The President of the Alberta Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees is supporting a municipally led call for better provincial funding for Seniors’ Lodges.
Delegates to the Alberta Urban Municipal Association convention later this month will debate a resolution calling on the Redford government to reverse cuts to Seniors’ Lodges and fund infrastructure and building improvements.
CUPE Alberta President Marle Roberts says her union, which represents almost 6,000 health care and seniors’ care employees in the province, has seen the impact of underfunding first hand.
“For the last decade, the Alberta government has been trying to get out of the business of seniors care and pass it off to the private sector,” said Roberts. “The decision to cap funding for lodges was part of that strategy – let public facilities crumble and push seniors to more and more costly private options.”
“We need public options, and seniors without deep pockets need lodges. Municipalities recognize that, and it’s time the Redford government did too.”
Roberts said many of the facilities CUPE members work in are in need of repair. “But without provincial funding, it’s the seniors who are asked to foot the bills, and they can’t.”