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home / 世界杯决赛2022

b.c. making only glacial progress on health-care fixes

opinion: the ndp government has had years and has billions in unspent dollars, yet minister is still talking about consultation

by vaughn palmer

sep 14 2022
read time 4 minute read
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victoria — health minister adrian dix was hard pressed to explain himself this week when he turned up for a local government forum on “re-envisioning health care” with nothing new to say.
the session was one of the most anticipated at the annual convention of the union of b.c. municipalities in whistler.
the health minister was the main attraction for mayors and councillors whose communities are enduring emergency room closures, a lack of ambulances and the lack of family doctors.
dix didn’t deny the problem: “just so we understand: we’ve been in a health care crisis since at least march of 2020.”
but he announced no new measures to address the admitted crisis.
“it wasn’t a stage for announcements,” dix told reporters. “i make announcements when we’re ready to do so, when we’ve talked to everyone, when we engage with everyone, and then we deliver.
“this isn’t about show, this is about doing and you’re going to see those announcements over the coming weeks.
“but it certainly wasn’t my intention today to come here and to make this a set piece for my announcement. it was to listen to people.”
the alleged listening session left little time for him to actually listen to anyone.
he spoke for 20 minutes and the format allowed just 10 minutes for questions.
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when the session was cut off, local government leaders were still lined up at the microphone to ask questions.
several resorted to colourful language to express their disappointment.
kamloops mayor ken christian: “the speech was like dealing with an out-of-control forest fire: lots of talk about what we’re doing on the southern flank; meanwhile, the north, west and east flanks are raging out of control.”
vancouver councillor pete fry: “to put it more bluntly, if we are fishing bodies out of the river downstream, we need to go upstream and figure out why they are falling in, in the first place.”
clearwater has endured more than 60 temporary closures of its emergency department this year.
“i think my most-often-used emoji is the eye-roll emoji, and it’s completely for this reason,” said mayor merlin blackwell following dix’s speech.
“adrian dix and the health ministry are a top-down organization … we have crisis issues that we can actually solve at the ground level.
“we just got through a pandemic where we all pivoted really quickly to enact things to solve health-care crises.
“that’s not happening with this crisis at the speed it should.”
despite dix’s earlier insistence that the ubcm was “not a stage for announcements,” the health minister later admitted that an announcement had been in the works regarding the troubled ambulance service.
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“we have a significant amount to report,” he told reporters. “in the case specifically of ambulances, we likely would have done that in advance of the conference but for the very sad passing of the queen.”
the excuse relates to the ndp government’s decision to put a moratorium on announcements during the period of mourning following the death of her majesty.
the rule has been inconsistently applied.
finance minister selina robinson released the quarterly update on the provincial budget monday.
on wednesday, municipal affairs minister nathan cullen used the platform of the ubcm to announce $62 million in provincial funding for abbotsford to build a new well and water-treatment system. he also announced a $10 million partnership with the ubcm to help communities collect data on accessibility, resiliency, density and climate friendliness.
thursday, dix and provincial health officer dr. bonnie henry are scheduled to roll out an update on covid-19.
nor did it go unnoticed in provincial government circles that on the same day as dix claimed to be bound by the moratorium on news making, prime minister justin trudeau announced a $4.6 billion package of inflation relief for canadians.

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looking ahead, premier john horgan is scheduled to address the ubcm delegates on friday.
it will be interesting to see if the famously talkative premier respects the no-news edict.
at one point tuesday, dix fell back on horgan’s preferred excuse for the lack of progress for dealing with the health-care crisis.
“we see the continuing diminishment of the federal contribution to the health care system,” said the health minister.
the argument about federal underfunding is a familiar one and not just in this province.
however, the b.c. government recently announced $2 billion in budget surpluses, including $1.3 billion for the year ending march 31 past and a further $700 million projected for the current year.
this week’s quarterly update also documented almost $5 billion in contingency funding in the current year.
there is a further $2 billion set aside for “priority initiatives” in budget 2023 and the same again in budget 2024.
those billions of dollars in surpluses, contingencies and other set-asides leave b.c. in no position to plead poverty in dealing with the health-care crisis.
and with the province well into the third year of the crisis by dix’s own admission, he can’t claim to be proceeding on the fast track.

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“we’ve been listening to that conversation for 3½ years right now,” as clearwater mayor blackwell put it this week. “it is the slowest conversation that we can have.”
perhaps the pace will be stepped up later this year after the new democrats get a new leader.
but as of this week, the progress is glacial.
vpalmer@postmedia.com
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vaughn palmer
vaughn palmer
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