Forgotten: The Senior Crisis No One Tells You About

A complete financial wasteland.That's what a man named Jim, who I met in Home Depot this past week, called Canada.And he's a senior, he's retired, and I got to thinking, this poor senior is here in Home Depot, and the reason he was there was not because he was rich and buying hot tubs or anything like that.No, he was trying to get a small part to repair plumbing that his landlord would not prepare for him.And he had watched the show all the time, recognized me in the Home Depot.We got to talking and he talked about how Canada is a financial wasteland for him and his wife now.

After years of building a family, after years of putting into our tax system, after years of making it work, he now has a time in his life where he can't make it work.And it's supposed to be his golden years, the promise of Canada, paying into CPP, saving what you can to retire, doing exactly what society told everyone who's in this situation would happen if they worked hard, if they planned ahead, if they saved, they could eventually retire, and they could enjoy those golden years.For generations, that's been the promise of Canada.But today, so many seniors are in a similar situation.A growing number of Canadian seniors appear to be living a life that violates that promise.Some are returning to work.

Some are turning to food banks.Some are cutting back on the lives they worked so hard over decades to build.Some just can't even afford their rent or housing costs.And some are facing something that should never be the story for any senior in this country.Almost unimaginable if you think about it after a lifetime of work.homelessness.

Today we're going to do something very different.We are going to travel the country via clips and we are going toare going to meet some of the seniors and what they've already gone through.We're going to surf some of your local news, some of those clips, and as we travel across this country, I want you to pay close attention to what you're watching.I don't want you to listen to who they blame.We all know how this happened.

But I want you to listen to what they're actually doing to survive.Because by the end of this episode, we're going to be able to travel across this country and we're going to realize something.That the map of this country is filled with stories like these.And things that are so important to seniors in Canada.Let's tap into the truth.

Welcome to Bakes on Things.

Welcome back to Tap the Maple here on Bakes on Things.Let's begin in Ontario, shall we?I want you to actually meet Jane Woodcock.Jane is 68 years old.Her husband sadly passed away in 2018.It put some strain on her, but now the cost of living has gotten out of control.

She eventually came to realize that something happened in her life.She can't afford things and this terrifies a lot of retired people.She's realized she has to return to work.She did something that you probably never would imagine at this stage of your life when you're trying to retire.She went back to work as a cleaner of houses and businesses.Let's listen to Jane's story.

Every time I go into the grocery store, like stuff that I was always buying before, it's like doubled price and just Pissed me off, you know, animal food, like, what is it with?Why is it all rising?You know, can't the government step in and say, look, this is enough?

Are you retired or currently working?

I have to work because the government doesn't pay enough.for me to retire.So I have to work.

10 years ago, 15 years ago, did you think at 68, you'd be at this point still working or were you hoping retirement?Talk to me about that.

I thought I'd be retired because my husband died seven years ago.And before that, you know, like I wasn't working.He was working and supporting both of us and all the animals.And, um, I never dreamed I'd be in this position.Never.I hate it.

People should be able to live properly.

Think about what we just heard in that video.She retired.She was supposed to be done with her career.She was supposed to be enjoying the rest of her life.And then she effectively had to un -retire.That's essentially what has happened.

There's actually something revealing about the word un -retire, isn't there?Retirement is supposed to be the finish line.You can't un -retire.But unfortunately, that's what we're seeing more of.It's supposed to be the reward at the end of the tunnel of decades of work.Yet for some Canadians, apparently that finish line is now moving back and forth.

And Jane isn't some theoretical example in an economic report.She's a real person.We just saw her in that clip.She's 68 years of age, and she is just simply trying to live her life.She's working again because the numbers just don't work out for her anymore.But what happens when going back to work isn't even the answer for you?

