Editor:
This letter was sent to B.C. Premier John Horgan.
The Sunshine Coast Labour Council recently learned that the Trellis Silverstone Care Centre, which was to be built on shíshálh Nation lands, may now be built on the original parcel of land in the District of Sechelt.
We are writing to insist that the B.C. government listen to the citizens of the Sunshine Coast, cancel the contract with Trellis, a private for-profit care home operator, and immediately begin the construction of a public care facility owned and operated by the people of B.C.
Sunshine Coast citizens spoke loud and clear, almost two years ago, when they demanded public not private care for seniors on the Coast. This government did not listen. They insisted that private care was the only affordable option, it would be good care for our seniors, and there was a contract in place that they would not break.
Since that time, we have heard many stories of unsatisfactory care by private organizations. The most recent one was of a 94-year-old B.C. woman being unable to leave her bedbug-ridden room for two weeks over Christmas.
Following the announcement for Silverstone, Vancouver Coastal Health officials said the estimated cost to rebuild or upgrade Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge was $35 million. That number was in Coast Reporter in August and September 2016. A capital cost of $1 million per year can be assumed if a new facility at the same cost lasted 35 years. The 2016 census had the Sunshine Coast senior population (65+) at 8,880. One million dollars divided by 8,880 equals $112.61 per year per senior, or less than 31 cents per day per senior.
It seems that our government finds 31 cents per day for our seniors’ care to be too expensive to provide them with good quality, publicly-owned facilities.
During the Liberal government reign, a high-ranking cabinet minister was heard to say that the government wasn’t going to build any more care facilities. We have to wonder if the real contract this government is unwilling to abandon is not Trellis on the Sunshine Coast, where they have been given ample opportunities to terminate it. Could it be a much larger contract made by a previous government that binds government to only private for-profit care facilities for the future? Your government appears to think they are bound by Liberal government policies – they are not: governments are changed for the purpose of changing policies.
Health care facilities built and operated by private for-profit organizations have an inherent conflict of interest: decreasing service increases profit. There should be no room for profit in health care.
Ed Erickson, President, Sunshine Coast Labour Council
