The recent article on housing and the RCMP was focused obviously on the force requirements, but in reality housing availability and housing costs are a recruiting and retention encumbrance not only for the RCMP but for doctors, nurses and teachers.
The “cost of living” absent housing costs is a non-starter argument because the other costs of living are pretty much the same across the province. Housing is the core issue.
Personally, I think it’s time government – and taxpayers – accepted the fact that quality health care starts with having a doctor. Not some doctor who works part time in a clinic you have to access occasionally because you can’t get a doctor, but a doctor you see regularly with whom you have a rapport.
This costs money because a housing support system has to be funded to help new doctors get up and running, perhaps for 10 years post-graduation and five years post-relocation.
New doctors have huge debt. Maybe writing off that debt or part of it to enhance cash flow for new doctors will make housing costs a lesser proportion of their expense.
The insanity of continuous bitching but with no real creativity on how to approach the issue will see no changes.
Alex Currie
North Saanich
