Seniors left out of many N.W.T. sport and recreation policies

There are few government policies aimed at keeping seniors in the Northwest Territories active, a new study has found.

That's despite the fact that the N.W.T. has the second fastest-growing population of senior citizens in Canada, and elders are the fastest-growing age group in the territory.

"We're adding years to life, but we also need to look at focusing on adding life to years," said the study's lead author, Lauren Brooks-Cleator at the University of Ottawa.

She found that of the seven territorial agencies tasked with delivering recreation programs, three had no policies whatsoever on helping older adults get active.

"By having so few programs we're really not supporting seniors to be active as they age," she said.

"It does have a huge impact on their ability to find physical activity and to feel supported to participate."

More so than any other age group, older adults are affected by stress and other mental health issues, high blood pressure, and cancer, according to the Department of Health and Social Services.

In a 2009 study of Canadians, active seniors were found to be twice as likely as their sedentary counterparts to be aging in a healthy way.

Funding cut to Team NWT

One of the success stories referenced in Brooks-Cleator's paper, recently published in the journal Arctic, is the Canada 55+ Games, which sent 60 seniors to Alberta in 2014. They participated in sports such as swimming, hockey and golf, as well as less strenuous games such as bridge.

But funding for Team NWT was recently cut. If seniors from the N.W.T. want to participate in the games after the upcoming event in Brampton, Ont., they will have to pay their own way.

"We have had funding in the past, but we're just using up the last of it," said Joan Hirons, director of the Canada 55+ Games' Team NWT.

Hirons herself is a competitor in the Games; in the last national competition in Alberta she brought home four gold medals in swimming.

"Seniors have a fundamental right to access recreation and sports activities," she said.

"It's important for anybody to be active but seniors in particular, because the more active you are, the healthier you can be, which will prolong your life. It also adds enjoyment to your life."

Other seniors are also taking it upon themselves to get active. Larry Adamson has been playing tennis with his friend Alan McQuat for two years.

"I wanted to be able to play tennis when I was 70," he said.

Now 70, he's decided to get more seniors into the game by starting up a seniors' program at the Yellowknife Tennis Club.

Brooks-Cleator said that's the kind of attitude that can help keep seniors happy, healthy and in the game for longer.

"A lot of people believe you're only going to get the benefits of physical activity as an older adult if you've been active your whole life," she said.

"It's actually been shown that older adults that only start being active when they're older, they also get the benefits."

New policies on the way

Brooks-Cleator's study found that N.W.T. organizations with no policies specific to getting seniors active included the Department of Health and Social Services, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, and the Aboriginal Sport Circle of the NWT.

"We don't currently have physical activity policy for older adults," said Ian Legaree, director of Sport, Recreation and Youth for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs.

But he said developing such a policy is a priority for this session of the N.W.T. Legislative Assembly, and that a policy is expected to be approved sometime in 2017.

"It will include the appropriate science, but also what elders and seniors are telling us."

The Department of Health and Social Services also responded to a CBC request for comment by saying it was developing new policies of its own, also due in 2017.