B.C. Premier David Eby had a busy morning in Vernon Friday, Aug.
23, when he was in town to make two stops, first to cut the ribbon on a new at Okanagan College, and then to the Vernon Health Unit for a roundtable discussion with Interior Health leadership, where he announced Vernon will be getting a (UPCC). But before all of that running around, he sat down with The Morning Star to answer some questions on issues that affect Vernon, the Okanagan and the province as a whole. Here's what he had to say.
Eby's visit to Vernon followed the closures last year of the city's two remaining walk-in clinics, leaving a dearth of primary care options in the community. His announcement of a second urgent and primary care centre coming to the city next fall aimed to address those concerns, but the question remained whether the new centre would be enough to counterbalance the closures of those clinics. Eby said he thinks the new UPCC will in fact "bring us back to an excess of the level of service that people saw in the community," factoring in the opening of a earlier this year.
The premier said there was "considerable effort" by government through the health authorities to keep the walk-in clinics open. He said he doesn't know why those clinics ultimately decided to "pull the plug" and was disappointed, because keeping them open "would have been the preferred route for us," as it would have provided time to put larger systemic fixes such as a primary care centre in place. But Eby said the experience "underlines the vulnerability of depending on private delivered healthcare.
" "When you depend on private clinics, they're going to make decisions that are best for them and for their business," Eby said. "And the benefit of the urgent primary care model is because it's publicly owned and run, we can ensure that it continues into the future, that it's adequately staffed, that it grows with the population, that it delivers the mix of services that best respond to what the community needs." Eby added that the private clinics aren't responsible for fulfilling the requirements of the public healthcare system.
He said Vernon's current UPCC has been successful with roughly 28,000 visits and has relieved a lot of pressure from the emergency room at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, "and we expect very similar levels of service and success from the second model as well." Earlier this month, the province's B.C.
Builds program, formerly the HousingHub program, came under scrutiny when a that was supposed to provide 54 affordable housing units listed prices well above the affordable housing thresholds, with rents as high as $4,300 a month. The building is in the Kitsilano neighbourhood in Vancouver—Point Grey, the community Eby is MLA for. Eby was asked about the project and how he can assure that affordable housing projects in the Okanagan and elsewhere will actually be affordable.
Eby said he knows the project well, and ardently defended it. He said it was built on the site of an old church, and the church sold the property to a developer for the development of luxury condos and townhomes, "which without any government intervention would have just gone ahead and been built." He said because of that government intervention, "we got a rental building instead of luxury housing.
" "The project is almost done, it didn't cost taxpayers a cent, like literally nothing, the developer pays all the interest, pays the loan, pays everything, there's no ongoing subsidy, and for zero dollars we got 20 per cent of the units that are below market, "Eby continued. Asked about the need for more affordable housing units in the Okanagan, Eby said his government has just over 700 units either delivered or underway in the region, "but we know there's a lot more to do." He said the student housing building at Okanagan College will take pressure off Vernon's rental market, "and our vendor is constantly on me about how we can deliver even more housing for the community.
" The BC Conservatives have been taking aim at the province's . Eby was asked to defend the policy and point to signs that it's working to alleviate the toxic drug crisis. Eby said the prescribed alternatives program is about "getting a doctor or a nurse between a person struggling with addiction and predatory drug dealers.
" "Instead of smashing someone's car window to take their change to go and buy drugs off the street, they're talking and dealing with a health professional who's helping them get into treatment, helping them rebuild their lives," he said. Eby admitted that the program comes with some risk, namely that prescribed drugs will not end up with the person they're prescribed to. "The physicians that are involved in this program are all certainly aware of the risk and are working with their clients, including doing things like urine testing, to make sure that the drugs are ending up where they're prescribed," he said.
Eby said work is being done with drug companies to potentially find a way to mark the prescribed drugs with chemical markers, "so we can identify sources of diversion and track them to make sure these prescription drugs, just like any prescription drug, are ending up where they should and not on the street." The provincial deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year came in $819 million higher than budgeted, new figures from the B.C.
government showed . Eby was asked how he would respond to criticisms from his political opponents that his government's spending is out of control. "Governments around the world are grappling with slowing global economy, with low resource prices, with record high central bank interest rates that are causing families to decide not to go to a restaurant for dinner, not to spend money on a new vehicle or on a vacation," Eby said.
The premier said amid this economic climate, governments have to choose between balancing the budget and supporting people. "And we made a really clear choice — and I think the Vernon area in North Okanagan understands why we would be doing things like building the mental health extension of the hospital and building a new urgent primary care centre and building the housing at the college. It's to respond to the big challenges that we're facing.
And we're going to hire the teachers, we're going to hire the nurses, we're going to make sure that there are the people that are there to provide those services." Eby said BC United's plan to balance the budget in a year is a $5 billion cut, adding the party has also announced $5 billion in tax cuts. "You can't cut $10 billion from the public budget without massive impacts," he said.
Eby also took the opportunity to point out B.C. taxpayers support other provinces with equalization payments, saying he's happy B.
C. can support other provinces but "at some point (the federal government) is going to have to put money back into British Columbia so that we can continue to grow and we can continue to support ourselves." Officials in the Okanagan and beyond have been sounding the alarm for years: invasive Zebra and Quagga mussels have the potential to ruin beaches, water infrastructure, and ecosystems if they enter local waterways.
A provincial report from last year estimated a mussel infestation would cost B.C. between $64 million and $129 million annually.
Eby was asked if the province is doing enough to quell the threat of these invasive species to protect Okanagan and B.C. waters.
Eby, mindful of the above mentioned costs, said "whatever we can do to prevent it from happening is money well spent." He said the Vernon community has been a big advocate for the pull-the-plug program which as of May requires B.C.
boaters to pull their drain plugs before moving their boats between water bodies, "to make sure boats are coming in dry" and aren't transporting the mussels. He said existing inspection stations to make sure that rule is being followed are critical. "We're trying to really focus on that preventative work when it comes to this region around wherever we can, whether it's Zebra and Quagga mussels or wildfire impacts or health care, if we're able to prevent the larger expenses down the road we want to do it," Eby said.
Eby was asked what he's hearing from constituents in terms of the biggest issue affecting British Columbians heading into the Oct. 19 provincial election. "The number one issue is just the cost of living," he said without hesitation.
The United and Conservative parties are promising tax cuts to address the affordability issue that's running rampant across the country, while Eby's NDP government is focused on providing cost-saving services. Eby said the cost of living has been a core focus of his government since spring. He said the cost of housing and "just daily life" has been increasingly unbearable for British Columbians.
"That's why we did the child care program," he said. Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu added that in her riding, has saved parents $20.5 million in child care costs.
Eby said his party "fundamentally disagrees" with the Conservatives and United that now is the time to cut services "that people really depend on.".
