“Once again the BC Liberal government seems more than willing to download provincial responsibilities, on to the taxpayers of smaller communities in rural BC.”

A week ago CHBC TV in the Okanagan ran a story (Passionate pleas to save Marshall Lake) on a group of people in Greenwood, that are desperately trying to save one of the few lakes in their area

Marshall Lake Stewardship Group working to save lake

The story indicated that:

The province wants to decommission the structure over concerns about the dam’s structural safety, the possible consequences to Greenwood should it fail and the liability of the government.  Removing the dam would reduce the lake to about one-third of its current size which would markedly affect its recreation and water storage values.

It also quoted Christopher Stevenson, of the Marshall Lake Stewardship Group, who stated, “It is a move that will permanently destroy much of the value of Marshall Lake, a highly valued recreation site.

“Don’t take out our dam. Let the lake be the way it is. Take care of the dam. Upgrade and maintain it as a provincial asset and let us have our lake,” said Stevenson.

In several conversations I have had with Christopher he has let me know more about the possible decommissioning of the dam on Marshall Lake, and what it means to the people in this region.

Just so you know - there is an economic component to this -- we have few lakes here. Marshall Lake is part of a recreation / wilderness complex that is well used, and has great potential for tourism and local use.  We don't have the lakes that the Okanagan and Kootenay’s do; which is why we need every one we have. 

Marshall Lake is used year round by recreationalist and outdoors people. This is not just environmental; we’re trying to build our tourism here as well. Meantime the government is looking at legal aspects, and trying to find loopholes.

The private owners are being unfairly hit as they will lose their lakefront – it will ruin their property for at least two years, and permanently in many ways, which will result in a loss of value.  It will also ruin the BC Forest Recreation campsite. 

There has also been no environmental assessment, and no inundation (flood) study.

They should be ashamed to be picking on rural BC again.  There are so many things to base a case against them on … environment, economic, private property rights, rural BC.

Only one political party has recognized the insanity of a carbon tax that takes from health and education -- and gives it to big business

The Carbon Tax, initiated by the BC Liberal government, robs much needed money from the education needs of BC children ... and from medical care.

In 2010 (2011 not available) the BC Liberal government required School District 73, Kamloops/Thompson to pay the Pacific Carbon Trust a total of $106,496 in carbon taxes.

That same year, the BC Liberal government also required the Interior Health Authority to pay the Pacific Carbon Trust nearly $1 million dollars ($965,891) in Carbon Taxes.

And Thompson Rivers University?  Well they ended up shelling out $103,310 as well.

Good grief, even the Pacific Carbon Trust itself got hit for a carbon tax of $170

(Find the cost your School District and Health Authority paid by CLICKING HERE)

And what do these carbon taxes do?  They allow the provincial government to, only on paper, claim that British Columbia is carbon neutral.

And this is something to be proud of?

Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger

In a news story Sunday (February 12) with CFJC TV7 News in Kamloops, Kamloops South Thompson  MLA Kevin Krueger was quoted as saying that he is "...proud of the government’s record on providing health care and education."

That anyone could be proud of the government’s record in these two areas seems a little strange to me.

We have had multiple stories in Kamloops media in recent weeks about overly long waits by patients for surgeries ... along with ongoing issues with Emergency Room services.  But that almost seems common place now – the following isn’t however.

Most people take for granted they’ll be able to have a shower or a bath each day – don’t expect that if you’re in a care home facility.  Here in Kamloops, the resident of one care home facility ended up being shipped from one side of town to other to find facilities they could use. 

The Kamloops Daily News outlined the reason in a story on January 13^th headlined “IHA too cheap to fix donated tub”.  The story began by saying:

It seems inhumane that if Al McQuarrie wants a bath, he has to wheel himself onto a bus.  The resident of Greenfield Place says the twice-weekly baths he used to receive in a tub in his apartment complex were the only times he felt relief from the non-stop pressure created from sitting in a wheelchair all day.

But that ended in November when the tub was deemed as worn out by the Interior Health Authority, which runs the community bathing program.  The IHA said it's not worth fixing the broken Century tub lift system in Greenfield and to replace it would cost $25,000, an expense that cannot be supported with other facilities touting tubs down the road.

