Editor:
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is going the way of many public enterprises (e.g., BC Ferries and TransLink) in choosing to not take responsibility for the welfare of the people they represent. Instead VCH, a public organization, chooses to pawn off their responsibility on a private enterprise. VCH has signed a deal with Trellis Group to replace Totem and Shorncliffe with a new 128-bed facility. How irresponsible! Firstly, VCH is choosing to replace two facilities with long waiting lists, that are now offering 108 beds, with a new facility of 128 beds in an area that will surely increase as our present aging population gets older still. Do the math!
Secondly, VCH is disregarding the welfare of the people who are currently working at Totem and Shorncliffe.
Thirdly, this is a proposal that has been made with no consultation and no regard for the people who are presently in Shorncliffe and Totem, be it the residents or the families. This must not be allowed to happen. VCH is a public organization that should be responding to our needs, not to some corporate entity. Let’s stop this autocratic nonsense!
Michele Beaudry, Sechelt
