By Richard Bell
Minister of Seniors Filomena Tassi made two stops on the Eastern Shore on Thursday March 7 as part of a tour to meet with stakeholders and visit organizations that support and care for seniors. After a morning tour of a retirement community in Truro, she stopped into the Birches Nursing Home in Musquodoboit Harbour, followed by a late afternoon community meeting at the Old School Gathering Place.
At the Old School, Tassi described her role as the first Minister of Seniors, appointed on July 18, 2018. She mentioned that her mother was now 89, and that she had learned a great deal from her mother and her mother’s friends about the challenges facing the country’s seniors.
Central Nova MP Sean Fraser accompanied Tassi, and the two of them listened and responded to a series of presentations from organizations with a special focus on seniors’ issues.
- Crystal Tobin-Legere, co-chair of the Eastern Shore Musquodoboit Community Health Board and Chair of the Nova Scotia Health Authority Central Zone, talked about the findings of the Silver Economy Project’s survey of seniors on the Eastern Shore.
- Jessie Greenough, the Executive Director of MusgoRider and a founding member of The Old School talked about how MusgoRider’s transportation services made it possible for seniors to participate in community programs at the Old School and elsewhere.
- Gordon Michael from Dalhousie’s College of Continuing Education, talked about his work with Mentorship Plus, partnering the wisdom and skills of seniors with the needs and aspirations of young people. The Old School is one of the locations of this program.
Laurie Cook, one of the founders of the Old School and a long-time community development organizer and activist who now runs her own consulting firm, talked about the need for much more federal support for affordable housing for seniors, including programs to support aging in place. She also pointed out that in dealing with affordable housing issues, the federal government should be putting more funding into building capacity in small community organizations to put them on a more level playing field when competing for housing grants.
“We very much appreciated this opportunity to show Minister Tassi one of the places where communities can flourish,” said Old School Board Chair Karen Bradley. "The Old School is a place where seniors can gather, learn, and share their expertise and skills. Leslie Savoy and our volunteers work very hard to make everything happen, so it was gratifying to see that Sean Fraser and Philomena Tassi noticed and appreciated the work that we do.”
In a Facebook post after the visit, Tassi highlighted a new project at the Old School “involving dance therapy classes for seniors with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease—what an amazing idea!”
Tassi also mentioned her stop at Uprooted Market and Café, with its “locally-grown food, where you can meet your neighbours and chat while you eat. Thank you all for welcoming me, and for the wonderful things you’re doing for your communities!”
