Some seniors are feeling ignored by the federal government after they introduced a new pass that gets you into national parks for free this summer according to the lead of a group that represents retired people.
The Canada Strong Pass introduced Monday, not only gets you into every national park in the country at no extra cost, but there are discounts for things like Via Rail and museums only catered to a specific, younger demographic.
Bill VanGorder is the education and advocacy lead of the Canadian Association of Retired People, and he tells our newsroom there are concerns regarding the discounts available for some demographics, but not seniors.
“It’s just another indication that the federal government is not as concerned about the needs for and of seniors as they should be,” says VanGorder.
He adds that there is no minister for seniors in this cabinet so that is an indication that age group will not be as supported by Ottawa as they should be.
Wonderful but disappointing
Vangorder says the idea of the pass is wonderful and seniors can take advantage of some of the benefits but it’s not enough.
“Why would they offer discounts to young people and not offer them to seniors who are already suffering from high inflation, high food prices and being on fixed incomes,” asks VanGorder.
He says seniors are looking for some sort of indication that the federal government is concerned about them.
Next steps
Getting in touch the Minister of Families is the next step for the association, as well as the cabinet secretary and other political parties.
“We know that seniors have the highest percentage of voters. It’s interesting to see these elected people are already, so early in their term, beginning to ignore seniors when they do their announcements,” says VanGorder.
He says, hopefully this is not the tip of the iceberg.
