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No more for-profit seniors’ care - Send letter to Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long Term Care.
07/12/20
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John Horgan’s new majority government was sworn in last week, as a second wave of COVID-19 sweeps across B.C. [1] With new outbreaks in long-term care announced almost daily, Vancouver-Kensington MLA Mable Elmore is stepping into an important role as Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long Term Care. She’ll play a key role in advancing the B.C. NDP’s ambitious promises for seniors’ care reform – lifting wages to the provincial standard, hiring more staff, regulating care hours, and beginning the shift away from for-profit seniors’ care with investments in new public facilities. [2-3] But as we write to you, lobbyists for the for-profit seniors’ care industry are trying to block these much-needed reforms - because they rely on weak regulations and low wages to make their profits. If we want the government to take bold action to fix the crisis in seniors’ care, we need to make our voices louder than the lobbyists and show the new Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long Term Care how many voters are counting on her commitment to fixing this issue. Will you send an email urging the Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long Term Care, Mable Elmore, to stop the expansion of for-profit seniors’ care and invest in a system where seniors and workers come before corporate profits?
The first big test of the government’s commitment to phasing out for-profit seniors’ care is coming up fast. Any day now, the government will decide to whom they will award contracts for nearly 500 new long-term care beds. Will they continue down the B.C. Liberals’ failed path, and give the contracts to corporations who only care about profits? Or will they set a new course and invest in non-profit operators that put seniors and workers first? The new Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors Services and Long Term Care is sure to be at the table when the decision is made, and we need to make sure she fights to make sure that not one of these beds goes to a for-profit corporation.
Our campaign has incredible momentum. Almost 15,000 of us have signed the petition to end for-profit seniors’ care. In the election, our campaign was all over the news, and we helped make seniors’ care a top election issue. [4] Now, we have a new majority government with a mandate to transform our seniors’ care system for the better. We’re closer than ever before – but we’re up against an army of well-funded corporate lobbyists who are trying to sabotage these much-needed reforms. We can’t let up our pressure. Click here to send a message urging the government to stop the expansion of for-profit seniors’ care and follow through on the B.C. NDP’s promises for seniors’ care reform. In solidarity, Sources: |
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