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Mature Action Community Society holds AGM

Changes to seniors' programming at WCSS, housing discussed
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community builders Mature Action Community Society president Sue Lawther speaks at the society's AGM on April 13. photo by Braden Dupuis

Same acronym, new name.

Whistler's Mature Action Committee Society will now officially be known as the Mature Action Community Society (MAC).

MAC has been doing business under the new name for the past few years, but it became official at the society's annual general meeting on April 13.

"We felt that we needed to get rid of the word or change the word committee, because that seemed to tell people that they had to join a committee and be committed and do all this work, when in fact we are a community," said MAC president Sue Lawther at the meeting.

The AGM saw the appointment of three new board members in Wendy Aitken, Dawn Minett and Joan Richoz.

The meeting also featured a presentation from Whistler Community Services Society executive director Cheryl Skribe on recent program changes.

While two programs for seniors are no longer being offered — Walking Wednesdays and a Thursday Seniors' drop in — seniors' outreach has been expanded, Skribe said.

"Seniors' outreach support is approximately 40 hours per month now. This is up 15 hours per month," she said.

Outreach programs can last anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours at a time and cover a wide range of challenges, including but not limited to hunger, employment, addiction and housing.

An update on seniors housing showed that while there is some construction underway at the moment in Rainbow, most of those units are pre-sold and the market remains tight otherwise.

"Housing for ours seniors and retired workforce will continue to be viewed as an important component of the housing continuum and aging in place in our community," said Bob Calladine of the MAC housing committee, reading from a statement provided by the Whistler Housing Authority.

"(The WHA) will revisit the demand for seniors housing in Rainbow lot 10 in the next few years. In the meantime, we continue to remind our seniors and retirees that housing opportunities both rental and ownership do currently exist within our resident restricted inventory for local seniors to access."

The waitlist for rentals is currently about 350, Calladine noted.

"The WHA at present is proceeding with a 20-unit complex down at lot 16 at Cheakamus Crossing," he said.

"All units there will be rental and this will all further help to alleviate the renting waitlist."

Minutes from the meeting will be posted to the MAC website at www.whistlermac.com.