The Alzheimer Society of Canada has sounded the alarm about rising rates of dementia within Canada’s older adult population. A report issued in early September says that an additional one million seniors will be diagnosed with dementia by 2030 – a 65% increase in only a decade! The authors stress the urgency of addressing risk factors such as a lack of education, hearing loss, social isolation, physical inactivity, and air pollution. Echoing statements about the role of the built environment contained in the government’s 2019 Dementia Strategy for Canada, the report says that being physically and socially active is vitally important.

Planning for housing types and neighbourhoods that make staying in one’s community feasible and attractive for an aging population is a topic that Plan Canada has tackled previously. So the first issue of 2023, which focuses on housing in all its many dimensions, is both timely and an invitation to share your insights into one of society’s most intractable problems.

The theme is ‘Housing Affordability and Choices that are Key to Quality of Life.’ Plan Canada will be looking for diverse perspectives on the intersection between demographics, the built environment, and the myriad factors that determine how we live our lives. See the Plan Canada page on the website for details.

Deadline to submit to the issue is December 12, 2022.

Glenn Miller RPP, FCIP
Co-chair of the Plan Canada Editorial Committee