There’s no better place than Sooke to start looking at health care resiliency differently, according to Dave Saunders who’s ready to put in the legwork to do it.
The former Colwood mayor and executive director of the Saunders Family Foundation said the organization is poised to lead the initiative.
“I intend to make a community resiliency plan for the community of Sooke,” Saunders said. “We need to start looking at health care differently than we look at it now. It’s an absolute industry and we don’t capitalize on that industry at all.”
The non-profit foundation was established in 2010 because of the high demand for support from local individuals and community organizations, and health care is a main point of emphasis. It launched the Community Healthcare System Support Playbook in June. That collaboration between Thrive Social Services Society, Westplan Consulting Group, The B.C. Ministry of Health and led by the Saunders Family Foundation – highlights how partnerships work in creating these key initiatives.
Sanders witnessed first-hand the impacts of local emergencies, citing the snowstorm of 1996 and the most recent “cyclone bomb” that left western communities cut off.
“Sooke was paralyzed,” Saunders said of the November storm that toppled trees and took out power. He was out doing the hands-on emergency work with his crew in that area – taking trees off houses, roads and vehicles.
“What I’ve learned is there are grants available for a lot of the infrastructure needs and emergency panning and health care, but if you don’t have an actual holistic plan that looks at the whole problem, you’re just one-off hitting these circumstances that pop up,” he said.
That’s been the case for for years, showcasing the need to formulate a plan that would create economic benefit, provide better health care and reduce the environmental footprint.
With resource jobs in fishing and logging largely gone, he also sees value in health care as an economic, education and job-related driver for the community.
For three years now, people, organizations and his own family doctor have reached out asking if the foundation could help with the creation of more health-care space, more senior and hospice care, help in relation to fundraising for much-needed community projects, or creating trades education for students and jobs, he said.
The former politician in him says now is the time to pursue a plan with municipal, provincial and federal budgets underway.
“Sooke is an amazing community. It can do amazing things and the Saunders Family Foundation is sincere about creating this resiliency plan to reduce the overall conundrum we’re in right now,” he said. “We want to create something positive, we feel right now is a good time to create something positive and involve the community in that initiative.”
With that in mind, the Saunders Family Foundation hosts an “urgent community health care resiliency” meeting Dec. 12 at 5:30 p.m. at Sooke Community Association, 2037 Shields Rd.
