B C s commitment to longterm care beds in budget falls short, critic says theglobeandmail.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theglobeandmail.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Enhancements over three years include $748 million to expand urgent and primary care centres of which there are 23 so far and reduce surgery wait times made worse by the pandemic, as well as diagnostic services, and $585 million to hire about 3,000 new care aides. That’s a “really significant” and necessary investment, said Mike Old, interim secretary-business manager for the Hospital Employees’ Union, which represents about 50,000 health workers, including more than 15,000 care aides. Christine Sorensen, president of the B.C. Nurses’ Union, was disappointed with the budget, however, saying the pandemic has shown there’s a nursing shortage, with a significant deficit of critical-care nurses at a time of record-high admissions to intensive-care units.
As well, the budget recognized the day-to-day living constraints on low-income seniors with the doubling of the seniors supplement, a top-up for low-income seniors unchanged since 1987. The maximum of $49.30 goes to $99.30 a month for a single person. About 80,000 British Columbian seniors receive it. “I think it’s a fairly positive budget in respect of seniors,” said Mackenzie. “They have thrown a lot of money at seniors. “I think there’s still some things to sort out once we’re on the other side of the pandemic but the money for the wage levelling, the single-site order, and training of new care aides, that’s a lot of money.”
Funding for seniors gets high marks timescolonist.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timescolonist.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Why Canada’s Indigenous Have Vaccine Worries Randi Druzin
TORONTO When the Cree Nation of Mistissini, a small town in the province of Quebec, started vaccinating its members against COVID-19 in January, a former Assembly of First Nations national chief expressed his dismay. The Cree Leadership seems to think they know what is best for us, Matthew Coon Come wrote on social media. Mistissini is now the experimental rats of this experimental vaccine.
As Canada s vaccine rollout progresses in fits and starts this year, some Indigenous leaders and others are expressing concern about vaccine hesitancy in their communities. They attribute the reluctance to deep-rooted mistrust of public health-care facilities and providers a problem that reflects decades of troubled relations between Indigenous peoples and Canadian institutions.