Ontario is helping seniors stay active and connected to their communities by investing in up to 40 new Seniors Active Living Centres across the province.

Dipika Damerla, Minister of Seniors Affairs, joined by Vic Dhillon, MPP, Brampton-West, was at the Villa Polonia in Brampton today to announce the recipients of new Seniors Active Living Centre funding. CANES Community Care is receiving funding to offer new fitness, educational, and social programs for seniors twice a week at locations across the Brampton area including Villa Polonia, the Chris Gibson Recreation Centre, and the South Fletcher Sportplex.

With this expansion, Ontario now supports programs at more than 300 Seniors Active Living Centre locations across the province. These programs offer seniors a range of activities tailored to the unique interests and needs of the community – from exercise classes to music clubs, workshops on video editing to the use of community kitchens, along with a number of social outings.

Ontario’s 2018 Budget is supporting seniors and their families by:

· Making prescriptions free for people 65 and over through an expansion of OHIP+. Starting August 1, 2019, seniors in Ontario will no longer have to pay a deductible or co-payment for prescription medications.

· Creating a new Seniors’ Healthy Home Program, starting in 2019, that will provide up to $750 per year for eligible households led by seniors 75 and over to help them offset the costs of living independently.

· Creating a new Ontario Drug and Dental Program, reimbursing 80 per cent, up to a maximum of $400 per single person or $600 per couple, of seniors’ eligible dental expenses each year for those without workplace health benefits.

Ontario’s plan to support care, create opportunity and make life more affordable during this period of rapid economic change includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25, and 65 or over, through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.