Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA candidates, at a debate this week, shared their parties' plans to try to keep British Columbians in good health.
The Regional District of Nanaimo and the Nanaimo Regional Hospital District hosted an all-candidates' meeting Wednesday, Oct. 2, at Wellington Secondary School. Candidates Gwen O'Mahony of the B.C. Conservative Party, George Anderson of the B.C. NDP and Lia Versaevel of the B.C. Green Party answered a handful of questions on a few different issues, including several questions on health care.
Asked about a new patient tower at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, a recent B.C. NDP campaign promise, Anderson said it's "responding exactly to what the community's asked for," but O'Mahony stated that the NDP had "no desire" to build it.
"It wasn't until those polls showed that Nanaimo-Lantzville is leaning toward Conservative that Eby jumped in and made a last-ditch effort to say that he's going to build the tower," she said.
O'Mahony mentioned a Surrey hospital project that has gone over budget and isn't meeting expected timelines.
"This comes down to trust," she said. "Vote for me, vote for the Conservative Party of B.C. That tower will get built."
Anderson repeated his party's claims that the Conservatives would cut $4.1 billion in health-care spending, a figure the New Democrats extrapolated from B.C. Conservative leader John Rustad's comments about trimming health-care spending as a percentage of GDP.
"Why do we have these deficiencies in health care? Because people like John Rustad, people like Ms. O'Mahony is wanting to be in government with, cut services for so long within our system here in British Columbia," Anderson said, alluding to Rustad's time in government with the B.C. Liberal Party.
O'Mahony said the Conservatives have a "bold" health-care plan that would see the province pay for patients to receive health-care services in non-governmental clinics for certain procedures and other services.
"We can help British Columbians find family doctors – almost a million of us don't have one," she said. "We will protect and support front-line staff. Let's remember, the NDP thought it was a great idea to put active drug users smoking crack and meth in hospitals beside seniors in the same care facility and tell nurses to put on a gas mask."
Anderson drew attention to O'Mahony's mention of "non-governmental" health services and also expressed doubt the Conservatives can cut health spending while delivering capital projects.
"You're not going to see a patient tower because they'll say, you know what, it costs too much money. You're talking about a deficit. Well, let me tell you, how do you build a patient tower? It costs money. It's a reality," Anderson said. "The same as having nurses – we've hired 6,300 nurses, 800 new family doctors this year – that's, again, what we need to be doing."
Versaevel said there's no Band-Aid to improving health care, and it will take a range of fixes, from facilitating accreditation of doctors and other health workers who are newcomers to Canada, to expanding training for all medical professions, to encouraging tele-health. She said the potential of modern medicine is there, it just needs to become more accessible.
"The dogwood model that is part of the B.C. Greens' platform puts the responsibility and the accessibility of health care back into local communities so that we are not running all over the place trying to find services," she said.
Addiction treatment was a specific health-care topic that the candidates debated. Versaeval expressed disappointment in O'Mahony's social-media criticism of harm-reduction and overdose-prevention services, and also in the NDP's restriction of access to harm-reduction supplies.
O'Mahony said B.C. needs to transition to a treatment-based approach, as she said "so-called harm reduction" is actually causing more harm to drug users, their families and to communities.
"We have to do better. We have to make sure that there is a seamless movement from detox to treatment and then when the person comes out of treatment, that they aren't put back in the same communities where there's a lot of drug use…" she said. "The answer to all the different forms of treatment is yes, yes and yes."
Anderson said the NDP has tried to build back treatment services that the B.C. Liberals cut, and also criticized the Conservative Party's intention to shut down supervised consumption sites.
"So you might hear Ms. O'Mahony saying yes, yes, yes, today, but tomorrow you're very likely to hear her say no, no, no," Anderson said.
Versaevel said the incredible loss of life in the toxic drug crisis can't continue, and said B.C. has an obligation to train more people to work in the mental health care field, and to retain those workers.
"Forcing people into treatment is not the answer. Involuntary care does not fix the problem," she said. "People need to want to escape addiction. People need mental health services and these must be covered by our medical services plan."
The RDN and the regional hospital district are also hosting an all-candidates' meeting for Nanaimo-Gabriola candidates. That debate happens 7-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Nanaimo Curling Centre. The provincial election is Oct. 19.
