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LETTERS: BC’s healthcare can ill afford another Liberal gov’t

To the Editor,
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Letters of the week- April 27.

To the Editor,

Earlier this month, a television news story remarked that “the B.C Liberals expect to be re-elected based on the strength of the provincial economy compared to the rest of Canada”.

Yes. A provincial economy strengthened by over-bureaucratic controls on spending to the detriment of public services.

Saving, according to the Supreme Court, by not respecting educational professionals’ requests for smaller class sizes, etc., that means spending more to hire enough teachers.

From toddlers dying in Ministry of Children and Families care to teens aging out of care to homelessness and increased risk of homicide and suicide.

It appears to be cheaper for government to pay for foster care than to fund programs supporting good parenting so children avoid foster care entirely.

This government’s adversarial relationship with the advocate for children and families alone, speaks to why it cannot attract let alone retain enough social workers.

For lack of resources (especially enough doctors and nurses!) the B.C Liberals invented and have all but normalized “hallway medicine” as part of healthcare with umpteen so-called health “authorities” (another Liberal invention of former Premier Gordon Campbell)—each with a dozen or more executive teams richly compensated on the taxpayers’ dime.

Meanwhile B.C citizens increasingly wait for care and the province is less able to attract let alone retain health-care workers.

The premier may crow over a balanced budget and her vision to “control spending” to improve the provincial economy, but B.C’s citizens deserve a government that does not balance the budget at the expense of children and families, the poor (including elderly and disabled), and the sick.

Not another B.C Liberal government!

Liz Stonard,

Port Alberni