Friday October 18, 2024 | SOOKE, BC [Posted at 2:30 pm, last updated at 5:04 pm]
BC ELECTION CAMPAIGN DAY 28 of 28
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Your 28-day voter’s guide for BC Election 2024
For over a decade a new community health centre in Sooke has been on the books. It comes up in municipal campaign platforms, provincial announcements, and is now mentioned again in 2024 Juan de Fuca-Malahat provincial election race.
Last week Juan de Fuca-Malahat BC NDP candidate Dana Lajeunesse said the health clinic proposed for Sooke could be in jeopardy if a BC Conservative government were to be elected in the upcoming October 19, 2024 BC provincial election.
He says he hopes to continue Horgan’s work in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat area.
But that seems to have been a bit of fear-mongering as the trajectory for the desired Sooke community health clinic that — while long and arduous — will in any version of post-election reality likely come to fruition.
On April 29, 2024 the BC government announced the next phase of their BC Builds program (government partnering with non-profits to help facilitate housing and community infrastructure). The District of Sooke-owned Lot A on Wadams Way is one of the sites chosen for that government funding and is the intended location for the Sooke Region CHC-UPCC. Unless a potential BC Conservative government would scrap those sorts of BC Builds partnership agreements, the eventual manifestation of the health centre seems all but certain.
Determination:
Anyone who knows the flavour of Sooke community determination would agree that the outcome of a Sooke community health centre will eventually be achieved. Politics can of course get in the way. The inarguable need for a health facility in Sooke that reflects local values and respects the investment by local doctors will almost certainly prevail.
Since 2016, the Sooke Region Communities Health Network (SRCHN) has worked with community partners to expand services relating to health and well-being in the Sooke region.
Ravi Parmar was MLA for the Sooke region for the past year (he’s now running in the next-door riding of Langford-Highlands). Parmar is pushing for Lajeunesse to win tomorrow’s vote in Juan de Fuca-Malahat because the BC NDP “would hold him to account” to achieve that goal.
Lajeunesse is fully on board with the new Sooke health facility project. Next-steps for the project had been announced in March 2023 in Sooke by former MLA John Horgan with health minister Adrian Dix alongside.
“This new integrated health-care facility will connect people in the community to a range of health-care services, including primary care, urgent care and community health services all under one roof,” said Minister of Health Adrian Dix on the ground in Sooke on March 16, 2023 (incidentally one day ahead of Horgan’s well-known use of St Patrick’s Day on March 17 each year to push momentum for his political goals).
“Integrating physicians into a community-based primary-care model means more time for patients, more patients accessing health-care services and less administrative burden for practitioners. This is part of our continuing work to build increased and improved access to primary health care for people in Sooke,” said Dix.
BC Conservative component:
Meanwhile, Dr Marina Sapozhnikov — the BC Conservative candidate in Juan de Fuca — is herself a family doctor. She would likely be in favour of the Sooke community health centre coming to fruition.
She says that the BC NDP’s worry about BC Conservative opposition to the project “is a complete fabrication, which is unacceptable in a person who resorts to lies in the process to become an MLA,” Sapozhnikov told Island Social Trends today. “Is this a way he is planning to function if elected as an MLA?”
She says it is “part of a pattern in the NDP spreading misinformation about their opponents”, referring to the BC NDP’s claim that a BC Conservative government would remove $4.1 billion from the health-care budget.
The BC Conservatives would make their desired changes in health-care but might end up spending even more than now, with the many changes they have in mind, but for what they call better outcomes. The BC Conservatives Patients First model for health-care includes expanding publicly-funded partnerships with non-governmental clinics.
Sooke health facility background:
The concern about a BC Conservative government (if such were the case after October 19) impacting the fruition of a local healthcare facility in Sooke. Retaliation against the riding that includes Sooke could again rear its ugly head.
