interests rather than seniors. They reduced hours for exclusive senior use to 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday (now reduced to 9:00 am to 3:00 pm) as opposed to the seniors’ request to increase hours to implement more evening programs. They said it was too costly to staff the centre in the evenings.
Despite this agreement, the Mayor decided to hold business meetings and other events and install the daily Strong Start Pre-Kindergarten program. It should be noted that to make room for these programs, they decided to move several, long-standing, senior programs to less suitable locations in the centre. Even from the 55 to the Rec. Centre, rubbing salt in the wound by taking credit as being their own programs. Seniors pay for these programs (sewing, quilting and card groups and painting classes) over and above their annual membership fees. They closed the cafe, and regularly refused to have programs that the seniors requested be run, with one purpose only, to run the centre into the ground and say it was under-utilised by the seniors.
Now, they will be having a neighbourhood program from 3 pm each evening. I can only assume it will be for after-school child care. Adding insult to injury, the youth centre will operate out of there every Thursdays and Friday evenings. I wonder how the youth feel about it? Have you asked them?
Can you not think of a better alternative? Surely this is not the place or the area to have these programs? The building was designed for SENIORS and this is a RESIDENTIAL area! So no. Not so well done, Karen. What will you do when this pandemic is over? You could try to show the seniors of Squamish that you really do care for them, and you can do that by giving back the Squamish Senior Centre back to the seniors.
You may need to use it as a senior in the community one day.
Mike Sherlock is a member and past president of Squamish Seniors Centre Society.
Patricia Marini says
Well stated Michael! PatriciaNarini
E mcLeod says
The DOS Is a total contradiction when it comes to seniors…. you used to get the seniors rate at 60…then they put it back to full rate until 65 and rename the it the 55 center….
figure it out? Not much care given to our seniors.
Patricia Carlin says
Actually, the pool used to let you use the seniors’ rate at 55 (I’d bought a pass back then). At some point it changed to 65. But they changed the name of the senior centre to the 55+ centre which implies we ARE considered seniors as of 55 in this town. But the pool is 65?? It’s quite confusing.
As to using it in the evenings, if they are considering 55+ to be seniors, well most work during the day so when else are these younger seniors supposed to use it?
I know there is no official age for seniors in BC but maybe our town could try to be consistent (I think 60 is reasonable). Once that is figured out, let the youth centre BE for the youth (the replacement is coming) and the seniors centre BE for the seniors.
Moira Biggin-Pound says
We downsized 3 years ago and chose Rockcliffe partially because it was next door to the Seniors Centre . I have frequently requested that the recreation dept [who are apparently in charge ] tried to co-ordinate programming with activities that seniors were already doing such as swimming ,walking ,biking so that we could participate in more programmes at the Senior Center.Instead of which they started their own similar programmes and said we weren’t interested .No because we were already doing them !!!! Some seniors activities were priced out by unrealistically high room rental eg bridge. We were told that no programmes would be displaced by Strong Start but of course they were – with no consultation of course! My French was moved to Brennan Park so I have to drive instead of walk ! The restaurant is a disaster -who was it who thought Seniors would welcome a paleo diet and then said we weren’t supporting the cafe ?!! One partial success is the bus trip programme which is usually sold out but we had to fight for it. We seniors voted for Brennan Park swimming and skating for the community even if our family didn’t skate so why is it so difficult now to support us as we are now seniors. ?We pay taxes but we don’t skate, play team games etc so why is it so hard to support seniors too? By the way most people 55 plus do not consider themselves seniors and are not retired ,65 plus yes!!!! Moira Biggin-Pound
Mike Sherlock says
The bus trips were started by the Seniors. We were going to buy a bus for ourselves but, Tim Hoskin, Mgr of the Rec Centre, asked us to donate $15,000 so that they could get one they needed for the sports teams and the summer camps. We were promised that we could have use of it at Least once per week. They even broke their word on that on several occasions. We have to pay to use it.
Judi says
Well said Mike & Moira, the Seniors Centre is for Seniors not for children & teens. It is time to reclaim what belongs to us. Council and especially Mayor Karen please give it back to us to use as we need. God willing you will be a senior one day and will need a place to celebrate with like minded people, if the pandemic does not kill us all off we will need to come together again!
Joy Boulier says
Excellent letter Mike, and thank you for writing it. The people of Squamish need to know what they are doing to the seniors. This, like a mike has said has been an ongoing problem which is only getting worse.
What they the district is not saying is that it WAS built for the seniors not youth, and perhaps it would be used more if they had programs for the seniors. They moved in Strong Start to the 55 after the fact and moved the art programs to Brennan Park instead of putting strong start there also displacing the quilters. It was a lot of the society money that went into the interior of the building. They are slowly taking over the building to suit themselves. It started with the lawn bowling green that the developer built as part of the dos amenity package for the seniors, and it included a nice grass court with an inground sprinkler system. The Rotary also kindly donated beautiful benches around the green.The seniors tried to get the dos to maintain the bowling green but were advised that if the sprinkler system was turned on then the grass would grow and the district didn’t have a budget to cut the grass. It was also mentioned by the district staff that the seniors should maintain it and cut the grass. ( it is a municipal park and the employees are under a union contract) Always excuses excuses excuses.
What they are forgetting in the scheme of things, is that, they will be a senior one day and they will have no where to go but to leave the town they helped build and move to another town where they look after the seniors as well as everyone else. As far as I am concerned the dos is so busy creating new jobs and paying themselves big bucks and wasting our tax payers money that they have forgotten human decency.
Jim Lorman says
I would be interested in the Districts rational regarding these issues. Is it because of under utilization for the 55 Centre by the Seniors or ??? Is there a shortage of suitable space for the programmes the District is using the 55 Centre for ? or is it just a matter of oiling the squeaky gears of user groups that think the muni should provide cheap space for them to congregate? I am a Senior who doesn’t presently use the 55 Centre due to the distancing from my home in Brackendale, but will be moving into the new Seniors housing facility on 3rd avenue when it is finished (along with 240 or so Seniors) and will most surely be a strong candidate for this facility. I would suggest to the Mayor and Council to look into the future and manage our facilities for what they were built.