Letter to Nelson Daily News Editor

I sent the below letter on March 11, responding to a constituent in the public format she chose to bring up these issues. It was printed March 23.

On Friday March 6, Nelson Daily News published Sheila McCormack’s open letter to the Provincial Election Candidates. As the Candidate for the NDP, I am happy to respond with my positions on the issues she raised.

1) The lack of surgeons at Kootenay Lake Hospital. Coming from the party that founded Canadian universal medicare, I cannot find the sense in KLH having no surgeons. IHA numbers show that Nelson serves a population of 25,211 with no surgeon, while Trail serves a population of 20,096 with 4 surgeons. If we look north to Quesnel, we find that their hospital serving 26,207 residents has two surgeons, and, like Nelson, is 1 hour away from its regional hospital. If two surgeons are good for Quesnel, clearly at least one would be good for Nelson.

2) Health Authorities. In 2002, the Liberal Government followed suit with the Alberta Conservatives and merged all local Health Boards into 6 Health Authorities. Community representatives to Health Authorities are appointed by the Government rather than elected by the people. Interestingly, Alberta recently returned to a community-based model. They now have 56 Community Councils under one Health Authority. In just makes sense to meaningfully include communities in guiding their health services.

3) Pay equity for paramedics. By ignoring the realities of rural and remote communities, the Liberal Government has done a disservice to paramedics. In remote places, the lack of ER doctors and nurses forces paramedics to care for patients much longer. Yet, they are not paid the higher levels for such care. We need to assess the actual work rural paramedics do and compensate them accordingly.

4) Privatizing BC Hydro is a bad deal for British Columbians present and future rate payers. How this is happening is complicated and underhanded, masked by the redesigning of BC Hydro and the rules of NAFTA. The end results (as identified in places that have sold off their public utilities) are higher prices, less accountability and environmental negligence –all of which completely contradict the Liberal’s 2001 promise of low energy prices. The NDP will not sell BC Hydro.

5) Jumbo Glacier Resort. I believe that local people should have the final say over developments in their regions. It’s our backyard after all. I agree with the NDP that a locally made decision on JGR is necessary. To date, local governments and businesses have expressed strong opposition to the resort.

6) Independent Power Projects. The scariest thing about IPPs is NAFTA. The North American Free Trade Agreement Chapter 11 and other provisions suggest that these water licences are a systematic privatization and sale of our water. For this reason, and many others, the NDP is calling for a two-year moratorium on all IPPs so that their impacts can be properly reviewed prior to pursuing this angle for energy sources.

7) Conservation Officers. We need more well-trained Conservation Officers working in the field where they can do the most good. As a proactive approach to caring for wildlife and their habitat, increased COs will prove less costly than the clean-up of things like toxic spills and damaged fisheries.

Voters, please feel free to contact me anytime with your concerns at michelle@michellemungall.com or visit my websites: http://michellemungall.bcndp.ca or my blog at www.michellemungall.com . Thanks to Ms. McCormack for asking her questions. I hope to meet you in the future and carry on this worthwhile dialogue.

Michelle Mungall
NDP Candidate
Nelson-Creston