The Sunshine Coast Regional District's (SCRD's) draft recreation master plan took a hit on the chin this week. The source was a Gibsons councillor who also sits on the regional board as the alternate director for the Town.
On Tuesday evening, following a presentation to Gibsons council by the SCRD's community services management team, Coun. Lee Ann Johnson tore a strip off the document. Her main criticism was that it neglects our elders.
The master plan is intended to map out the future of parks and recreation services on the Sunshine Coast for the next 10 years. In Johnson's view, there is almost nothing in the plan that addresses the needs of our burgeoning elder population.
"If you're going to be looking at a 10-year plan with the actual demographics, I just don't see how we're going to meet the actual needs of the community," Johnson told the SCRD delegation.
After the meeting, Anne Titcomb, who chairs the steering committee that has spent more than two years drafting the master plan, defended the document against Johnson's attack. Titcomb said the plan's service delivery model will enable parks and rec staff to address the needs of all segments of the community, including seniors.
Whether Johnson's comments were justified will become more apparent as the new service model unfolds, but she did get the issue on the public's radar, and her warning has value. Because, in general, our elders do not get the attention or the respect they deserve.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice it, but twice in the last four months the death of a respected shíshálh (Sechelt Indian Band) elder has made the front page of this newspaper. The passing of Theresa Jeffries and Donna Joe were major news stories because of the vital position that elders hold within the shíshálh community.
Instead of being put out to pasture, shíshálh elders are esteemed as active leaders, teachers and advisors. When they die, the community, right up to chief and council, publicly mourns the life and publicly celebrates the legacy. It's a big deal.
On the rest of the Coast, it isn't that way. Elders are not respected to the same degree. Once they retire from their jobs, they generally fade into the background. Their positions in the community are not considered vital. It's that simple. It would be nice if it were not so.
Johnson was talking about providing recreation services to the elderly in a new way. I would like to see us learn to respect our elders in a new way. It's one of the great lessons we can draw from the shíshálh.
As a quirky addendum, among the SCRD bigwigs in attendance Tuesday night was board chair Garry Nohr. Nohr did not respond to Johnson's critiques of the master plan at the meeting, but driving down South Fletcher Road afterward, he yelled at yours truly on the sidewalk: "Most of that's in the plan!"
Then he was gone like the wind.
These elders.
