Decay Of Canadian Representative Democracy —A Personal Odyssey

This is an incredible story . I suspect there are many who will not believe the following:

As a result of a Medical Practice closing on east Vancouver Island and the consequent loss of a family doctor for 2000 people (including my wife and I) I began to inquire into the nature of just what was going on in heath care in my Province and Country .

After unsatisfactory responses locally and provincially I zeroed in on the Canada Health Act , federal legislation that essentially governs the operation of health care in the country.

Although constitutionally health care is provincial and delivered provincially this Act provides the means by which the federal Government gets involved in health care.

Through it $40 billion this year is being transferred to the Provinces for health care.

However, the transfer of the money comes with conditions described in the Act and which must be met for the transfer of these funds to occur. They involve five principles, which are:

  1. Public Administration
  2. Universality
  3. Portability
  4. Comprehensiveness
  5. Accessibility

It is my contention that with closings of medical practices like the one on Vancouver Island the probability of violations of the conditions of the Act is great.

For example, the concept of accessibility( reasonable accessibility is mentioned in the Act) is difficult to maintain when in this specific case the nearest family doctor is in another Regional District( county) , some 75 kilometres away and to which there is no public transit.

The last Statistics Canada release on doctors in Canada indicated that in 2017 , 4.7 million were without a family doctor. Some commentators say it is near 6 million now.

I wrote the Federal Minister of Health seeking a review of the Canada Health Act to a see whether the conditions of the Act are being met in British Columbia.

She did not respond but had a division of her department respond, no names , just the Strategic Policy Branch. I replied to the Minister on

December 11, 2019 indicating that I expected a written response from her with her signature, that she was the responsible person to me as a citizen and taxpayer , not a person or a branch of her department.

She is the elected one , all the others are employees responsible to her. I am waiting a response.

Meanwhile I have tried to enlist the support of local Municipal elected councillors of which there are 12, asking for their written support of this effort.

Only two have responded: the mayor of the City Of Parksville and councillor Chandler. . No response from any of the 5 elected representatives in the Town Of Qualicum Beach. The Mayor Of Parksville gave his support and with whom I have had a meeting.

I have contacted my MLA ( Michelle Stilwell) and she has responded but has not provided her support . She referred me to the Liberal Health critic whose office bungled an appointment that was suppose to happen between Christmas and New Years.

The local MP for this Federal Riding , Gord Johns, has simply provided automated responses to my letters.

I wrote all 42 Federal MP’s for the Province, two of whom are party leaders , the Green Party Leader and the New Democratic Leader.

I received 8 automated replies and two live replies .

The two live replies were from: MP Brad Vis ( Mission-Masqui—Fraser Canyon riding) who referred me to my local MP ( who I cannot contact ) and would do nothing else and MP Paul Manly ( Nanaimo Ladysmith riding) who refused to support my efforts but talked about the local efforts that must be made generally on health care.

So 2 out of 12 locally and 10 out of 42 federally, only two of which were live , non automated replies .

So, 16% response locally.

And 4.5% Federally.

As if to add insult to injury —in my request to the MP’s I mentioned whether they could introduce a private members bill in Parliament on the issue. The MP Manley in his live reply said this:

‘In the private members lottery my number came up in the 200’s so it is not likely that I will be able to table a private members bill during this parliament unless I am able to do it through another method other than my private members allocated spot in the order of precedence.’

Such is the state of our democracy in our country as I have experienced it.

 

Hon. A. Brian Peckford P.C.
Parksville, BC