In celebration of International Day of the Elderly, the City of Montreal is taking additional measures to ensure senior residence protections (RPA).

Welcoming the work of eight boroughs that have already changed their zoning codes to ban RPA conversions, Mayor Valérie Plante’s office announced that the boroughs of Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles, Rosemont-La Petite -Patrie and Ahuntsic-Cartierville will follow in the fall.

“These specific measures represent an additional layer of protection that will help maintain the city’s senior housing and health care offerings,” the spokesman said the city of Montrealvia press release.

When senior residences fall under the Quebec government, the Plante administration felt it was imperative to “develop new tools to protect these living environments.”

“By banning the conversion of these buildings, we want to ensure seniors have the local health care, stability and neighborhood life they long for. No district should escape this new instrument. It’s about the quality of seniors everywhere in Montreal,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.

We were all shocked to see seniors being threatened with being denied health services where they live.

Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal.

Robert Beaudry, chief of urban planning, civic participation and democracy on the City of Montreal Executive Committee, said he is proud that other counties are enacting regulations aimed at protecting RPAs and prohibiting their conversion into other housing types.

For the latter, these new measures are in line with other “initiatives by our administration to protect the rental stock and its affordability for the entire population”.

Recall that last August the city council approved a motion calling for Quebec to impose a one-year moratorium on decertifying and changing the assignment of RPAs in Montreal territory.

Politics pays tribute to seniors

Several leaders of the main political parties who are currently at the end of their election campaigns also took the opportunity to pay tribute to the elders.

François Legault’s Coalition avenir québec (CAQ) hailed “these women and men who built Quebec” via the party’s Twitter account.

On this International Day of Older Persons, Solidarność declared that her party offers “concrete solutions to enable people to age in the best conditions” and that “everyone should be able to age with dignity and, above all, at home”.

The Parti Québecois (PQ) has criticized the CAQ, arguing that the latter should have listened to the seniors before embarking on the costly senior home project. The PQ believes that the older generations are “more likely to ask that we help them so that they can stay at home for as long as possible”.

Also from the federal government, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a message to seniors: “Seniors have worked hard all their lives to build a better Canada for the generations of today and tomorrow. On this National Seniors’ Day, I join all Canadians in honoring seniors and highlighting the many contributions they make to our communities,” he said.