A Toronto that will soon have as many seniors as it does children requires changing the way the city works, Joe Pantalone says.
"As the population is aging, we have to be an age-friendly city," said the mayoral candidate, who promised Tuesday to hire a seniors' advocate at City Hall, "to ensure everything we do is seen through that prism."During a press conference in Little Italy at which he pointed to his own grey hair, Pantalone also said he'll freeze seniors' property taxes for four years, provided they have a family income under $50,000 and live in their own home.Many of Toronto's older residents feel under pressure and are fearful about their property taxes going up, said Pantalone, the city's deputy mayor.Others feel trapped in their homes because they lack transit options, he said, suggesting seniors will find the light-rail vehicles for the province's Transit City plan accessible because they have no steps. "They're ideal for an aging population."Pantalone said it was important to make Toronto's subway stations accessible too, but later added he wasn't committing to speeding up a schedule that would not guarantee that access until 2024. "It's an issue of money," he said.The candidate did say he would build more affordable housing for seniors as well as two "gym parks" which feature low-impact exercise machines designed for older adults in his first term as mayor. The special parks are very popular in Europe and China, he said. Pantalone further said making Toronto more age-friendly would require many changes, such as in the size of its road signs. He promised to end the common practice of allowing utility companies to cut sidewalks and patch them over with asphalt, because such irregular pavement is "really a danger" to seniors.Elder advocates have long called for Ontario cities to be more friendly to the elderly. In an interview in May, Scarborough-Agincourt MPP Gerry Phillips, Ontario minister responsible for seniors, said he wants to work with municipalities to make this happen.It often is municipalities that can influence things - such as by providing kneeling buses, or through the design of community centres and parks - closest to seniors, and more must be done locally to meet seniors' needs, Phillips said.