By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

City to review both Lethbridge seniors centre’s operations and funding

Dec 12, 2017 | 12:45 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Members of the Nord-Bridge Senior’s Association say they’re not getting nearly the same amount of funding as the Lethbridge Senior Citizens Organization, and they want to know why.
 
According to a letter sent to the city, in April 2016, the Nord-Bridge Senior’s Association presented the findings of an Operational and Strategic Review of the association to city council.
 
The review contained information on how larger seniors centres across Alberta were being funded. The review indicated that between 2009 and 2018, Nord-Bridge centre funding increased from $180,500 to $209, 500 – or 1.6 per cent per year.
 
During the same time period, the LSCO went from $220,000 to $344,700 – an increase of 5.67 per cent per year.
 
The City’s Community and Social Development Committee then recommended that city administration engage with senior’s centre members to review issues impacting older adults, and a financial roadmap to ensure both senior organizations could understand how funding decisions were made, among others.
 
But according to former Lethbridge Mayor and Nord-Bridge spokesperson Bob Tarlek, that didn’t happen.
 
“At that time we thought council was going to set up a committee to study that. It didn’t. Instead, it sent it to the Lethbridge Senior’s Community Forum and is now Age Friendly Lethbridge. But that isn’t a City of Lethbridge committee. It’s a community committee.”
 
Tarlek says that committee’s mandate isn’t to look at things within City Hall, it’s to look at things within the community and make sure that’s being addressed.
 
“And it didn’t address our issues” he says.
 
Tarlek’s presentation at Monday’s (Dec. 11) meeting asked for a city committee to finally be established to deal with the funding concerns.
 
Council instead directed Community and Social Development Services Coordinator Amanda Jensen to study how the centres are funded, and to report back to them by May 28, 2018.
 
The department is responsible for allocating money from the province to the two senior’s centres.
 
“Of course we have two senior’s centres in the city and they run and are operated very differently,” explains Jensen. “So comparing those two in terms of their funding and the number of members that they have and the services they offer is not comparing apples to apples, because they’re such different organizations.
 
“So what this will give us the opportunity to do, is to take a look at the data and bring facts forward so that we can make sure that there’s equitable funding, and we can make sure that we are serving the seniors of Lethbridge as efficiently and effectively as we can.”
 
Tarlek says he’s happy with how everything worked out.
 
“We don’t want this to be a tug of war between two organizations. We want this to be a thoughtful, deliberate and meaningful exercise.
 
“I am happy with what council did, and I am happy with the time-frame that they provided.”
 
He says the population and needs of local seniors continues to grow, and communities around the world are realizing that they have to change to meet those needs.
 
“We need to make sure that they look not only after their physical health, but their emotional and social well-being as well.”