In the Legislature last week, I reminded my NDP counterparts about Judy Launchbury’s distressing experience with B.C.’s failing health care system. Judy Launchbury, from Williams Lake, is a good friend of mine.
She’s a senior citizen with osteoporosis and a herniated disc who fell in her driveway last August, dislocating her shoulder. All she needed was an ambulance ride to the hospital, and her neighbours called 911 for her.
After waiting, Judy's neighbours loaded her up in a van and took her to the hospital. Thank goodness the hospital was open that night (it had been closed the day before), and she was treated well. But are we really leaving our seniors out on their driveways after they experience a fall?
When we bring up these problems, we are not attacking our first responders, who are everyday heroes. This is about government failure. Our frontline workers are amazing but overwhelmed.
Older adults in Cariboo-Chilcotin are also facing cost of living issues. Last October, some of you may have heard about the Tin Cup rallies in Williams Lake to raise awareness of seniors living in poverty. Those demonstrations were organized by an amazing woman named Tina Derksen of the Old Age Pensioners Association, and I was proud to walk alongside her.
Just recently, we all learned that the NDP government kiboshed the $500-$1000 grocery rebate they had promised during the election campaign. That rebate would have meant so much to the seniors in my riding.
Some local seniors share their income information with me. They manage to get by on $2,200 a month – and I challenge my NDP MLA counterparts to survive on that in a time when we are looking at some of the highest costs of living we’ve ever experienced. Not just at the grocery store, not just with respect to housing, but everything else too. I think my natural gas bill was about $300 last month. The seniors in my community are extremely frustrated with the high costs of carbon tax and heating fuels on top of everything else.
As MLA for Cariboo-Chilcotin, I always keep in mind seniors’ specific experiences with health care, cost of living, housing, transportation, and safety. Our seniors must not be invisible.