What happens when the problem actually becomes your access to food?And that brings us to story number two.This one is actually still in Ontario, but it's an important one.This time, I want you to meet Sharon MacArthur and Wayne Gattinger.What most of us imagine retirement would be, we imagine something relatively simple, don't we?The ability to retire.

afford family dinners is not usually on the table as a question.But seeing the grandchildren shouldn't be either.And maybe traveling occasionally shouldn't be off the table either.Enjoying the life you've spent decades building.But listen to what rising food costs have meant for this retired couple.

We both had saved for our retirement.I always worked for non -profits, so most of them didn't have a retirement plan, so I did self -directed retirement plan.But life happens and that has just about disappeared.So groceries and gas are killing us.

Cost of living has gone up.Everybody gets a raise.Seniors don't get a raise.They don't give us anything.

We never get out of the grocery store under over a hundred dollars and our pensions are so low we basically are surviving on CPP and old age.In our town we see a lot of seniors at the food banks.We go at least once a month.It's available to us every two weeks but we only go when we feel that we need it.The scariest part is a year from now our mortgage will come up for renewal.even at like we're currently only paying 2 % and if rates are up to 6 % that's going to increase our mortgage payment by at least $300 a month.

We could end up homeless and it's a real fear and here we are in our golden years and having to worry about both of us have worked since we were 14.

This is where this story starts becoming much bigger than giving up luxuries in your life, because that's not what our seniors are giving up.We're talking about just access to food.We're talking about heating.We're talking about family events.We're talking about transportation.We're talking about the basic components of your everyday life.

and we're talking about food banks for seniors?Think about the psychological side of what that means for a moment, especially to a retired senior or a trying to retire senior.Here you are, you work in this country for the man for decades, providing for yourself, providing for your family, and then one day you realize you need help putting groceries on the table.Food banks weren't created for our retired people.They were created as an emergency support system.Why are retirees in emergency support situations?

They were never supposed to become part of somebody's retirement plan.We are going to travel right across the country to Vancouver, and I want you to meet Shamin Hooda.She is 76 years old.She's living on a pension, and she says she cannot afford Vancouver's rents.It is one of the most expensive places in this country to live, so she remains in an apartment with a rodent infestation problem while waiting for affordable housing.Listen carefully to what she believes could happen if she can't get help.

I put in my application because I am 76 and I have a set amount of money.That's it.There's no money coming from anywhere.I don't get anything from the government.Only my old age pension and the CPP.I've contributed to all of this stuff.

And I get a small pension from Air Canada.Basically, that's it.There's no money coming from anywhere else.A little bit of saving I have is for when I die, they'll bury me with that money.That's it.I've never earned huge amounts of money to be able to put away hundreds and thousands of dollars.

I wish I had, but I haven't.So I'm at a stage now wherelife that unless I get help, I've become a street person.

This is where the phrase affordability crisis suddenly feels woefully inadequate, doesn't it?The Prime Minister is in Italy and seniors are living with rodents.This is someone's life.A 76 -year -old pensioner who can't simply go out and double her income, let alone take a trip to Italy.And this exposes one of the enormous vulnerabilities of retirement in Canada today.When you're 35 or 45 and your expenses increase, at least theoretically, you might be able to earn more money, get a promotion, go take on another job, work overtime, change jobs or careers entirely, take on additional work as an Uber driver, you name it.

But what happens when you're 76 years old?Your income can be relatively fixed, can it?Or totally fixed even.Your expenses, however, are not fixed.No one's are.Rent increases, food we know increases, utilities we definitely know increase, insurance increases, transportation can increase as well, rates on the buses for God's sake.

Everything around you can become more expensive while your ability to respond becomes very, very small.And Shameen isn't the only senior caught in this type of situation.Let's shift on to our next story and stay in British Columbia for a second, because this is another important situation.She's actually in this.Shameen's story isn't occurring in isolation.This story got expanded and thousands of seniors have been waiting on the BC Housing Registry for help with their housing.

Some of the seniors interviewed in this next report describe the possibility that they could end up on the street.Watch this.

