Minister of Seniors Doug Currie pats himself on the back with minuscule program

In the PEI Legislature today, Minister Doug Currie proclaimed the value of the Seniors Home Repair program to assist seniors to stay in their homes.

The program provides $1,500 towards the cost of necessary renovations for seniors. The income test was recently increased to $35,000 annual income. 750 PEI seniors have applied for the program. $2.2 million has been spent on the program.

The Seniors Home Repair program is a minor program that will not cover the costs associated with moderate to severe disabilities. The goal of the program is to push seniors with disabilities into the private and public care facilities. 

This is bad use of taxpayer’s money. $50 million is being spent on accommodations for less than 500 severely disabled seniors. It costs 7 times as much to keep them in an institution than it does to keep seniors with disabilities at home.

More than 40% of seniors have problems with sight, hear and walking. Most of them need help to save them from falls such as bathroom grab bars. Those types of renovations can be accomplished with the Seniors Home Repair.

However, wheelchair ramps, wide entrances and internal doors and making a house accessible to someone in a wheelchair cannot be done for $3,000.

Renovations to make a home safe and accessible for someone in a wheelchair can cost between $15,000 and $50,000. There are reported cases in Federal Tax Court of renovations for a person in a wheelchair have cost in excess of $80,000.

Mike Holmes in HGTV’s Holmes on Holmes carried out a renovation to make a wheelchair accessible home. The costs were above $90,000.

$3,000 will not do much for seniors with disabilities.

The assistance from the Seniors Home Repair is inadequate to assist seniors with moderate to severe disabilities in their homes. Statistics Canada report that 1,600 seniors could use additional financial assistance to accommodate their disabilities.

The Seniors Home Repair helps seniors without disabilities. Seniors with disabilities continue to be pushed into the provincial manors or private nursing homes. A recent study in New Brunswick found that the cost of caring for seniors in manors was 7 times higher than keeping them in their homes.