SUNBURST 49 2020 January

st January 2020 | Seniors United Now 1 Quarter 2020 Issue 49 SUNBURST The Newsletter for Seniors United Now Sherwood Business Center – Park Centre Hotel #37 15 - 2016 Sherwood Drive, Sherwood Park, AB T8A3X3 The Voice of Seniors in Alberta Telephone 780-449-1816 Toll Free 1-855-786-8669 www.seniorsunite dnow.com Email [email protected] Contents NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL President’s Report 2 MEETING Executive Director 3 Chapter News Edmonton South 9 Notice is hereby given that the Sherwood Park / Annual General Meeting of Strathcona County 10 St. Albert 12 Alberta Seniors United Now Society Edmonton North West 12 will be held as follows: Edmonton North East 13 Calgary 14 Wednesday April 29th,2020 Membership Santa Maria Goretti Community Centre AGM 2020 – Keynote 2 th 11050 – 90 St Edmonton, AB Volunteer Opportunities 5 9:00am – 10:00am Meeting Registration Cash Raffle Winner Ft Time 7 Keynote Speaker: Renewal Incentive 14 Leprechaun - Cash Raffle 15 Honourable Richard Gotfried – MLA Renewal / Donation Form 15 Are You Due? 16 For the purpose of: AGM 2020 Registration Form 16 1. President’s Report Special Interest / Articles 2. Receiving and considering financial statements for the year ended Pension Reform 3 December 31, 2019 and the report of the auditors thereon SUN – Position Paper 4 3. Electing Directors AB Seniors Benefit Drug Chgs. 5 4. Transacting such further business as may properly come before the meeting SUN Letter to Josephine Pon 6 or any adjournment thereof County Clothes-Line - Thanks 6 Seniors Isolation – J. Pon 7 th Dated 10 day of January 2020 New Year’s Resolutions 8 Registration Required see page 2 CRA Fraud Awareness 11 SUNBURST 49 1st Quarter 2020 pg. 2 President’s Report: The United Conservative Party has been in power for eight months. It appears that their agenda is to make significant changes in government services to reduce costs and to balance the budget. It is becoming evident that these changes will have some impact on seniors’ benefits, even though the UCP government has stated that there would be no senior’s benefits reduction. Albertans have been advised, by the UCP, to expect a smaller government but we will not experience an attack on services. I expect that a smaller government will have to deliver a reduction in senior services as there will be fewer public servants. It will make it more difficult to navigate a system as services will probably be combined to reduce costs. Seniors could lose out on defined benefits, they are entitled to, if the new system in more difficult to understand The upcoming changes to the Alberta Seniors Benefit Drug Program are an example. This program will no longer provide coverage to non senior dependents of a senior. This will require a couple, where one is a senior and the other is not, to acquire separate coverage for the non senior. This will increase the couple’s cost of health care coverage. This will result in an increased cost for the couple. An example of a combined service is the merging of the seniors advocate with the health advocate. They have separate mandates and should not be merged. It is a loss of access to move the seniors advocate from the senior’s minister to the health department. SUN has had a close working relationship with the seniors advocate as we have coordinated our advocacy program with the senior’s advocates mandate. This partnership has worked very well. This relationship will probably be lost or reduced in efficiency. This means that all seniors could experience more confusion and stress in seeking access to senior services. The board of SUN is concerned. Therefore, we have written a letter to the Ministers of Health and the Minister for seniors. We oppose this move and have asked for it to be reversed. It makes more sense for a senior advocate to report to the senior’s minister. In a statement released by Premier Kenny’s office, he advised that changes were necessary to bring the provinces financial house in order. What impact this will ultimately have on seniors is not clear at this time. We trust that it will be minimum. Your board will continue to monitor all changes to seniors’ benefits and will communicate to the government to make our concerns known to the appropriate minister. Gordon Voth, President AGM Keynote Introduction: The Honorable Mr. Richards Gotfried, MLA, Calgary Fish Creek Mr. Gotfried is a second term MLA and has agreed to bring a message from the AGM Honorable Josephine Pon, Minister of Seniors and Housing and the UCP REGISTRATION government. Mr. Gotfried will speak on current seniors’ issues in Alberta and For online registration visit the SUN the solutions the Government is proposing. website Mr. Gotfried currently serves as deputy chair of the standing Committee on www.seniorsunitednow.com Public accounts and as a member of the special