Many times I think to myself, what have I done in life to deserve this?

It's like a punishment.Shemin Hooda says she just can't live in her Vancouver apartment anymore because it's riddled with rodents.

This winter I had nothing but infestation of mice.I'm done.I killed eight.I can't live there any longer.

The stress keeps her from sleeping.But Huda can't afford to move.The pensioner has lived in the same building for 30 years and pays just over $1 ,100 a month.So the 76 -year -old applied to the B .C.Housing Registry.

She was told no one would look at her application for months.

That means I'm going to be waiting another six years like my girlfriend did.I'll be dead by then.

Since 2020, applications for the B .C.Registry have skyrocketed.There are currently 2 ,500 seniors waiting for housing in the city of Vancouver and almost 8 ,000 in the metro area.I had applied to B .

C.

Housing in 2016.And had you heard anything?I had never heard anything.Sybilla Rolf lost her affordable housing when her landlord died.With a budget of just $1 ,000 a month, Rolf was close to ending up on the street.But a contact she made through a senior center helped her bypass the registry altogether.

And somebody who owed her a favor and she might be able to get a place for me.Within weeks, she was in B .C.housing downtown.I don't think it's fair that you have to have a contact to get housing.Because what happens with all the people who don't have a contact?

It's really about housing precarity.So it's not just about looking for housing because they're homeless.It's about them feeling not secure in their current housing.

Michael Volker with Seniors 411 saysthe city needs more than just below market rentals.

Technically if market is at $2 ,500 a month for a two -bedroom, well you could be at $2 ,499 and be below market.

The BC Seniors advocate says there has been a lack of investment in affordable housing for the past decade.and available units go to those in crisis first, including seniors who are in the shelter system.

If there's a severe event, you're going to rise to the top of the list, and that's how you're going to find that housing, and that's how we've rationed and triaged, if you will, a scarce resource of this affordable housing.

The province says that 85 % of the people on the registry have been there less than five years, but that doesn't account for the additional 15 % who may be left waiting even longer.

This is the part of Canada's housing crisis that I don't think gets discussed nearly enough by this government or by really anyone, whether it's mainstream media or each other.We spend enormous amounts of time talking about young Canadians' ability to afford their first home, but it's seniors that have a major, major problem with housing right now.There's a total other end to this crisis that we're not paying enough attention to.Canadians who are reaching their 70s and 80s and discovering that they can't afford the housing market either.Except they don't have 40 years ahead of them to solve the problem with a new career.And while some seniors are struggling to find somewhere affordable to live, others are struggling simply to survive.

to eat.We know this.Here's another story that's centered around struggling to feed our seniors.And again, it's British Columbia.We've got a big problem out there.It's the Sunshine Coast, as a matter of fact.

One of their senior homes has growing demand.More seniors needing help getting enough food.And the organization itself isstruggling financially to meet that need.Take a look.

Now Linda, can I get you to open the door for me?

Chef Emily McPherson and her team at the Sechelt Seniors Activity Center are running flat out to get their prep done.Not only are they busy with the day's lunch service.They're making hundreds of frozen meals as well.

Almost everything that is done at the center is volunteer labor and that's a huge cost savings that we're able to pass on.

Typically lunch is packed and for $12 it's easy to see why.The ready -to -eat meals cost six or eight bucks.So popular the kitchen is running out of freezer space.

Is that your favorite?

Yeah, it is.Last month, the center sold nearly 2 ,500 frozen meals.But rising input costs has meant the center has had to get creative to keep prices fixed.

Well, let's look at the online 50 -50.It seems to be a Canadian tradition.

The 50 -50 draw will be held monthly, and half the purse going to fund the expanded frozen meal program.

We're under no constraints what we want to do.And this online 50 -50 was a way that looked like, and it would be sustainable if it builds.

Income disparity has become a real issue for seniors, not only on the Sunshine Coast, but across the country.Retirement, for some, means just scraping by.

