With so many struggling, which party is promising to put people first?

Don't forget to do this on Saturday, Oct. 19. Photo: Shutterstock

In a speech to his party’s convention in 1976, Hubert Humphrey, then the US vice-president, opined that the test of any government was how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. In the CRD, those citizens are its elders, the very young, the disabled, those living in extreme poverty and those suffering from complex and concurrent mental-health and addiction disorders.

BC is still in recovery mode after COVID-19 left its economy wobbling and many of its social safety nets in disrepair. Surging inflation and cost of living have put enormous pressure on people just trying to get by. Mental-health challenges at all ages are at an all-time high and the “sandwich generation” is struggling to care for their aging parents and their kids.

What are party candidates promising to reduce the burdens and shocks of the last few years in the domain of looking after those that need it most?

Elders and Long-Term Care

The number of seniors (65+) living in BC is climbing steeply and the number of subsidized long-term care beds available is simply not keeping pace. According to its Office of the Seniors Advocate, BC has seen an overall decrease of 13% in the rate of long-term care beds in the last five years. At the same time, the cost of income support for seniors on programs such as Old Age Security and the Guaranteed Income Supplement is putting pressure on healthcare spending, and that includes funding for Long Term Care (LTC) beds.

It’s the Ministry of Health that sets the fees for publicly subsidized long-term care. Currently, BC residents pay 80% of their after-tax income toward the cost of LTC housing and care services to a maximum of $3,847 per month. As of Jan. 1, 2023,  min./ max. rates were $1,337 and $3,847 per month, respectively. The average wait time for a publicly subsidized long-term care bed in the province is 178 days. People who can’t wait and are willing to pay for private options will pay anywhere from $6K to more than  $20K per month, depending on the facility and the level of care provided.

The BC Greens promise to increase the number of publicly funded long-term care beds by 10% each year over five years to meet the growing demand for senior care services. They pledge to develop and implement a Provincial Long-Term Care and Assisted Living Plan that also will include strategies to support the unique needs of seniors living in rural areas. They say it will include a Rural Health Human Resource Strategy to ensure adequate staffing and services are reaching rural seniors.

The Conservatives promise to deliver 5,000 long-term care beds provincewide by 2030. They say they will give seniors and persons with disabilities up to $2,000 toward renovation costs that will help them remain at home. John Rustad’s party says it will reduce long-term care costs by over $45,000 per senior annually, but doesn’t say how.

On Oct. 9, NDP candidates Diana Gibson (Oak Bay-Gordon Head) and Grace Lore (Victoria-Beacon Hill) announced a plan to work with Island Health to explore long-term care and assisted living options for the old Oak Bay Lodge. Oakwood Manor, a high-end, private LTC home is in the same district.

Seniors are also disproportionately impacted by pharmaceutical costs. The NDP has significantly reduced the cost of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for menopausal symptoms and is providing coverage for continuous and flash glucose monitors. The New Democrats have promised to improve access to inhalers for people suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to add dapagliflozin as a regular benefit to treat Type 2 diabetes and heart failure.

Child Care

Childcare issues will impact some areas of the CRD differently than others. In the West Shore, 19% of the population is comprised of children under 14 compared with the CRD average of 14%—due in part to the availability of lower-cost family housing.

The availability of accessible, affordable childcare has haunted the NDP through three election cycles. In the last campaign, the party promised universal $10-a-day daycare within 10 years, but that goal is far from being fulfilled. Only about 10% of licensed daycares in the province cost $10 a day. The current child-care system is fragmented by ad hoc funding initiatives, making it difficult for both providers and families to navigate. Huge staffing shortages continue to affect access to daycare for families.

The NDP government offered to double the number of ECE training seats and in March 2023, announced study bursaries that cover the majority of ECE tuition fees, based on program costs.. Last year, the NDP announced a median wage enhancement for Early Childhood Educators. Those only being paid $18/hour received a boost to $21. The new NDP plan, announced on Oct 7, calls for $500 million over two years to build more child-care facilities but they will keep knocking up against the same foil of staff recruitment and retention.

Poor recruitment and retention outcomes, made worse by lack of benefits, defined pension plans, and poor working conditions for ECEs, have presented a major roadblock to getting kids in the CRD into affordable child-care options. To remedy this, the Greens have announced a gradual increase to the ECE wage grid to eventually reach $30-$40 per hour by 2026. The Greens promise to provide $100 million in new funding to create a capital program within the Ministry of Education for renovations and additions to schools to support child-care spaces like the one that is to be available in the promised Cedar Hill Elementary school in Victoria.

They promise $250 million to expand child-care spaces for children under five and are vowing to ensure $10-a-day care is eventually available to everyone.

The Conservatives rolled out their daycare plan last week, pledging to keep $10-a-day care and promising to prioritize single mothers in finding those spots. They say they will increase private, unregulated operators in the sector in homes and public buildings.

Mental-Health Supports

The NDP is pledging $811 million over two years in new spending in healthcare and mental health (MH). They are earmarking part of their proposed spending, as are the Greens, to put a mental-health counsellor in every school in the province. The Conservatives are looking for improved access to MH professionals for schools but don’t indicate that would be onsite.

The Greens say they will also increase crisis-line funding to $5 million to enhance capacity to manage diverted 911 calls for mental-health crises. They say they will create an Independent Office of the Mental Health Advocate. Finally, a chunk of their MH budget would go to increase mental-health services for first responders and the increased recruitment and retention of front-line mental-health workers.

Conservatives would like to see individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others in secure facilities, “not out on the streets.”

Addictions Spending

There is no question that much more needs to be done to tackle this growing and lethal problem in the CRD, especially in Victoria. It’s a complex problem that requires collaborative, compassionate, and costly solutions. In the first quarter of 2024, 572 people in BC, including 128 Islanders, died from toxic drugs. Paramedics in Victoria are attending up to 100 overdose calls in a day. There are only 26 subsidized withdrawal management (detox), treatment, and supportive recovery beds currently available in the CRD (6 in Victoria, 15 in Cobble Hill, and 5 in North Saanich). Last year, Lisa LaPointe, the province’s chief coroner, urged the provision of accessible, evidence-based treatment and recovery programs, rather than “policing and punishing in the guise of public policy.”

The Greens recognize that drug use is a health and social issue—not a criminal one.

The Conservatives’ BC Recovers plan describes addiction as a “lifestyle choice.” They have pledged to immediately close supervised consumption sites and end the decriminalization of illicit drugs. They have promised to implement Christian’s Law, involuntary treatment legislation for people unable to make “lifestyle decisions on their own.” They want to integrate addiction treatment into the correctional system, a move that critics say could further stigmatize and criminalize drug users.

In a move towards the Conservative platform, David Eby announced in Sept. a re-elected NDP government would explore an expansion of involuntary care for people with several mental-health and addiction issues but the involuntary care system is already more advanced in BC than the voluntary care system, with figures from Ombudsperson Jay Chalke showed represented over 28,000 involuntary admissions to hospitals and other health-care settings under the Mental Health Act in 2020/21. In expanding the definition of who qualifies for involuntary admission, they risk addressing existing gaps and dysfunction in the existing healthcare system.

The Greens are looking to create local solutions to address the unregulated toxic drug crisis by expanding the PACT (Peer Assisted Care Team) program, which has been highly effective in three communities. They’d like to see an expansion of supervised consumption services would evaluate the benefits of mobile overdose prevention services and would match investments in bed-based care with a spectrum of community-based outpatient substance use treatment services.

This was Part lll of a three-part series. Please also see:

‍ Part l on housing, education and healthcare

‍ and

‍ Part ll on the environment and species at risk