The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo created a council appointed Advisory Committee on Aging (ACOA) in 2014, which provides strategic recommendations to Council regarding service delivery for seniors. There are 7 members on the committee, including The Chair of the Golden Years Center (senior), member of the Alberta Health Services Health Advisory Board (senior), Urban and Rural senior representatives, Wood Buffalo Senior Resource Committee rep, Wood Buffalo Housing Development Corporation rep (senior) and Cr. Verna Murphy. One of the mandates of this committee is to achieve an age-friendly designation.

One of the accomplishments of the council is establishing parking for seniors at all municipal buildings in the region, with dedicated spots for those 60 and older. No permit is required to access these stalls. Many local businesses have joined in, having the same seniors parking in private parking lots.

A work plan to address the eight age friendly domains and associated tasks was completed under the direction of the ACOA (specialized contractor) and adopted by the senior leadership team of the Regional Municipality (RM) in January 2019.

Age friendly is part of this council’s strategic plan. Implemented January 2019, the plan specifically states: “…track implementation of the guidelines set
out by the World Health Organization Age-Friendly Cities designation.”  This Strategic Plan can be found here: https://www.rmwb.ca/Assets/Departments/Financial+Services/2018+-+2021+RMWB+Strategic+Plan.pdf