Editor:
Proponents of seniors care privatization need look no further than what happened to our local road system when B.C. privatized the Highways Department.
Over the past decades, local road conditions have been in a steady nosedive as government supervisors chiselled away at enforcement standards. Contractors faced with rising costs and declining profits found willing partners in circumventing rules to reduce costs, while politicians took credit for reducing the provincial debt and corporate taxes. The local highway tailspin has only worsened.
Last year I wrote to the Minister of Transportation complaining about evidence of a lack of arm’s distance between contractors and government officials supervising B.C. contracts for local roads. A chumminess between government employees and contractors has grown up as senior government employees have chosen to not enforce the subjective contractual highway standards in an even-handed manner.
I raised the possibility that one reason might be that former employees of the contractor believed that Ministry employees were working with one eye on a sinecure with the contractor after retirement. If so, I also pointed out that it was a convenient practice for contractors to hire retirees, but I questioned whether it was ethical.
I received only a lengthy response of mostly bureaucratic flim-flam months later when the Opposition shone light on the “missing and the deleted email scandal.” The Minister’s delayed answer pointedly ignored my concerns.
If government proceeds with plans to privatize seniors care, B.C. needs an independent Contractor Review Commission with investigative powers much like the BC Police Commission to adjudicate public complaints. New legislation on political donations is also urgently needed to ensure that government contractors behave properly.
Joe Harrison, Garden Bay