Ageism is pervasive in Nova Scotia, as it is everywhere in North America, but Nova Scotians are older so should know better.
In fact, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and – surprise – Florida have the oldest populations among all states, provinces and territories in North American. Deputy Minister Simon d’Entremont of Nova Scotia’s Department of Seniors insisted that’s not a bad thing at the legislature’s public accounts committee this week.
“We have to stop looking at aging as a problem to be solved, and see it as the opportunity it is,” the middle-aged mandarin said.
Ageism holds back more than the people who encounter it looking for work. It costs Canada billions of dollars in lost income every year. The consequences of age discrimination in the workplace – primarily from lost productivity – is an estimated two per cent drag on national GDP, said d’Entremont, who advocates for seniors full-time and most frequently with his government colleagues who deliver services seniors need.
The perception that boomers’ refusal to shuffle off to retirement somehow disadvantages eager millennials is a myth; an example of the “lump of labour fallacy.” That’s the mistaken impression that there is a fixed amount of work – a lump of labour – and that once it’s taken up, there’s no room for more workers. It’s not true. Economic growth requires increased productivity or output, and more labour, properly deployed drives that growth.
And, the idea that Nova Scotia is blowing economic opportunities by marginalizing older workers demands attention from employers in a province that has no opportunities to spare.
Ageism – a negative perception of aging and the elderly – is on d’Entremont’s list of the top three problems of the elderly. Social isolation tops the list and access to transportation rounds it out.
The notoriously-detached Brits have designated a Ministry of Loneliness in what may be the first official recognition of emotion on the stiff upper-lips of the Sceptred Isle, where a national survey found that at least a third of senior citizens meet the criteria for social isolation.
Social isolation could be the most pressing and challenging issue facing governments in the next few decades, d’Entremont told the committee. If the idea conjures up images of a dystopian world where most people are alone and frightened of demented loners on the prowl, under cover of darkness, for God-knows-what, get started on the screenplay.
d’Entremont’s gallant efforts to highlight the vast warehouse of potential stored in Nova Scotia’s elder population notwithstanding, opposition politicians on the committee wanted to put the more immediate problems of seniors under the spotlight.
Finding decent, affordable housing; unpredictable home care services; long waits to get into nursing homes, and gaps in other services that would help older people stay in their own homes are issues the elderly are trying to deal with day-to-day.
Access to simple services, like snow clearing, is vitally important to older Nova Scotians. d’Entremont said an individual’s ability to look after his or her home can be as much a barrier to living independently as are health problems.
Human history holds no lessons in how to deal with the social consequences of a population dominated by the elderly. So, there is no set game plan to respond to the massive shift in demographics underway in Nova Scotia and elsewhere but, as noted, the province is at the top of the old heap.
Numbers only tell stories to mathematicians, but in 2016, about 405,000 Nova Scotians – well over half of the adult population – were over 50, and 333,000 were aged 19-49. Don’t count on the kids to pick up the slack. There were just 185,000 Nova Scotians under the legal drinking age at the time of that last census.
Keeping older workers employed may be an economic necessity in places like Nova Scotia, where people requiring state-sponsored services could outnumber and overwhelm those paying the taxes that fund those services.
It’s that image of in inverted population pyramid – the base is old; the tip is young – that keeps provincial policy-makers up at night. There are more Nova Scotians in nursing homes, or waiting to get in, then babies born in Nova Scotia each year. In 2015, the last year for which there’s data, more Nova Scotians died than were born. While that last statistic tells you that, over time, population inversion will take care of itself, the combined data indicate a lengthy lifespan for a grey Nova Scotia.
Get used to the phrase “age-friendly” because it will be repeated often for a generation or more. Age-friendly workplaces, age-friendly communities, age-friendly passing lanes. Sorry, that last comment was blatantly ageist.
Jim Vibert, a journalist and writer for longer than he cares to admit, consulted or worked for five Nova Scotia governments. He now keeps a close and critical eye on provincial and regional powers.
