Grey-Bruce Organizations Lead Provincial Campaign for Seniors’ Advocate
CFUW Owen Sound and USCO Zone 9 are calling on Ontario to establish an independent Seniors’ Advocate to improve oversight, policy, and support for aging populations.
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Ontario needs a Seniors’ Advocate independent of government. Independent Seniors’ Advocate positions created by governments across Canada, for example in British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, have been able to gather information used by governments to improve living conditions for seniors.
The Canadian Federation of University Women (CFUW) Owen Sound and Area chapter, and the United Senior Citizens of Ontario (USCO) Zone 9, including Grey and Bruce Counties, have started a provincial campaign to make an independent Seniors’ Advocate a reality for Ontario.
The Owen Sound and Area CFUW club is part of the CFUW Ontario Council, a provincial organization with 48 clubs across Ontario and 4,500 members.
CFUW is a voluntary, self-funded, non-profit, non-partisan women’s organization whose members seek to provide life-long learning, to improve public policy and to advocate for gender equality and justice for the rights of women and girls.
USCO is a non-profit volunteer driven organization whose mission is to represent the needs of seniors through unity, education, support, and cooperation with member clubs and other groups to enhance the quality of life, community participation, and independence of seniors.
The USCO is affiliated with the National Pensioners Federation.
The provincial CFUW and USCO organizations approved resolutions in 2025 calling on the provincial government to create an independent Seniors’ Advocate. The resolutions were started in Grey-Bruce by CFUW Owen Sound and Area and USCO Zone 9.
CFUW provincial council and USCO provincial leadership have shared these resolutions with provincial politicians. Representatives of CFUW Owen Sound and USCO Zone 9 recently met with Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound MPP Paul Vickers about the need for an independent Seniors’ Advocate.
Members of both CFUW and USCO are writing letters to Paul Vickers and other local MPPs urging that an independent Seniors’ Advocate be established.
An independent Seniors’ Advocate would seek input from the public about issues related to aging, monitor the effects of provincial policy and legal changes on the experience of aging in Ontario, and make recommendations that would address the needs of particularly vulnerable seniors, such as newcomers and low-income seniors.
In a position independent of government, the Seniors’ Advocate’s recommendations would be based on research and data.
For further information about the project to get a Seniors’ Advocate for Ontario, contact:
Angela Yenssen (on behalf of CFUW Owen Sound and Area)
519-370-2200, ext. 33
angela.yenssen@gbclc.clcj.ca
Robert (Bob) Silverton, President, USCO Zone 9
519 270-8267
sil@bmts.com
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