Seniors’ Issues the Subject of a ‘Spirited’ BC Election Debate

Candidates for all four major parties in British Columbia met at a Surrey retirement community last Tuesday for a debate about health care and seniors’ issues.

In four years’ time — the length of a term in provincial office — one in four people in British Columbia will be considered a senior, according to the Office of the Seniors Advocate.

Seniors tend to have the highest voter turnout in both provincial and federal elections.

In Surrey, candidates appeared eager to win them over.

Adrian Dix, the NDP’s minister of health, highlighted improvements his party had made over the last seven years, championed investing in public facilities and said the NDP plans to keep building out its programs.

Conservative Party of BC candidate Elenore Sturko promised to improve care by building out a dual public-private health-care system and long-term care industry.

BC Green Party candidate Pat McCutcheon pledged to improve funding for seniors’ services by removing oil and gas subsidies and redirecting that money to seniors.

Karin Kirkpatrick, now running as an Independent but formerly of BC United, called for more data collection in the health-care field to better understand what programs are working, and pledged to hold whatever party forms government to account.

None of the candidates are running in the local riding of Surrey-Fleetwood.

Dix is running in Vancouver-Renfrew, Sturko in Surrey-Cloverdale, McCutcheon in Surrey-Cloverdale, and Kirkpatrick in West Vancouver-Capilano.

The four took to the stage to debate their parties’ platforms and ideas in a debate Sturko called “spirited” in her closing remarks.

Alternative visions for BC’s future

Dix jumped between highlighting what his government has accomplished and criticizing the BC Conservatives.

He championed investing in public health care and proposed a “comprehensive seniors’ strategy” that would bring different ministries together under a unified vision — something B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt has called for.

Dix also offered some clarification of the public versus private debate vis-a-vis long-term care, and the difference in approach for the NDP versus the Conservatives.

B.C. currently has around 29,500 public long-term care beds, he said. The beds can be health authority owned and operated, or they can be operated by a private not-for-profit or a private for-profit company. These beds are all considered “public” and are in part or entirely funded by the government.

“The question [posed by the BC Conservatives] is about fully private beds and if they should get a subsidy as well,” Dix said. “I believe we should continue to support private long-term care homes in their delivery of safe care to British Columbians. I don’t agree with fully funding unless there’s public access.”

For her part, Sturko — who left BC United to join the BC Conservatives in June — criticized the NDP’s track record and promised partnerships with the private sector as something nearing a catch-all solution to issues facing seniors today, including extending seniors’ independence and improving health-care worker shortages.

The Conservatives released a “Standing up for Seniors” backgrounder the same day as the debate, which outlines ideas but does not make any commitments to funding the same way a platform traditionally does. The BC Conservative platform has not yet been released.

BC Green candidate McCutcheon warned against partnerships with the private sector and generally called for more funding to improve social services for seniors.

McCutcheon pointed to a 2023 report by the B.C. seniors advocate that found public beds run by private for-profit companies were paid to deliver 500,000 care hours more than they actually delivered, and public not-for-profit care homes delivered 93,000 hours more direct care than they were funded to.

“We don’t believe that our government should be funding for-profit models, and we would focus our funding more towards the public and not-for-profit model,” he said. To do that, the Greens would slash subsidies for oil and gas companies and redirect that windfall to seniors’ care, he said.

Debate moderator Jody Vance said B.C. needs 30,000 new long-term care beds by 2035. Only 850 new beds have been added since 2019, she said. She noted how the NDP have invested $3.2 billion into long-term care but, as a single bed costs around $1 million to build, that adds up to only 3,000 new beds in a decade.

Sturko said the BC Conservatives planned to build 5,000 long-term care beds by 2030.

“We are definitely going to be working with the private sector because we know with the tens of thousands of beds shortage in B.C. the only way for us to do that is with effective partnerships with the private sector, with not-for-profits and continuing to listen to those organizations about how we can overcome the barriers to providing access that seniors so desperately need,” she said.

