Within the next few years, Surrey will become B.C.’s largest city. You wouldn’t know it by the treatment it receives from the provincial government.
Two recent stories illustrate this condescending attitude, which unfortunately has been in place for decades under successive governments of varied political stripes.
Last week, as reorted by Surrey Now-Leader, Mayor Brenda Locke pointed out that Surrey Memorial Hospital has 671 beds, and the new provincial budget contains no funding for the second tower, which was announced one year ago by the premier and Surrey NDP MLAs. When the Cloverdale hospital is completed, it will add another 168 beds. Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock, which serves mainly Surrey residents, has another 325 beds.
By contrast, there are 2,572 hospital beds in Vancouver. Of those, 1,138 are for acute care and another 252 are pediatric beds. There are 103 maternity beds in Vancouver.
If one includes the 168 beds planned for Cloverdale (several years from now), at that time there will be 765 acute care beds in Surrey. Currently there are 49 maternity beds and 16 pediatric beds. This in a city that already has the most young people in B.C.
It is important to point out that some beds in Vancouver hospitals are provincial in scope — most notably at Children’s Hospital, but also at institutions like Vancouver General and St. Paul’s, which offer services unavailable elsewhere in B.C.
Health care is indelibly linked to housing. The more people that live in a city, the more health care services they need. Those without permanent housing need health care, too, often in areas like mental health and addictions.
In Vancouver, there are 377 mental health and addictions hospital beds. This compares with 95 at Surrey and Peace Arch hospitals.
Surrey’s homeless population has grown by 65 per cent in the past two years, yet a key program which provides meals to homeless people in the city centre area may be forced to close within the next few weeks. The province provides the bulk of the funds needed for the program, which serves 200 breakfasts and 200 lunches to people daily.
Surrey Urban Mission Society, which operates the program, had to shut down another important service in September — a hygiene facility which offered showers, washrooms and laundry services to people living on the streets. The society is facing a $1.7-million shortfall and will have to close the meals program by the end of March, except to residents of its shelter, in order to balance the books, says Janet Brown, SUMS director of communications.
Housing Minister and Delta North MLA Ravi Kahlon says provincial funding of $1.9 million is up slightly this year. “A request to double that amount is just not realistic in this environment. We are in the middle of a trade war and we have lots of pressures,” he told Global News last week.
It seems the trade war isn’t the only thing reminiscent of the 1930s. So is limiting spending on the poor.
Locke pointed out that Surrey will be adding 53,000 to 55,000 new housing units in the next five years. Doing so without expanding services which are already in short supply will just make things much worse.
Surrey residents are already aware of the province’s faint-hearted approach to spending in Surrey in areas like education. It is one reason that the NDP lost seats here in October’s provincial election.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
