The Province’s Minister of Assisted Living and Social Services has been busy with a number of announcements recently.
Alberta recently started a campaign on elder abuse awareness, which Minister Jason Nixon says will be important with the province’s population of seniors expected to increase.
“Our population of seniors in Alberta right now is around 830,000 individuals. Over the next couple, it’s going to increase to almost a million. We’re increasing our population of seniors by just over 4000 individuals a month. Of course as soon as we see more individuals show up, there’s more chances for elders to be taken advantage of. We want to be able to make sure that we’re providing awareness to them and opportunities to protect them.”
Over the next two years, more than $8 million will be invested in prevention and intervention efforts to protect seniors.
Meanwhile the province is also looking to get more people involved in the workforce with Nixon stating that $185 million is being invested this year into several employment support initiatives.
“That’s an increase of almost $85 million in supports, showing the importance that we’re putting into investing and helping people get to work. Some of the most recent announcements is $17 million going to help youth that are unemployed and $1.2 million to specifically to go to former military and personnel and former first responders who are transitioning into the civilian workforce.”
You can listen to the full interview below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
