Editor:
The following is an edited version of a letter addressed to Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons and shared with Coast Reporter.
January 2024 will mark the beginning of a new era in long-term care on the Lower Sunshine Coast (LSC). The private, for-profit Trellis facility will open with 128 beds. At least eight of these beds will be private, where the wealthy will be able to jump the queue. Our concern is the subsequent closure of the only two publicly owned facilities, Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge, as Kiwanis Care Home was closed in 2006 in favour of the private facility, Christensen Village. Their combined 104 beds will take up most of Trellis Silverstone.
At the time of the announcement in 2016, the LSC had a population of 29,970 with 8,800 of those being 65 and older, according to the Government of Canada census report. This number is unusually high as 29.6 per cent in SCRD were seniors vs. the B.C. average of 18 per cent.
Skip ahead only five years and the 2021 census shows our population had grown to 32,170 with the senior population increasing to 10,695. This makes up a full third of our local population vs 20 per cent of the provincial average.
In 2016 there were approximately 27,000 beds province wide, meaning there were 31 beds per 1,000 seniors while the Sunshine Coast had only 18 beds per 1,000. To date the provincial average has dropped to 27/1,000, and even with the opening of the new facility, we will drop to 17/1,000.
If the beds at Shorncliffe and Totem were to remain open temporarily, we could reduce that wait list to possibly less than 100. We strongly urge the provincial government to keep these buildings operational until replacement facilities can be built.
Seniors deserve better, and the SCLC urges you to act on your commitment now.
Care Can’t Wait: https://care can’t wait.ca/
Sincerely,
Miyuki Shinkai
President, Sunshine Coast
Labour Council