In British Columbia, a quarter of seniors, 25 % of seniors, are living on less than $23 ,000 a year.

The 50 -50 draw is not ideal.A more stable source of funding would be preferred.But if it bridges the gap to keep the program affordable and accessible, it will be seen as a success.

So I want you all to stop and think about what you just saw for a second and the chain reaction that we're starting to see now.First, we met a senior who went back to work.Then retirees turn it around.to a food bank.Then, a pensioner who can't afford market rent.Then, seniors waiting for affordable housing.

And now, an organization designed to support seniors is itself feeling the financial pressure because so many people need help now.That's why individual stories matter and they add up to a huge group of people.One person struggling can be dismissed as unfortunate circumstances.But when you explore the country, when organizations designed to catch people when they fall begin struggling with the volume of people that are falling, we should probably start asking bigger questions of this federal government.And the next story takes it to another level.entirely.

We're flying back to Ontario for this one.Toronto, as a matter of fact, and I want you to remember one number here.I want you to remember the number 91, not 1991.I want you to meet Isatoro Venturio.I hope I said that right.91 years old.

He had lived in his Little Italy rental apartment for 20 years.Then he was evicted and city officials were helping him access a shelter.a shelter at 91 years old in Canada.Watch this.

He is 91 years old and he's being evicted from his rental unit in Little Italy.As Michelle Mackey tells us, after 20 years in his home, tonight this man will be sleeping in a shelter.

You have to go, you have to go, you have to go, you have to go.

That's what Ventulo says the sheriff's office told him on Friday when they arrived at his unit, ordering him to leave by Monday.The one bedroom apartment on Clinton Street is owned by George DeMello and his father, Joseph.according to court documents.Ventuolo tried to introduce us.

George, can we quickly interview you, sir?

We'd love to hear your side of the story.He denied our request, but the court documents show that an eviction order from last year was upheld on appeal in May so that DiMello could move into the unit to be close to his father, who has dementia and relies upon him for emotional, financial and other support.Ventuolo believes that the eviction is retaliation for his complaint about bedbugs.

Are those bedbugs?

Look, look in there.All by the box, they got a mouse over here.Look, look in there.And then they turn up here, they took my blood and they said to me, you have to go.

He says he's also poured thousands of dollars of his own money into repairs.

I have to take the floor off and fix with cement.

Ventulo, who says he suffers from depression, is a staple in Little Italy, known by many in the community.

That's crazy.He's an elderly man.Like, where's he going to go?

City Councilor Diane Sachs says there is a temporary solution.

Well, we worked hard with the city staff to make sure that there is going to be a bed for him tonight in the shelter.While Ventuolo's situation is terrible, Sachs says it's not unique.The Ford government, with the way they've structured rent control, gives landlords a very powerful incentive to get rid of long -standing tenants by any means fair or foul.

I mean, there are stories where commentary almost feels unnecessary.Really, I shouldn't say much more than what you just saw there.This might be one of them.91 years old, 20 years in the same apartment, and suddenly the conversation is about going to a shelter at 91.1.There are legal circumstances surrounding an eviction.

I get it.It's alsoa non -payment situation, potentially.There are two sides to landlord and tenant disputes.I completely realize that.But that's not the bigger question that I'm interested in in this episode today.

What I'm interested in is what happens to a 91 -year -old after all of that.How does a country end up with a system where one of our 91 -year -old Canadian citizens can reach the point where a homeless shelter becomes part of the conversation in their final few years?Because at 91 years old, you're probably not rebuilding your financial life in any way.You're not even able to return to work.You're not going to do schooling or anything like that to change careers.You're probably not even launching a new career.

You need somewhere safe and affordable to live.And here's something important about Isidoro's story.After his situation became public, people responded.Not the government.People in the neighborhood.People in Little Italy.

