Figure 3 – Age Friendly Communities:

While this evidence brief focuses on the AFC domain related to development of age-friendly buildings and spaces, other briefs focus on the other AFC domains, such as respect and social inclusion, social participation, communication and information, civic participation and employment, transportation, housing, and community support and health services.

The WHO’s approach to the development of age-friendly physical environments acknowledges the importance of meeting the needs of individuals across all ages to encourage integration and interaction across generations. For example, the benefits of developing accessible and age-friendly playgrounds can create a valuable space for older Canadians to interact with their grandchildren and younger community members, a concept that the City of Edmonton has widely embraced in their plan for the creation of an ‘Age-Friendly Edmonton’[3].  The WHO also recommends that, “the availability of clean, conveniently located, well signed, accessible toilets is generally regarded as an important age-friendly feature of the built environment.”[4] Access to public washrooms is imperative in order to better meet the needs of older adults living with incontinence. There is evidence that there tends to be greater community support if the development of age-friendly buildings and spaces are not targeted at older people alone, but are recognized as being of value to people of all ages.[5] Finally, the WHO’s AFCs initiative is a reminder that personal living spaces must also be considered as part of age-friendly environments and must be built with this notion in mind to create truly accessible and welcoming environments.

Thus far, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has played a significant role in advancing the WHO’s AFC Initiative. PHAC provided funding towards the development of the original WHO Age-Friendly Cities Guide[6] and the Pan-Canadian Age-Friendly Communities Milestone Guide[7] to help communities implement age-friendly requirements in their local settings. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging, and the Canadian Association of Gerontology have also provided significant support to research and knowledge synthesis/translation activities to inform the evaluation of age-friendly communities.[8] Finally, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has also sponsored initiatives to provide guidance around the development of physical environments for individuals with specific age-related limitations such as dementia as well as their FlexHouse Checklist[9] to support the development of accessible, affordable, and adaptable housing plans. 

What Are the Issues?

1. Not Enough Emphasis Is Placed on the Accessibility of Buildings and Spaces

   Addressing accessibility is a significant factor in the development of AFCs. While accessibility can be considered in a variety of ways, from a physical design standpoint, the spaces and buildings used for living, work, and recreational purposes must be, at a minimum, accessible to older Canadians to ensure they can actively navigate their environments. Accessibility encapsulates not only the mere ability to access an environment, but that such an environment is safe to access for individuals with any form of physical and even some cognitive limitations. While there are specific considerations for older people, more ‘universal’ design standards are now being promoted that consider the common needs of all members of the communities.

   While individual provinces have made legislative commitments towards ensuring greater accessibility standards (for example, see the 2005 Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act;[10] or the more recent 2013 Accessibility for Manitobans Act,[11]) not all Canadian jurisdictions have made this level of commitment towards improving accessibility. Furthermore, the legislation that currently exists extends mostly to public environments and/or businesses and less to private dwellings and spaces. While the National Building Code of Canada[12] does outline safety and some accessibility requirements for private dwellings, provinces vary in their interpretation and implementation of these requirements.[13] For example, design standards and requirements for the creation of barrier-free or accessible residential units vary by jurisdiction. In Alberta, for example, a minimum percentage of publicly funded housing must have accessible units, while in Ontario and Nova Scotia, this applies to privately-funded dwellings as well.[14] Legislated minimum percentages of accessible units developed also varies by province. For example, 5% of all multi-family buildings in Nova Scotia must be accessible versus 10-20% in Alberta.[15]

   The federal government recently introduced the Accessible Canada Act,[16] with the mandate of making areas under federal jurisdiction barrier-free. The Act applies to a number of areas in relation to physical spaces – it applies to the built environment including buildings and public spaces as well as transportation under federal jurisdiction (i.e. air, rail, intercity bus, and interprovincial ferries). It also assigned an Accessibility Commissioner under the Canadian Human Rights Act as an enforcement and accountability mechanism.[17] While this is a step in the right direction, once again it only covers publicly regulated spaces and not private spaces or homes. A federal commitment to the development of a national standard on building accessibility in Canada is needed.

2. Rural and Remote Settings Struggle the Most with Creating Accessible Environments

   While the WHO’s AFCs initiative focuses primarily on adapting urban settings, the standards it promotes are still applicable in any community setting. Despite this, the need to create more age-friendly physical environments and spaces is particularly acute in rural areas. PHAC highlighted that older adults and caregivers from rural and remote settings consider walkability to be one of the most important features of their communities; however, it is often lacking in rural communities.[18] A common barrier is a lack of sidewalks (or continuous sidewalks), resulting in the need to walk or use mobility devices on streets and highways.[19] This lack of proper sidewalks also exacerbates the reliance on driving to get around, worsening transportation issues for rural older Canadians. With more than 6.3 million Canadians[20] currently living in rural areas, which tend to be ageing faster than urban areas, ensuring older rurally dwelling Canadians are able to age-in-place will need to be a focus of any efforts to improve the accessibility of Canadian communities.

Evidence-Informed Policy Options 

1. Develop Robust National Standards that Promote Accessibility for All Canadians
   

   Given the growing diversity of the Canadian population and the fact that as they age, more will be living in their communities with physical and cognitive limitations, there is a clear opportunity for federal leadership to help align existing national standards and frameworks. The efforts of current provinces and territories to enable a common minimum standard in their building codes has thus far been variable across the country. Setting standards such as minimum percentages of accessible units are only minimum requirements. To foster truly age-friendly spaces, the federal government should exercise leadership in encouraging provinces and municipalities to aim beyond minimum standards.

2. Support the Development of More Age-Friendly Communities
   

   Building on the prior work and investments by federal agencies such as PHAC, CIHR, and the CMHC, there needs to be a renewed federal mandate to assess progress on the implementation of the AFC agenda across Canada and to understand what needs to be done to support the development of additional Canadian AFCs. While certain provinces have made AFCs a greater provincial priority, there is a clear opportunity for the federal government to renew and strengthen its roles in advancing AFCs across the country using its strength as an enabler and convener.

   Finally, nearly a decade ago, the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for older adults came together to create a guide to promote the development of Age-Friendly Rural and Remote Communities.[21] In addition to general universal design principles and initiatives that the federal government can promote, more should be done in rural and remote communities, which require more support and guidance to eliminate barriers and promote the adoption of age-friendly activities.