Minister Goodyear encourages not-for-profit organizations to apply for seniors funding

March 01, 2010

CAMBRIDGE, ONTARIO – Member of Parliament for Cambridge-North Dumfries, the Hon. Gary Goodyear, is pleased to announce that the federal government is once again accepting applications from not-for-profit organizations who want to give Canada’s seniors the opportunity to participate in and lead projects that will improve their quality of life and make a difference in their communities.

This funding is available through the Community Participation and Leadership stream of the New Horizons for Seniors Program. Proposals from not for profit organizations can request up to 25,000 per project.

“The Conservative government is proud to support and strengthen the role which seniors have in Canada, and this call for proposals reaffirms our work in creating new leadership opportunities for our aged population,” said Minister Goodyear.

The deadline for applications is April 16, 2010. To find out more about this upcoming call, please visit www.hrsdc.gc.ca/seniors.


Backgrounder

Since its beginning, the New Horizons for Seniors Program has funded over 5,500 projects in hundreds of communities across Canada, and has the capacity to provide up to $28.1 million in funding each year.

Through Canada’s Economic Action Plan, the federal government continues to protect Canadians, including seniors, in difficult times by implementing several key measures:

• Providing approximately $1.9 billion annually in tax relief to seniors and pensioners;
• Increasing the Age Credit by $1,000 for 2009 and beyond to allow eligible seniors to receive up to an additional $150 in annual tax savings;
• Helping older workers and their families by investing an additional $60 million over three years in the Targeted Initiative for Older Workers, and by expanding the number of eligible communities to include older workers in small cities;
• Providing $400 million over two years through the Affordable Housing Initiative for the construction of housing units for low-income seniors; and
• Investing $13 million over three years to help raise awareness of elder abuse and assist seniors in dealing with this difficult issue.

For more information on the Government of Canada’s actions to support seniors, please visit www.seniors.gc.ca.