Is this our future?

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, July 30, Globe and Mail, Ontario, Canada

Elliot Lake is the oldest town in Canada. By that, I mean the town with the highest average age: 55. One in three people is over age 65. And it got that way on purpose.

After the mines that employed most of the citizens closed in 1990, the city council decided to pursue a new industry: senior citizens. They invested millions in making the town physically accessible—and senior friendly. Golf courses and condos proliferated. And mobility vehicles whir down the streets, defying laws that no one has the heart to enforce.

If this is the future, we might take heed of some lessons to see what it really means to age in community.

For one thing, we need to look beyond real estate. Planners failed to take services into consideration, and services cost money. The town is running out of doctors. At the same time, the hospital is now the biggest employer in town.

“There will come a point when the tax base on a municipal basis can’t take it any more,” said the town’s mayor, Rick Hamilton.

Elliot Lake is also overrun with scam artists selling unneeded or non-existent products and services to people.

Might be a good idea to make the elderly everybody’s concern, not just their “business.” At the same time, this in vivo "laboratory" suggests that a community needs balance in everything, including age.