Canadian retirement resident operators and their associations are taking their first steps toward speaking with a national voice.

A proposal for a national federation or alliance of seniors' housing operators emerged near the end of a June think tank conference. Some 65 participants from across Canada including retirement resident executives, provincial ministry representatives and key staff from seniors' housing associations in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec spent two days together at a resort in the Muskoka region of Ontario, looking to the future.

Industry executives from competing companies and government officials with various agendas sat together and marked out common ground. They are all expecting huge shifts in demographics and market trends over the next 20 years, as the baby boomers become senior citizens. Already, boomers' tastes are influencing their parents' housing choices and the industry is offering larger units and up-scaling amenities in response. Provincial governments meanwhile are bracing for a health care squeeze.

Vacancy rates, market demands, societal influences, resident-centered choices and the possibility of transformational change were all part of the conversation as participants listened to guest speakers and exchanged their own views on what the future may hold. Although provincial policies vary, all operators face issues of regulation, staffing, training and marketing.

For Gord White, executive director of the Ontario Retirement Communities Association (ORCA), the host group, "the meeting was the message." Industry decision-makers recognized co-operation could produce benefits, especially in government relationships and image marketing. As well as a national alliance, suggestions included pooling resources to increase public awareness through a public relations campaign and pulling more research together on seniors who are not yet customers. After the main meeting, a smaller, informal group listed those and other areas where a national federation might succeed:

• raising nation-wide issues with federal government officials
• sharing best practices
• creating a "common language" dictionary of terms for more effective communication from province to province
• tracking market trends.

According to White, the four provincial associations from Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and B.C. will meet in Montreal in September to discuss these activities. The Alberta Senior Citizens' Association has tentatively offered to host another think tank in Alberta in 2010.