standing committee members Mail in registration form is located services. on page 16 He is a strong supporter of community engagements and has volunteered with Registration can also be made at several community associations. He has a history with the Canadian Home any Chapter meeting prior to: Builders Foundation. April 22nd 2020 Please plan on attending to hear and question Mr. Gotfried SUNBURST 49 1st Quarter 2020 pg. 3 Pension Reform: Gordon Voth, President and Linda Osborne, Executive Director met with Public Interest Alberta, Seniors Task Force on December 11, 2019. SUN tabled a position paper requesting that “Public Interest Alberta, Seniors Task Force recognize that the coordinated pension, recovery for life clause represents a senior’s injustice and would endorse SUN’s position that LAPP amend this condition to include a sunset clause”. The motion passed and the Seniors Task Force referred it to the governing PIA Board recommending that the PIA Board also approve the motion. We now must wait until the PIA Board meets and addresses this issue. We anticipate a positive response. The seniors task force consists of 23 senior advocate organizations or organizations representing seniors. They have a vast voice across Alberta. Following a positive response, we will seek a meeting with the new governance body of LAPP, now known as the Sponsor Board. Gordon Voth Executive Director’s Report: Now we have headed into a new year, I am anticipating some interesting challenges and a positive action by Seniors United Now. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, we were going to advertise for a new Membership Coordinator to help with getting a greater awareness of SUN in Alberta as well as increasing our membership. We advertised in November and received 75 applications for the position. I am pleased to introduce Deborah Wilson as our Membership Coordinator. Deborah brings a wealth of experience from working in the public service for 34 years. She joined the SUN staff at the beginning of December and has been hard at work on our membership database and a new marketing plan. On November 11, Wayne Sorensen and I had the privilege of laying the Seniors United Now wreath at the Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Kingsway Legion in Edmonton. Seniors United Now continues to be affiliated with Public Interest Alberta Senior Task Force and the Pharmacare Working Group of Alberta. Since the Budget came out, I have been working with both groups to voice our senior’s concerns. Friends of Medicare has placed a section on their website called “Write A Letter” which is to encourage seniors to write letters to their MLAs and MP. The section on the website has sample letters. The website is: www.friendsofmedicare.org/write_a_letter In November and December, I have had contact with a Calgary seniors group and I look forward to the discussion with a variety of Calgary groups in January. More information to come in our next newsletter. I encourage everyone to attend our Annual General Meeting in April. As it is a chance for us to get together as a group. Respectfully Submitted, Linda Osborne - Executive Director [email protected] cell: 780-920-3058 SUNBURST 49 1st Quarter 2020 pg. 4 Seniors United Now - Position Paper Public Service Pension Plans, Coordinated Pensions-Recovery for life Seniors United Now (SUN) received a complaint that the Local Authorities Pension Plan contract regarding recovery of coordinated pensions for life is punitive and disadvantages seniors who enjoy longevity of life. The amount recovered is not in keeping with a fair and reasonable recovery for the amounts advanced. The board of SUN undertook steps to investigate the extent this clause had a negative financial impact on SUN members. We placed a notice in our Sunburst newsletter and were surprised by the extent of the response we received. The board ascertained that concern over this clause was widespread and affected many of our members. We conclude that there is a significantly larger number of LAPP retirees that are negatively affected by the application of this clause. SUN’s pension reform committee, to ascertain the extent of individual members overpayments, asked our members to contact LAPP and request their personal information on the amount of funds advanced and the amount of funds recovered. The committee was advised by LAPP that the requirement of “recovery for life” was cost neutral. We believe that the recovery should be revenue neutral to the retirees that enjoy longevity of life. SUN’s review of the Public Service Pension Act of 1993 does not specify that there is a requirement for recovery for life. We therefore conclude that this is a LAPP policy. As such, we suggest that it is within the jurisdiction of the sponsor board of LAPP to change this contractual condition.

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