THE GOVERNANCE OF COMMUNITY

SERVICES FOR AN AGING POPULATION

CAROLINE ANDREW, DIRECTOR
CENTRE ON GOVERNANCE
UNIVERSIT Y OF OTTAWA
CANDREW@UOTTAWA .CA

PROCESS COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE

Four important variables in their model of collaborative governance
Starting conditions
Institutional design
Leadership
Collaborative process
And for the rest of this presentation I am going to try to illustrate how these two
sets of criteria can be examined together to think about some of the possible
scenarios for municipal governments acting to transform community services for
an aging population

PUTTING TOGETHER STARTING CONDITIONS

AND TWO OF THE SETS OF PARTICIPANTS
Starting conditions includes
-power-resource-knowledge asymmetries
-incentives for and constraints on participation
-prehistory of cooperation and conflict (initial trust level)
Participants
-Community advocates seniors in groups and as individuals

- Elected officials

STARTING CONDITIONS ASYMMETRIES

Power elected officials have the formal power of making decisions that engage
muncipal governments
BUT seniors vote heavily in municipal elections and elected officials know this .
One example from a small study in 2003 of voters in St.Catherines voting by
age - 18-24 26.3%
25-44 - 53.3
45-64 - 70.6
65+ - 79.0

Does that give seniors more power ?

Maybe but lets look at resources

STARTING CONDITIONS ASYMMETRIES

Resources
The problem of the municipal taxation system
-

Very dependent on the property tax

Many seniors (not all of course but many) are property rich but more limited in
income - they have owned their homes for many years and property values have
risen considerably and therefore their property taxes have risen. This tends to
make them more concerned with the level of taxes than with the level of services.

And the problem of the municipal tax system is because the federal and provincial
governments will not agree on looking at the overall system of revenues and
expenditures by level of government in Canada.
So seniors may want community services to be more adapted to the changing
demography of Canada but they will vote thinking of their tax bill.

STARTING CONDITIONS ASYMMETRIES

Information
-Do elected officials adequately inform seniors ? More and more elected officials are
using social media ? Is that an effctive way of equalizing the information
asymmetry ?
-Or is it more properly the role of municipal governments as institutions to inform
residents? How user-friendly (or senior friendly) are municipal websites ? Are
they senior-friendly to seniors whose first language is not English or French ? Are
documents related to community services for seniors easy to find?

STARTING CONDITIONS INCENTIVES AND

CONSTRAINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
Incentives opportunities for participation at times and places suitable for seniors
BUT EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Will participation be meaningful ? Are the elected officials interested in really hearing
what seniors have to say about community services adapted to their needs and
their interests ? Are they interested in listening to all seniors? To those from lowincome communities ? To Aboriginal seniors? To seniors who do not speak
English or French? To GLBTQ seniors?

Is the municipality able to adapt some of its community services? If there is no

possibility (no budget, other priorities ) even if the elected officials really want to
listen to seniors the participation is not likely to be meaningful.

STARTING CONDITIONS INITIAL LEVEL OF

TRUST
I am not sure of the answer you probably have a better idea
HOWEVER I WOULD IMAGINE THE LEVEL OF TRUST IS LOW
-Seniors tend to feel with justification that they are seen as somewhat marginal to
society and therefore not listened to.
-Given the existing muncipal tax structure seniors may often feel that municipal
elected officials are not sufficiently concerned about keeping taxes down .
-The result of this is that community services do not get adapted to an aging
population despite the political (electoral ) clout of seniors .
-And this may lead certain elected officials to have a low level of trust those who
feel that seniors are only interested in lower taxes and not concerned about better
services for the more vulnerable residents

SO WHAT SHOULD BE DONE TO CREATE BETTER

STARTING CONDITIONS FOR EFFECTIVE
COLLABORATIVE GOVERNANCE BETWEEN
ELECTED OFFICIALS AND SENIORS ?
What are your suggestions ? IS IT POSSIBLE TO DO THIS?

IT HAS TO BE POSSIBLE - SO HERE ARE MY SUGGESTIONS

-

Lobby federal and provincial elected officials to enlarge muncipal revenue

possibilities that are less dependent on the property tax.

Provide more information about existing good practices in municipal adaptation

of community services for an aging population this should be done by all 4 of
our groups of participants - seniors, elected officials, staff and researchers.

Engage seniors in a formal collaborative governance process and ensure the

representation of diverse groups of seniors.

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS

THANK YOU