Such was the case with no Highway 14 improvements in Sooke all the years that Horgan was MLA, until he became premier. Before 2017 the Highway 14 road safety and efficiency issues were never dealt with by the BC Liberal government — almost clearly out of spite to Horgan whose voter base was largely in Sooke. A roundabout in Sooke town centre (technically on Highway 14) did become installed in 2015/2016 but only BC Liberal MLAs attended the official unveiling; Horgan was not invited so that he would get no on-the-ground credit in Sooke that day.
And actually, if there were to be a Rustad government with the “Patients First” approach put in place, it’s even more likely that a local Sooke clinic with doctors and nurses would come to pass. That’s likely the case because the free enterprise approach to health-care would please the doctors of the West Coast Family Medical Clinic who over the years invested their own funds to keep a clinic operating in Sooke – something that Horgan honoured and had to somewhat slip through quietly in 2019 as everywhere else the Urgent Primary Care Centre model was being launched around Greater Victoria and around BC.
Mayor Tait weighs in:
Sooke Mayor Maja Tait has been pitching for health-care facilities in Sooke for over 10 years. She has been mayor since 2014, and before that was a municipal councillor for eight years (2008-2014). In that time she has hosted and been a leading speaker at Sooke health forums. That continual attention to the need for Sooke-based health-care has kept that community goal afloat.
Horgan came to Sooke around 2013 to also open a BC-back private doctor’s clinic at the Evergreen Shopping Centre; that was the prelude to the vision which he finally announced in the last month of his time as MLA, in March 2023 on the land next to the new Sooke library on Wadams Way.
“The District of Sooke remains committed to realizing a health centre for our community. I have been steadfast in advocating for this critical need for over a decade, and while we’ve celebrated successes along the way — such as the expansion of the West Coast Family Medical Clinic —our growing community continues to need more comprehensive healthcare services,” said Tait in a statement to Island Social Trends today.
“The District will continue to advocate for this vital project, ensuring that it remains a priority regardless of political shifts. Our work doesn’t stop, and we will continue to push forward in collaboration with health authorities and other stakeholders,” said Tait, who has been successful in including Island Health (the provincial health authority for Vancouver Island) in the discussion over the years.
BC Greens input:
Long-time Sooke resident and business owner David Evans is the BC Greens candidate in Juan de Fuca-Malahat.
“The NDP proudly talks about Sooke’s community health centre as John Horgan’s last promise. While I am sure the intention was to have the centre built by now — the public certainly want it — there must be a political reason why they have been unable to break ground yet,” said Evans in a statement to Island Social Trends today.
“The NDP has had a majority government for four years. I cannot understand why they’re delaying services to Sooke residents,” says Evans.
“But we could say the same things about the state of schools in Sooke and also about highway access to those schools (three SD62 elementary schools are accessed directly from Highway 14), those being other provincial concerns that Sooke residents have wanted addresses for years,” says Evans today.
Evans highlights that BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau was able to bring a new hospital to the Cowichan Valley during her time as the MLA in Cowichan Valley (2017-2024), as well as a new hospice facility and The Village homeless shelter.
“It seems that the solution to securing local services on Vancouver Island is to have a strong MLA in opposition to the government, holding them to account,” says Evans.
SRCHN executive note:
Ironically just today, the executive director of the Sooke Region Community Health Network (SRCHN), Christine Bossi, has announced that she is moving on to “new adventures”. SRCHN Director of Community Programs, Katie Sperrer, will move up from SRCH Programs Manager to take on “most of” Bossi’s duties.
===== RELATED:
- Who’s gonna win BC Election 2024? (October 16, 2024)
- Horgan in Sooke for his last constituency speech, announces big health-care prize (March 18, 2023)
- Two new doctors and more office space for existing Sooke medical clinic (May 5, 2019)
- Gridlock on Highway 14 while Premier in Sooke (April 17, 2019)
- Skyline Retail REIT buys Evergreen mall | Sooke medical clinic expansion (October 26, 2018)
- New urgent primary care health centre in Langford to open November 5 (October 26, 2018)
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