This book provides concrete examples of promising practices for physical environments in long-term residential care: everything from the location of a nursing home and the structure of gardens to the floor coverings, chair arms, and spaces for memorials. Physical environments are about more than setting the conditions for living and care provision. They also shape and reflect how care and life in nursing homes are understood. They construct limits and possibilities for residents, staff, families and volunteers.
Seniors issues and pensions
Budget 2016 pledges $160 million to create 1,200 new Personal Home Care (PCH) spaces. It is to be hoped that this laudable move will be implemented based on the evidence. Regrettably this is a practice woefully lacking.
Pensions and the retirement security concerns of Canadians have been in the news in a big way in recent years.
With two-thirds of Canadian workers not covered by a workplace pension plan and a majority of citizens not contributing to RRSPs (almost $1 trillion in unused contribution room) many look to governments to show leadership on this looming pan-Canadian public policy issue. In both the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) debates, Manitoba’s voice has been both clear and strong in favour of the interests and well-being of workers and their families.
UNSPUN is the 2016 provincial election commentary series from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba
This book reports on the findings of an international team of 26 researchers and more than 50 graduate students who went to six countries in a search for promising practices in long term residential care for the elderly. It presents concrete examples of how long term care might be organized and undertaken in more promising ways that respect the needs of residents, families, workers and managers.
The study makes the economic case for divestment from fossil fuels, due to risk factors such as aggressive new climate policies. It is aimed at informing pension fund trustees about the risks associated with fossil fuel investments, and for interested workers who want to better understand what their pension money is up to, and how to ask the right questions.
OTTAWA—Canadian pension funds are exposed to a wide range of risks from their holdings of fossil fuels, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The study makes the economic case for divestment from fossil fuels, due to risk factors such as aggressive new climate policies. A review Canadian public pension fund annual reports found that action on climate change was not mentioned as a material risk to pension sustainability.
Two recent and widely quoted studies strongly suggest that no major policy changes are needed to better ensure Canadians have adequate retirement income in future. But are they right? Not according to Michael Wolfson, a Canada Research Chair and former assistant chief statistician at Statistics Canada.
Your golden years may be farther off than you think. Canada has the highest equity mutual fund fees in the world. In fact, they’re so high that in order to offset those fees, the average mutual fund investor will have to work until age 72 to match what a pension plan holder will make by age 65, even with identical contributions.
This study compares the management fees charged by mutual funds and pension plans, and finds that high management fees will cause Canadians relying on mutual funds for their retirement income to work longer or retire with less, compared to those with pension plans. The study recommends an expansion of inexpensive workplace pension plans or public pension plans, like the CPP; and as a stopgap measure, trailers fees—the portion of mutual fund fees that go back to the advisor—could be capped or banned entirely.