Shame on our MLA Rankin. I am under no illusion that his recent column is in response to my letter to the editor but we recognize it is just the usual political bamboozle. In his previous columns, he ignored health care as a priority and he now acknowledges his mistake and confirms it is a major issue but tells us it’s not the fault of his government.
But it is so typical of our elected leaders to avoid the issue and blame somebody else. In this case it is all the fault of both the provincial and federal Liberals. I remind him and your readers that Prime Minister Trudeau has announced that significant additional funding is coming to all provinces but has wisely said it will not be a blank cheque but be tied to specific reform of the health-care system.
I remind readers and our MLA and the recently re-elected premier you were in political power back in 2017 and again in 2020. That’s five budget cycles for you to address the issue. Don’t blame others for your failure to address the question.
The solutions are quite simple: don’t just add more classes for nurses but increase the number of student doctors to UVic classrooms. Speed up the process to license foreign-trained doctors. Announce some new chronic care and mental health care facilities to house street people.
While opening four new government-run primary care clinics are a good thing, we would need 40 more. Why waste time and money when all it takes is to provide additional funds to cover the administrative costs of previous family primary-care clinics to remain operational. Don’t waste time and money announcing the opening of your own government-run UCC clinics; instead, just announce that you will provide financial support to cover the administrative costs of family practice clinics.
Please lead the do something team; instead of the blame squad.
James Anderson
Saanich
