Canada is unprepared for the demographic time-bomb hurtling at us

Canadians are getting older. And we're not ready.

Like wealthy democracies the world over, Canada is edging toward a profound social, economic and financial shock, as the demographic composition of our society changes.

This is a fact that Sandra Martin understands well.

"Longevity is the new reality and I am in the vanguard of an emerging demographic trend," she wrote in a recent piece forThe Walrus.

We're still using a frame of reference from the pastthat 65 is old.- Nora Spinks,CEO of TheVanierInstitute of the Family

"My mother died at what would be considered now a very young age. She was 65," the author and journalisttoldThe Sunday Edition's guest host Peter Armstrong.

"She probably wouldn't have died at that age now."

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With the boomer generationturning 65 at a rate of one every seven seconds, there are now more Canadians over the age of sixty-five, than under fifteen.

At 70, with a lot of life ahead of her, Martin finds herself in a different mindsetthan that of her mother. Martinhas no intention of slowing down or retiring any time soon.

"So how am I going to manage that? That is the thing I want to know."

"The massive increase in life expectancy is something that we haven't really wrapped ourheads around from a policy perspective or from a program perspective," Nora Spinks, CEO of The Vanier Institute of the Family said. The institute is a national, charitable organization that studies the realityof family life in Canada.

Because, she explained, "we're still using a frame of reference from the past that 65 is old."

No stranger to change

For Spinks, the aging demographic is an asset; it'sa population of people with years of knowledgeand experience with time, energy and wealth to spare.

"If we can wrap our heads around 'how do we leverage this asset and find a way to deal with those who have more episodic, chronic or progressive needs?' then we'll be able to better adapt to this phenomenon that we're faced with," she says.

The boomers are no strangers to adapting to change. They have changed the conversations aroundretirement ageand broughtthe discourse about dying with dignity out into the open.

But, Martin said, "boomers have to start taking responsibility for their own lives and for the fact that they're aging."

If we don't make those choices, other people will make them for us.- Sandra Martin

"Nobody is in charge of us anymore. We've got to be in charge of ourselves."

"We have to get rid of this notion of 'Freedom 55' and relaxing, and start doing things to keep ourselves active and financially secure. If we don't make those choices, other people will make them for us," Martin warned.

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Choices likeadapting Canada's universal healthcare system to an older population, for example.

"A health care system that was established for acute, brief illnesses for a younger population is not what's needed for an older population," Martin said.

Seniors make up 40 per cent of all of the spending on prescribed drugs in Canada and yet, Martin explained, it's the only universal healthcare system in a developed country without a pharmacare program.

"That's a scandal."