Dix countered that the NDP’s progress on building long-term care beds had been slow because when his party took over from the then BC Liberals (now BC United, which will not run any candidates in this election) there had been just $17.8 million allocated over 10 years towards building more beds.

“We’ve increased that budget 180 times,” Dix said.

Aging at home

To help seniors age at home, Dix said, the NDP worked with the federal government to provide more home support and provide care in community.

Their focus has been on respite support, which gives families and caregivers a break and offers a “tune-up” to seniors too, he said. The NDP has also been building out adult day programs, he added.

The party’s work on “addressing some fundamental questions around the cost of living,” such as eliminating Medical Services Plan premiums, also helps people stay at home longer, he added.

Sturko said the Conservatives will eliminate daily user fees for home support services and provide financial assistance for “crucial devices” such as glasses, mobility aids and hearing aids.

Home support services can include preparing meals, getting up and dressed in the morning, bathing and managing medications. In a 2019 report, the Office of the Seniors Advocate calculated that a senior with an annual income of $28,000 would have to pay $8,800 per year for daily home support.

Whether or not a patient pays a daily charge for home support services depends on their income, according to Vancouver Coastal Health.

The B.C. government already provides medical devices for people when they do not have the means to buy them themselves. The BC Conservatives’ “Standing up for Seniors” web page does not provide further details on how it plans to expand this program.

Sturko said her party also wanted to double the home renovation tax credit for seniors and people with disabilities to $2,000 and support senior-focused recreation by investing in “age-appropriate outdoor exercise equipment.”

Kirkpatrick responded that tax breaks can sometimes exclude low-income earners. Sometimes subsidies are a better way to help out people who are struggling financially, she said.

Dix and Sturko said their parties would not support a tax credit for home health services, but Green candidate McCutcheon said his party would support one “administered on a means-tested basis.”

When Vance asked what each party would do to make home care more affordable and safer, Kirkpatrick said that as an Independent she would look at tax credits to help the “missing middle” families who don’t qualify for financial assistance but can’t afford care on their own.

The NDP, Dix said, has been focusing on training new health-care workers. Seven thousand workers have been trained to work in long-term care and 1,000 have been trained in home care.

The Employment Standards Act set minimum wage at $17.40 an hour this summer, has improved workplace safety for caregivers and ensures they are treated fairly “so they want to work there,” Dix added.

Five issues important to seniors

The Canadian Association of Retired Persons published an “election primer” the day before the debate, which suggested five issues seniors should address with candidates.

These issues include free access to the latest expert-recommended vaccines for seniors, tackling the health-care worker shortage, funding better home care, providing tax relief to caregivers and for home adaptations, and reducing or eliminating transit fares for seniors.

Referencing CARP’s calls, Sturko said the Conservatives will “be supporting seniors to get the vaccine they choose — flu vaccines, COVID vaccines and even paying for the shingles vaccine.”

This commitment comes a couple of days after Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad was filmed saying he regrets being vaccinated against COVID-19 and accusing health officials of trying to “control the population.”

“The Conservative party attacking vaccines and their value is misplaced and crackpot,” Dix told The Tyee in an interview just before the debate.

The NDP follows the advice of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and is “looking at” ways to improve access to the shingles vaccine for low-income folks and people with pension plans that don’t have benefits, Dix said.

An updated combined flu and COVID vaccine will be rolling out in mid-October for long-term care residents and health-care workers before becoming available to the general public later in October, November and December, he said. The province will be using the text notification program to let people know when they’re due, he added.

In her closing remarks, Sturko focused on public safety and said the NDP decriminalization pilot project worsened workplace safety for health-care workers.

Dix highlighted the work he said the NDP had done to reduce the strain on the health-care industry, such as hiring 834 doctors and 6,000 nurses in the last year.

For his part, McCutcheon doubled down on B.C.’s investments in fossil fuels. “It’s sirloin steak for the oil and gas companies and dog treats for the rest of us,” he said.

Kirkpatrick reminded audiences not to “discount the value of Independents in the legislature because we have the ability to step away from ideology and find what we feel are the best solutions.”

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