Canada's Suburbs Unfit For 'Demographic Tsunami'

"According to the first findings of the 2006 census released yesterday, there are now more than one million Canadians over 80, and swelling numbers of seniors heading for that birthday milestone. Experts say that a growing number of seniors will be aging in their homes in suburbia, where fewer support services exist and it's easier to be isolated in a grid of residential streets.

And as the suburbs get more crowded, it's putting a strain on existing resources and on a limited pool of volunteers, many of whom are aging themselves.

The suburbs weren't built for grandmas - and that's a planning problem for sprawling cities, experts say, when one in five Canadians will be old enough to be a grandparent by 2021.

'We have an environment that we have designed for people who drive cars, and people who have no real health issues,' says Bonnie Hallman, an associate professor with the department of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. 'It was designed for the nuclear family - two adults, two kids. So the infrastructure expects those are the only people who will live there.'

Glenn Miller, director of education and research at the Canadian Urban Institute, called it the "demographic tsunami" at a recent conference of the Canadian Institute of Planners in Quebec City - a problem that will only get worse as the baby boomers, who are used to being mobile and expect to be independent seniors, suddenly find themselves without car keys.

'People will hang on as long as possible and then you end up in crisis,' Mr. Miller says. 'People will end up trapped in their homes.'"