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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2016
VOL. 27, NO. 77
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Nanaimo MP’s motion on pay equity passes Home-care workers are a big help to Jacquie Coates, 94, who relies on their support for multiple tasks, which include assisting her to change her nitro patches that help regulate her heart rate. Coates has no complaints with the workers, but says the home-care program needs improvements in scheduling and other areas. CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
Report shows gaps in home support
I
ADVOCATE FOR seniors highlights health issue.
BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Jacquie Coates can sum up the issues with Island Health’s home support program in two words: trust and continuity. The 94-year-old Nanaimo resident has been a home support client with Island Health for the past year, assessed at needing an hour of care each day. But she doesn’t always get the time she’s allowed. She says there doesn’t seem to be enough staff. She’s had workers come in
for 15 minutes or 30 minutes. Sometimes not at all. Continuity is the “big thing” lacking, said Coates, later adding there’s a feeling of trust when you see the same person every week on a certain day. “It’s a good service but I think it could be better.” Home support is just one of the issues highlighted in the first report of the B.C. Office of the Seniors Advocate, released last week to show where the province sits with income supports, health and transportation services. According to the Monitoring Seniors’ Services report, home support hours for daily personal care activities decreased in 2014-15 in three of five
Quality & Service at Budget Prices Quote Of The Week
Today I strained myself running through a screen door.
health authorities in B.C. – including this one. Island Health claims home support hours are on the increase in Nanaimo in the first 10 months of the fiscal year over the same time last year, as well as a 2.6-per cent increase in clients in service, although it is grappling with staffing shortages. Overall, however, the health authority, which spans Powell River and Vancouver Island, saw a five-per cent drop in home support hours in 201415 compared to the year before, even as the number of clients inched upward. The population over the age of 65 and 75 is also up. “By reducing the intensity of home support we
are directly impacting the frailest seniors, those who are most likely to go to residential care and who could most likely stay at home with more home support,” said seniors advocate Isobel Mackenzie, who believes this should be a concern to seniors, who expressed a desire to live at home as long as possible. It’s a provincial mandate for seniors to age at home, according to Shelley McKenzie, Island Health’s director of integrated health services for Nanaimo and Oceanside, who said the health authority has experienced an increase in hours and clients in Nanaimo and is looking for improvements in home support. See ‘STAFFING’ /4
BY GREG SAKAKI THE NEWS BULLETIN
Canada will move closer toward equal pay for equal work. A pay-equity motion made Tuesday by Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Sheila Malcolmson passed the next day in the House of Commons. The motion demanded government action to close the gap in pay between men and women. “It did not appear in the Liberal election platform and it didn’t appear in any of the mandate letters to any of the ministers, despite the prime minister’s avowed commitment to feminism and gender equality,” Malcolmson said. “So we saw that we really would need to act early to get this on the Parliamentary agenda and that’s just what happened … We’re delighted with the support.” Liberal minister Scott Brison, president of the Treasury Board, responded positively to Malcolmson’s motion, so she pressed him to support it and he did. “Even the Conservatives sounded like they wanted to find a way to vote in favour of this, but in the end
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they voted against,” Malcolmson said. “I think there’s a broad intent across all parties that we actually move on legislating pay equity at the federal level and it’s long overdue.” Her motion calls on the government to recognize pay equity as a right and strike a committee to set about adopting it across the public sector. Already in Canada, various businesses, school boards and public unions have pay-equity models and there are varying provincial strategies. It’s patchwork, said Malcolmson, which is why a national framework is needed. She said legislation would affect not only government employees, but also areas of the private sector that are federally regulated such as banks, telecommunications companies and airports. The first steps will be to form the committee, which will then set its own terms of reference. Malcolmson expects to put her name forward, but mostly she hopes the work will start soon, “because there’s all this great momentum and goodwill.” sports@nanaimobulletin.com
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