KINGSTON – In between customers at the cafe in the Kingston Seniors Centre, volunteer Sylvana Chiappetta takes a moment to consider the idea that the city might take away discounts she and other seniors can currently receive.

Chiappetta, like many seniors in the lobby of the building Friday morning, has heard about the city’s efforts to revamp its discount system.

And they are not keen on the idea of scraping discounts on fees for city services and programs for people older than 65.

“You would think they are giving you the sun and the moon and the stars,” she said.

Earlier this week, city council sent a plan to alter the city’s fee discount system back to a committee for further consideration.

The plan included seven options for revising the system, including city staff’s recommendation to eliminate age-based discounts in favour of income-based discounts in an effort to provide more help to families with lower household incomes.

Last month, the committee from which the proposal came also rejected the staff recommendation.

The proposal is based on statistics that indicate seniors in Kingston have among the highest retirement incomes in Ontario and sometimes make as much when they leave the workforce as they did when they were in it.

But many of the seniors hanging out at the cafe at the seniors centre said they don’t like the idea of scraping age-based discounts and say the plan is based on faulty information.

“I do own my own house, and if I had to live on my retirement pension there wouldn’t be much left,” Chiappetta said.

“But because my husband and I have sacrificed throughout our lives, though he has passed away he left me comfortable. It’s not because I am getting a good pension, it’s because of my savings that I put away. Otherwise I would probably be on welfare, with just my pension.”

“I don’t think it’s right,” Penny Sughrue added. “I think it’s unfair, for the simple reason that lots of times you own your own home and you have a bit of money, but that is no reason why you can’t go and get a discount.”

The Seniors Association Kingston Region and its members were among the groups consulted about the proposed changes, and the organization’s executive director, Don Amos, said changes would be welcome if it improves the discount system’s effect.

“If it enables more people to utilize the services so they become more active and engaged, offering a better quality of life to an individual, I think it’s great that seniors are able to utilize an opportunity like that,” Amos said.

Senior Mary Langlois noted that many seniors volunteer for city-supported programs, often without getting paid.

“How many seniors volunteer in this city for things that other people don’t do?” she asked.

Langlois said she also struggles with the idea of people having to prove to city officials that their income is low enough to qualify.

“I probably wouldn’t do it. Or maybe I would do it out of spite,” she said. “I’d get 15 of us to go in all at the same time.”

Catherine Milks, who takes care of the association’s membership and communications, said many of the seniors she knows may accept a discount if offered it, but most would not actively seek it out.

And the reluctance of many seniors to seek out discounts may have consequences later on in life.

“I know there would be a pride element. They would never ask for it,” Milks said. “And then what happens is, instead of people getting out and about, they become isolated and become stuck in their own homes and we know that isolation and loneliness is a serious health issue.”