Editor:
Our health minister, Adrian Dix, will be here on Monday, March 19 to talk to us about health care – specifically, one would assume, the proposed Trellis long-term care facility. This proposal has been out there for the better part of two years and has been the subject of much debate and discussion. We’ve discussed job losses, wage cuts, and contract flipping. We’ve discussed care aide hours and resident showers. We’ve discussed the loss of hospice beds, volunteers, and auxiliary funding. But what we really need to discuss is the precedent that is being set. Two fully-functional public facilities are being replaced by a private-for-profit one, for the net gain of 20 beds – this by an NDP government, the same NDP government that, while they were in opposition, voiced loud and long their objection to privatized health care. What happened? Why?
In June of 2016, we Sunshine Coasters packed the Sechelt Seniors’ Centre past the point of overflow to voice our opposition to the Trellis proposal. Ten thousand people signed a petition to state that, while we acknowledge the need for long-term care beds, we want those beds to be public. There seems to be an assumption by Mr. Dix that after having a couple of years to think about it, we’ve all changed our minds! Supposedly, we’re all so eager for those 20 beds – which won’t be nearly enough – that we’re willing to “drink the Kool-Aid” and embrace private-for-profit care. Please, Sunshine Coasters, come out to the Sechelt Legion next Monday, at 6:30, and tell Mr. Dix that we don’t want private-for-profit health care in this community, or this province. Better yet, come at 5:30 and bring a sign!
Marilynn Green, Gibsons