The authority has suggested McQuarrie can catch a HandiDart Bus to have a bath at another location in the city. According to Google Maps, it's a 14-16 minute drive from his Brocklehurst building to Ponderosa, located across the bridge and near the hospital downtown

IHA ended up agreeing to make the necessary repairs – but they were shamed in to it. 

Punishing residents in the interior, is NOT a decision that will help BC families

News has been released that the Interior Health Authority (IHA) will end up with less funding this year … in fact the amount is substantial … three point four million dollars.

The reason??  

Management of the Interior Health Authority has been unable to ensure hospitals, in its jurisdiction, provide needed patient service, within a reasonable amount of time, for hip, knee and cataract surgeries.

I think most people would agree it should be the job of those in management, to ensure that health care services are provided with no long or undue delays.   

If management is unable to ensure this happens, then it should be THEIR salaries that get clawed back, by the Health Ministry.

BC Medical Association: ED (Emergency Department) overcrowding requires system-wide solutions

Emergency room problems continue to be in the news again … and in particular, this time around, with Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster.

That led me to consider writing my blog comments on the issue.  I don’t need to however … plenty is already being written about it … and has been for years now. 

All I had to do was conduct a Google search for “overcrowded bc hospitals” and in 0.34 seconds six hundred and twenty eight thousand (628,000) items came up … here are just a few

Today’s letters:  Hospital overcrowding nothing new

The situation at the Royal Columbian is not unique to that hospital; most urban hospitals in Canada are facing the same problems. What is unique is that the New Westminster Fire Marshall’s office is seemingly the only government agency that is able to rapidly do what hospital and regional health authority officials seem incapable of doing; acknowledging a threat to the public’s health and rapidly solving it …

Doctors take a stand at overcrowded Royal Columbian

Doctors at the chronically overcrowded Royal Columbian Hospital have announced that starting next week, they will no longer be treating non-emergency patients in the emergency department.   On Tuesday morning, 40 of the 42 emergency beds were occupied by non-emergency patients because regular care rooms were full. The continual lack of beds means doctors have had to treat emergency patients in hallways, other hospital spaces, and even a Tim Horton’s once …

Given where party membership is now, and where they are polling, it looks like I am not alone

It’s Friday and the end of the week is approaching.  Later this afternoon I’ll have a wrap-up of news stories, but for now here’s a couple of things I’d like to mention and look at.  First, here’s the start to a story (Full hospital postpones surgeries; worse than it has been in a year) that I saw today in the Kamloops Daily News:

Royal Inland Hospital is so full of patients, administrator Marg Brown had to postpone a total of 16 surgeries Wednesday, Thursday and today.  “The staff are working flat out right now,” she said Thursday.

The 16 patients who will be rescheduled were all getting elective procedures and required admission to the hospital. None involved cancer, pediatrics or hip/knee operations, and additional day operations were slotted into cancelled surgery times.  Emergency surgeries continue to get done. Still, Brown said she regretted having to take the step of postponing surgeries — she hasn’t had to do it for a year.

You know what --- I don’t care if they were elective surgeries or not.  These were things that people had planned for --- perhaps made special arrangements for --- some may have traveled for --- and others may have booked time of at work for.

We should NEVER hear, “There’s no room at the Inn” when it comes to hospitals.  Perhaps if they weren't paying thousands of dollars, for fictitious carbon credits, they would have the money they need for beds at the hospitals.   

I guess Christy Clark’s BC Liberal government is just giving us one more example of how this is a government that puts families first!

Meantime, in the Province newspaper today, Michael Smyth had a story entitled, “Clark could roll the dice on spring election”.  He asked some interesting questions of where Christy is going and what she is trying to do … here is part of what he asked and had to say:

… why would you want to "renew" one of your best MLAs, in one of your party's safest seats?  The comment must have other Liberal MLAs wondering just what the premier was getting at … rumours some of them might be encouraged to retire, so Clark can move those new people and new ideas into position in by-elections.  It's a risky strategy … the governing Social Credit Party lost six by-elections in a row … same thing happened to the governing NDP in the 1990s … losing streaks reinforced public perceptions that those doomed governments had to go…