Canada's Suburbs: Greying Around The Edges

"Canada's suburbs were built for young families with cars -- forget the sidewalks. Yet they're going to fill up with grandmothers and grandfathers who may not be able to walk, much less drive, a transformation that has implications for policy-makers and city planners.

Instead of zippy throughways, tomorrow's inner suburbs may want to consider pedestrian-friendly streets with benches and crosswalks. And maybe the corner store will have to be made accessible on foot, rather than by SUV.

'These suburbs weren't designed with seniors in mind at all. There's going to have to be a lot of retrofitting,' said Mr. Hodge, former director of the school of urban planning at Queen's University in Kingston.

'Baby boomers, because of their numbers, always imposed their development model on society,' said Mr. Vaillancourt, the long-time mayor of Laval. 'When they wanted bungalows, we had to build them bungalows. Today, the same people are looking for condos and retirement homes.

'The baby-boom generation is being followed by the baby-bust generation. It's inexorable. Fighting the aging of the population is a battle that's lost ahead of time. I have no chance of winning that fight.'"