Members of the community stepped forward to help Isidoro.Strangers helped.A temporary housing solution was thankfully found because the people cared.That's important here, because today's episode isn't about pretending Canada has lost its humanity.We know our neighbourhoods want to help all of our seniors.Many of our communities see what's going on.

In many of these stories, Canadians are stepping forward to help others where the government just won't help us with affordability, not in the real way.And these seniors are caught up in this web.It is a nasty web with, I would say, the biggest spiders of all, the Liberal government.but let's travel for one more story to Regina, Saskatchewan and meet Diane Clark.She's 75 years old and her retirement doesn't look the way she once imagined that it would.She says travel has

disappeared from even the conversation at this point.The quality of the food she buys has changed entirely, and she spends much more time just in her home.But this report goes well beyond Diane.because Diane is not alone.Increasingly, Canadians approaching retirement or even in retirement are looking at the numbers and wondering whether 65 is even realistic anymore.Are you sitting there at 63 or 64 going, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this?

Take a look at this.

This is not where Diane Clark expected to spend her 75th birthday.As much as she enjoys playing cards with friends, Diane had a different idea of what her retirement would look like.

We don't travel anymore.We don't buy as good of food as we used to buy, basically.And we stick around home a lot.

The 2008 financial crisis, coupled with post -COVID -19 pandemic inflation, limited retirement lifestyles.This week, CIBC released a survey that found two -thirds of Canadians say the increased cost of living is hampering retirement plans.Financial planners calling for soon -to -be retirees to get their ducks in a row.

Look at an actual budget, and part of that budget should include, of course, retirement savings and making sure that we're taking advantage of all the different registered plans.

The survey also found 7 in 10 expect to have a phased retirement, with the expectation of working after 65.

They're absolutely terrified about outliving their savings and becoming a burden on their family.

It has organizations like CARP, The Canadian Association of Retired Persons calling for changes to legislation of RRSPs.Ottawa has a mandatory withdrawal at age 71, which Carp says forces some seniors who are still working to receive income that would benefit them later in life.The National Institute on Aging also found 90 % of Canadians start receiving their Canada Pension Planat or before they turn 65.But experts say if you can, delaying the start of that benefit is a far better option.

And if you wait from age 60 to age 70, you'll more than double t is guaranteed for life.I and it's basically it's you do the math.

Seniors l out a warning to be full increase in life expectan money than we did and in can remain as such.

Retirement collided with rising food costs and the food bank became part of their reality.Then we have to travel across the country to British Columbia.Shameen Hooda's story, 76 years old, in similar situations to our friends in Ontario, living on a pension that can't cover Vancouver's market rents.British Columbia again.This is just from our episode.thousands of seniors waiting for affordable housing.

A senior center trying to keep up with growing demand from people needing help getting enough food into their bellies or on their tables.Back to Ontario again Isidoro and his story.That's another 91 years old evicted after 20 years the same apartment.Now riddled with rodents and facing the shelter system in Toronto.And lastly Saskatchewan with Diane Clark.She's not the only one, but she's the one in this story.

75 years old travel is gone.Buying cheaper food is not even in question.Spending more time at home because retirement simply doesn't stretch the way it once did to any kind of expense, especially entertainment outside of the home.Notice something?Different provinces, different cities, different people, different ways of life, different circumstances leading up to retirement.different lives altogether.

The same conversation about the obliterated financial situation for seniors due to housing, due to food costs, due to having to return to work, due to fixed incomes, due to retirement, due to evictions, due to shelters, due to survival, and maybe That's the real story here, isn't it?This country is in big trouble.We've spent years talking about Canada's affordability crisis, primarily through the experience and eyes of either working -age Canadians or young people.We've talked about mortgage rates and payments and renewals.We've talked about rents for young people and those that are in the working class.We've talked about gas taxes and even just gas costs.

