For Immediate Release
November 14, 2008
IT’S TIME TO PROTECT OUR SENIORS AND NOT PLAY POLITICS, SAY NDP MLAS
SURREY – New Democrat MLAs in the South Fraser region are calling on their Liberal counterparts to join them in standing up for seniors who are facing eviction from Zion Park Manor.
“It’s time for our whole community to work together to stop these evictions and save the beds at Zion Park Manor,” said Delta North MLA Guy Gentner, the NDP critic for seniors’ health. “Everyone knows it’s a bad decision to close these beds – it’s bad for the residents, bad for the families and bad for our whole community.”
Gentner said the distress caused by news of the plan to close 71 beds at Zion Park has been compounded by flip-flops and misinformation from the Campbell government.
“Last week families were told that none of the residents would be forced to move if they didn’t want to, but now the Campbell government has confirmed that the evictions will go ahead as planned,” he said. “Evicting seniors from a home they love is not just mean-spirited and insensitive. It compromises their health.”
Gentner – along with Surrey MLAs Harry Bains, Jagrup Brar, Sue Hammell and Bruce Ralston – are calling on the Campbell government to immediately stop the plans the close the 71 beds.
REALITY CHECK:
B.C. LIBERALS’ FLIP-FLOP ON ZION PARK MANOR FURTHER DISTRESSES SENIORS AND THEIR FAMILIES
The Campbell government’s changing tune on Zion Park Manor is adding to the distress facing families of seniors being evicted from Zion Park Manor. Rather than being upfront, George Abbott and Kevin Falcon seem to simply say what’s politically expedient, changing their story from day to day:
Misleading people about whether they will have to move...
“The residents that were originally set to relocate to new facilities in Surrey beginning January 2009 will now have the choice of whether they would like to move to these facilities, or stay at Zion. The 77 beds will only close if residents chose to leave. This decision was made to ensure that the residents of Zion Park Manor and their loved ones were given options for their care.”
- email from Kevin Falcon’s office, Nov. 7, 2008
“People will be moved when they are comfortable about being moved.”
– Minister of Health George Abbott (on CKNW), Nov. 7, 2008
“I think [the email from Kevin Falcon’s office is] just an unfortunate misunderstanding around the timeframe... The overall timeline for the closure of the facility based on the notice given by the housing society remains in place.”
- Ministry of Health spokesperson Michelle Stewart (in the Surrey North Delta Leader), Nov. 10, 2008
“What I would like to see, and hopefully the Fraser Health Authority and the province can work together, and keep those patients there and just close those rooms through attrition rather than moving [residents] out.”
- Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts (on CKNW), Nov. 13, 2008
And giving conflicting information about why Zion is closing beds...
“What Fraser Health is trying to do is upgrade their facilities.”
- MLA Kevin Falcon (on CKNW), Nov. 7. 2008
“Zion is under intense financial pressure and has been for a number of years because it receives the lowest level of funding of any facility in the Fraser Health Authority... The only way the facility could increase the per diem it receives for each senior in its care was to reluctantly accede to pressure from the FHA to close the 71 beds.”
- BCGEU president Darryl Walker (in a BCGEU press release), Nov. 10, 2008
A reminder of what this is really about...
“This is their home. It’s not like they’re living in a tent and you can move from one place to the other. This is where they live; this is where they’re friends live, and you’re uprooting their lives and taking all this away from them. It’s not right.”
- Family member Ron Willis (on CKNW). Nov. 7, 2008
--30--