From: dave-no_spam@unixhome.net   
      
   Did you say beach front for less than $100,000 --- yea, in the Cambrian age   
   maybe.   
      
   Irradiated food anyone?   
      
   "Borked Pseudo Mailed"  wrote in message   
   news:019a012ee2dadf589d9703f9ce172f4d@pseudo.borked.net...   
   >A glimpse into the future of our aging nation   
   > Welcome to Elliot Lake, Canada's most elderly community. Upsides:   
   > Bungalows   
   > under $100K, wheelchair accessibility, carpet bowling. Downsides: Doctor   
   > shortage, dwindling tax base, con artists. This is our future   
   > PATRICK WHITE   
   > From Monday's Globe and Mail   
   > July 30, 2007 at 8:52 AM EDT   
   > ELLIOT LAKE, ONT. - The great scooter debate of 2007 had been percolating   
   > for some time before the commander of the local police detachment stood   
   > before city council at the end of June to clarify the whole issue once and   
   > for all.   
   > Cyclists and drivers alike had been grumbling about sharing the town's   
   > winding roads with electric vehicles and their grey-haired pilots.   
   > Under the law, as the commander laid out, "mobility vehicles" are   
   > analogous   
   > to pedestrians and stay off the roads. In other words: Tough luck,   
   > scooters.   
   > But the pronouncement hasn't deterred the defiant citizens of Elliot Lake   
   > (population 12,500), Canada's most elderly community. On any given day,   
   > they   
   > whir down Hillside Drive against traffic, bent over their handlebars as if   
   > engaged in some tense game of chicken.   
   > "They've pulled me over three times now for riding on the road," said one   
   > woman scooting her way toward Zellers, No Frills and the rest of the shops   
   > chiselled into a Precambrian knob, halfway along the 300 kilometres of   
   > uranium-rich Shield country that separates Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie,   
   > Ont. "Like I'm some hardened criminal. They tell me to ride on the   
   > sidewalk,   
   > but it's too damned bumpy. The pavement's easier on me back."   
   > While the scooter controversy smouldering in Elliot Lake has so far   
   > escaped   
   > national attention, the goings-on in this sleepy former mining town could   
   > be   
   > a harbinger of things to come for our aging nation.   
   > "Elliot Lake is a living laboratory for the rest of the country," former   
   > mayor George Farkouh says. "The country should be coming here to see how   
   > we've done it."   
   > In census data released two weeks ago, Elliot Lake tied with Parksville,   
   > B.C., as the country's oldest community. Given that Elliot Lake is aging   
   > so   
   > quickly - its median age has shot up from 24 to 55 in just 20 years - this   
   > isolated town should be leading the race in time for the next census.   
   > The rest of the country won't be far behind. That same census data noted   
   > that one in seven Canadians is over 65 and anticipated the proportion to   
   > double in 25 years. More of us will retire from careers than embark on   
   > them   
   > over the next few decades.   
   > Established in 1955 to supply the fissile heart of the budding arms race,   
   > Elliot Lake was once "the uranium capital of the world." By 1989, it was   
   > home to 4,500 miners quarrying a metal without a market. The future of the   
   > hardscrabble town that inspired a Stompin' Tom Connors song and the most   
   > poignant scenes from novelist Alistair MacLeod's modern classic No Great   
   > Mischief appeared so bleak that the power company refused to invest in the   
   > town's grid, resulting in rolling brown-outs.   
   > "The town was in the balance," Mr. Farkouh says. "We were on the verge of   
   > disappearing."   
   > So the city council found another primary industry: seniors. They hatched   
   > Elliot Lake Retirement Living, which snapped up housing left vacant by   
   > deserting miners and marketed it to retirees across the country.   
   > By 1990, when the two major local mines finally announced closings, the   
   > city   
   > council began investing millions in making Elliot Lake senior-friendly. It   
   > renovated buildings and sidewalks to make them wheelchair accessible. It   
   > hired a seniors' issues officer to liaise between police and the growing   
   > retiree population. It built a $6-million 18-hole golf course and pushed   
   > through provincial legislation allowing it to develop condominiums along   
   > waterfront Crown land.   
   > Retirees have responded by buying up Elliot Lake en masse. Many sold   
   > several-hundred-thousand-dollar homes in Southern Ontario and bought   
   > former   
   > miners' bungalows for less than $50,000, freeing up cash to fish, canoe   
   > and   
   > ski. Some even bought an old union hall and started the Renaissance   
   > Seniors'   
   > Centre, which attracts hundreds of locals for bridge, carpet bowling and   
   > bean-bag baseball.   
   > Today, one in three Elliot Lakers is older than 65, up from about one in   
   > 30   
   > in 1990. The occupancy rate stands at 97 per cent, pushing the average   
   > price   
   > of a small bungalow to $88,000 from $64,000 since 1998.   
   > "We don't have much in the way of shopping here, but aside from that,   
   > there's no end of things to do here," said Norma Arnold, 76, who moved to   
   > Elliot Lake from Hamilton with husband Charles 11 years ago. "We've had   
   > Rita   
   > MacNeil here and Stuart McLean is coming in the fall."   
   > Even if the town is a little isolated, livelier venues are, like all   
   > things   
   > in Elliot Lake, easily accessible. "There's always the bus that goes from   
   > here straight to the casino in the Soo," says Charles Arnold, 77.   
   > But the top-heavy demographic has presented some vexing problems for the   
   > town.   
   > For one, it can't keep enough practising doctors around. Last year, two of   
   > the 10 doctors in town retired. To curb the loss, council is hiring a   
   > full-time recruiter and ponying up extra funds to reel in young doctors.   
   > Last month, a new community medical complex opened up in the town centre.   
   > Built in partnership with Rexall, it has rent-free clinic space where new   
   > doctors can settle in with relatively few expenses.   
   > At the same time that doctors are in short supply, the town's health-care   
   > needs are increasing. "We have really struggled," says St. Joseph's   
   > General   
   > Hospital chief executive officer Mike Hukezalie. "Nobody quite understands   
   > yet how to deal with this unique population."   
   > The hospital has had to invest heavily in mechanical lifts, a bone density   
   > machine and the labour necessary to lift frail seniors out of chairs and   
   > onto beds, X-ray tables and into bathtubs.   
   > It has also become the biggest employer in town, ahead of Algoma Manor and   
   > Huron Lodge, two of the three seniors homes in town.   
   > With so much of the labour force dedicated to servicing the town's   
   > unwieldy   
   > retiree population, younger Elliot Lakers have few opportunities to pursue   
   > more fulfilling work.   
   > "They say there's a labour shortage in town, but only if you want to be a   
   > plumber or an electrician or something," says Chris Burley, 22, walking to   
      
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