We've talked about groceries.We've talked about what childcare costs.And absolutely, Those stories all matter, but they're not today's story.Seniors experience affordability differently in this country because time changes the equation.If you're 30 and life becomes unaffordable, you've hopefully got decades of earning power ahead of you to correct that, to right your earning ship.That's not much consolation when you're 75 or 91.

A senior can't necessarily solve inflation by working another 20 hours a week.They can't necessarily move somewhere cheaper.after spending decades building their community around family, doctors, and friends.They can't necessarily wait another decade for housing supply to catch up.And they can't necessarily rebuild retirement savings after those savings have already been spent.That's what makes these stories, these people, real people.

different.The traditional retirement bargain has remarkably been simple, but too simple.Spend your productive years working, save, contribute, and then eventually retire.Eventually reach a stage of life where you could stop worrying so much about earning money.But listen to the language we're increasingly using now.It has nothing to do with that dream, that promise.

We're hearing delayed retirement.We're hearing financial wasteland, as I heard in Home Depot.We're hearing unretirement, working seniors, senior food bank usage, affordable housing wait lists.Those phrases tell their own very sad, difficult and terrifying story.We're beginning to normalize something that previous generations would have considered a warning sign.That's the problem here.

The numbers that Mark Carney and the government present to you or even hide from you, in this case, have faces.And this is exactly why we wanted today's episode.I could have sat here and given you inflation numbers and how they're affecting seniors, average rents, food inflation numbers, retirement income statistics.We could have gone through all of it.There'll be liberals in the comments that say, where are the charts showing proof of this, Chris?Show the receipts.

People are receipts too.and we've seen a lot of them in this episode, and there are so many more.Sometimes statisticshide the very thing they're supposed to explain.And that's our people, the retirees.Jane is what an affordability statistic looks like.

Shameen is what a housing statistic looks like.Sharon and Wayne are what food price statistics look like.Isidoro, 91, still can't get over it, is what housing insecurity can look like at that age.Diane is what retirement erosion looks like.It's all there.It's all real.

It's all in front of you.Those numbers have faces.They have families.They have histories.They have dignity that they wish to uphold, and as rightfully so.And they spent decades contributing to this country.

So there's one thought I keep coming back to after creating this episode and watching all of these stories for myself.These people aren't asking to become wealthy.They don't want to have caviar on their planes like Mark Carney.They're trying to do something much simpler.They're trying to restore their independence.The ability to even just buy groceries.

The ability to heat their homes in the winter.The ability to remain in their communities that they've grown up in.The ability to stop working after decades of work so they can enjoy their golden years.The ability to live somewhere safe and secure.the ability to enjoy whatever time they've earned for themselves.And maybe that's why these stories hit me so hard, and probably have you.

Because sooner or later, if we're lucky, every one of us gets old.And the 30 -year -old watching today becomes the 60 -year -old dealing with this tomorrow.The 60 -year -old becomes the 80 -year -old without solutions.So this isn't somebody else's problem, even if you're 30 watching this.We're looking at the Canada we're all eventually going to retire into if we don't change something now.And that leaves us with one enormous question.

If Canadians can work their entire lives, pay their taxes, contribute to this country, do what we told them they were supposed to do, that responsible people do, and still reach retirement worried about whether they can eat food, whether they'll have a roof over their heads, or having to return to work entirely, then maybe we need to ask ourselves something a little more uncomfortable.What exactly are Canadians working toward?That's how we tap into the truth.Don't forget to like, subscribe, join the conversation, hype this video if you've got any left, and share it, please, because, of course, the Liberals love to make sure that social media throttles stories like this.So if you don't subscribe, you may not get it in your algorithm tomorrow.If you like this show, we'd love to be in your algorithm.

Please hit that subscribe button, hit that bell for notifications, and thanks for living and listening, everybody.We'll be back at 6 a .m.tomorrow morning for your Thursday morning episode of Tap the Maple.Until then, have a great Wednesday, and let's start helping our seniors.