If the system is flawed, it can be fixed, no matter what the obstacles may be.
Proof of that is this week's news that DriveABLE testing will likely be available on the Coast this September.
Feisty senior Barb Robertson first contacted us in March about having to travel to Vancouver to take the DriveABLE testing to renew her licence when she turned 80. She was frustrated that the testing was not available on the Coast, and soon other seniors contacted us expressing the same frustrations.
How can you expect anyone, let alone someone 80 years or older, to take a test in an unfamiliar area like the Lower Mainland with increased traffic - an area with conditions nowhere near those here on the Coast? You're at a disadvantage. And that was just one of the issues Robertson and other senior drivers had with the flawed system.
So, she along with many others, started a petition to try to get the system fixed. The group of seniors approached local governments and our MLA Nicholas Simons, and slowly and surely their message started to be heard. But the tipping point was when former Coast politician Ed Steeves took up as a champion of the cause.
Steeves, who was a District of Sechelt councillor and chair of the Sunshine Coast Regional District board for years, jumped into action and burned up the phone lines with the office of the superintendent of motor vehicles (OSMV) and the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA), which administers the testing.
He told them of the hardships seniors face when travelling to the Lower Mainland to take the test and that there should be a level playing field for the testing.
It made sense to him, and it made sense to the folks at BCAA - they have decided to start offering the test in September at the Sechelt Insurance office in the Tsain Ko Mall.
The proposed system that BCAA will have in place is sort of a mobile service for the interim as they test the waters and see how the process is received by the community, but it's certainly good news for our seniors who now will be able to take the test in their own backyard.
And the folks at BCAA are applauding Steeves, Robertson and her group for working so well to make this happen. We couldn't agree more. It's people like Steeves who show the leadership in this community and the will to get things done. When there is a problem, it's nice to see people step up and help to address that problem, instead of pushing it off to others, or simply saying, it can't be fixed so you will just have to live with it.
We wish there were more people like him - our community would be far better off.
