Western Standard - BC UPDATES： Staff shortages force more ER closures in BC...

00:00:00.000 The staffing shortage in BC's health care system, which is not an exclusive problem to the province

00:00:07.000 of BC, but rather pretty much the entire country. It's particularly bad in western provinces.

00:00:14.320 The east coast hasn't been as bad, but BC has been particularly bad. A significant shortage

00:00:22.720 of nurses, ER rooms closing for 12 hour periods at a time. A million British Columbians without

00:00:29.920 access to a primary care practitioner. It's been, and again, this has been a slow building

00:00:35.920 issue for many years, but the last couple of years have particularly accentuated the issue

00:00:42.560 due to the pandemic. So it's really bad. And the provinces, it says it's going to address

00:00:51.680 the issue by bringing in more foreign trained nurses. So they're working on a marketing campaign

00:00:56.080 to quote, make the province a more desirable location for foreign trained nurses. And they've 1.00

00:01:03.120 allocated $12 million to streamlining the process of bringing in foreign trained nurses. Because

00:01:10.720 usually it takes a couple of years to get licensed and registered to work in BC, but they're streamlining

00:01:15.600 that process. And also they haven't provided a timeline on when they're going to allow the

00:01:20.800 province's unvaccinated nurses to return to work. Yeah. That's another big kind of elephant in the 1.00

00:01:27.600 room for a lot of those people. I mean, we've got vaccine mandates hanging in some of the province

00:01:31.120 or some of the health authorities or different facilities even. But I mean, it's getting pretty

00:01:36.640 bad and showing almost the ideological hang up. It seems that some of these facilities have on

00:01:41.120 vaccination when you're in the midst of a staffing crisis, but you still will not let the unvaccinated 1.00

00:01:47.040 employer workers come back to work to ease it. And again, when it's been shown that at least the

00:01:52.480 vaccination doesn't stop spread. So I mean, it doesn't make a difference at this point, guys,

00:01:56.480 get off the horse and let these guys get back to work. I mean, I don't understand if vaccination

00:01:59.760 stops spread. Okay, that's different. But how bad? Yeah. And there are multiple legal challenges in the

00:02:06.480 courts right now, a few of which I'll be covering this week. And some are a little more promising than

00:02:13.520 others. Some I would expect to be thrown out and not get anywhere. But there are some some legal

00:02:19.600 challenges underway that are, you know, being taken very seriously. So we'll see how that goes.

00:02:25.360 Yeah. So getting on to your more recent stories as well. So there was a big meth bust. Unfortunately,

00:02:30.720 we have the dubious honor of being the hosts of this guy and Albertan looks like was bringing

00:02:35.680 a trying to bring a massive amount of meth into BC there. Yeah, yeah, man was hiking on Vancouver

00:02:44.480 Islander. He claims he was hiking, according to American documents. And a man approached him,

00:02:52.800 who he had never met before, offered him $1,000 to drive a boat to Washington, spend the night and

00:03:00.640 then drive it back with what he called luggage. And he maintains that he did not know what was in

00:03:07.120 that luggage. And so he supposedly and according to to these American documents took the offer,

00:03:16.160 stayed in a hotel for the night returned to the boat the next day. On his way back, he was about half

00:03:20.720 a mile from being back in Canada, and he was picked up by American officials. And now he's,

00:03:26.560 he's, he's being investigated by Homeland Security, because the Americans certainly don't take these

00:03:33.360 issues lightly when it comes to drug trafficking. Yeah, just a side note, since there's a commenter,

00:03:38.560 Gail asking, asking if I said the vac stop spreading. No, I said vaccination does not,

00:03:43.040 in the case of COVID. Just to clarify, because I get some people, you're a pro vac, you're a monster, 0.98

00:03:47.280 I'm unsubscribing, blah, blah, blah. No, not in this case. I'm still pro vaccination, but I'm pro 0.86

00:03:51.200 choice. But no, I'm not trying to claim stuff spread. Okay, back to, I like to interact with the

00:03:55.760 commenters is important. I mean, if something's unclear. So but I mean, that amount of math, I mean,

00:04:00.960 BC's addiction crisis is even more acute than Alberta's right now. 650 kilograms. I mean,

00:04:06.640 aside from this guy's flaky defense or whatever, that's, that's very, very potent drug. I mean,

00:04:12.400 that's a massive amount that that unfortunately, could and would have killed and addicted a countless

00:04:18.160 number of people. But that's just the one they caught. Yeah, yeah, that's just the one they caught.

00:04:22.720 I mean, as we all know, BC has a very, very significant drug problem. Lots of meth, mostly

00:04:31.600 opiates, though. I mean, more than 150 people are dying every day in this province. Or sorry,

00:04:39.360 every month, rather, it's about six people a day dying from illicit drugs in BC. So yeah, this is

00:04:45.600 definitely contributing to that problem. Although it is meth, so less people are overdosing on that,

00:04:53.360 but it's still contributing to, you know, violent crime and, and whatnot. The province is working on

00:05:00.880 decriminalizing meth, and cocaine and heroin and all of these hard drugs, they, they want to work on a

00:05:08.960 a decriminalization process and create what they call a safe supply. Because, you know, in theory,

00:05:17.760 according to the government, that will prevent the demand for the illicit drug trade.

00:05:23.040 Yeah, the government feels that the drug dealers are dangerous. So if the government gets into the

00:05:28.160 drug business, they'll do it better, because they've always been with that. I'm pretty sure there's no

00:05:32.320 such thing as safe meth. But what do I know? Thankfully, I don't take it. I mean, those poor

00:05:37.520 people would get hooked on it. It's as you said, it's meth isn't the one that's typically causing

00:05:41.600 the overdoses. But for those unfamiliar with a lot of addiction, meth is the one that kind of slowly

00:05:45.920 eats them alive, though, when you see somebody so skinny and covered in sores and just sort of a

00:05:51.280 walking zombie or freaking out. Often, that's a matter of somebody who's been on meth for a while.

00:05:55.920 So it's more slow death than the fentanyl, but it's still a horrible death.

00:05:59.120 It's a common sight in Vancouver. It's all over the place on the downtown east side there. It's,

00:06:05.680 you know, people from out of town, they'll be walking in Gastown, and they'll just walk the

00:06:10.560 distance of one block. And suddenly, it's like, you know, like you're in a zombie movie.

00:06:16.080 Yeah, at least Hastings in that area has always been notorious. I mean,

00:06:19.200 yeah, into the 80s, early 90s, when we go out there, but I haven't been there in some years now,

00:06:23.360 but I've heard it's, of course, gotten much worse, even.

00:06:26.160 Absolutely. And I think that would actually be a good transition into the

00:06:30.320 nearly billion dollar museum project that's going on in BC, because liberal opposition Kevin

00:06:37.440 Falcon has been criticizing the government for bringing forth this project, while there is such

00:06:45.520 a problem of drugs, violent crime, the nursing shortage, the doctor shortage,

00:06:52.800 I feel like it's relevant to bring up. I've been covering quite a few stories on that since the

00:06:58.400 news was announced earlier this month, and more will be coming.

00:07:02.240 So to frame that a bit, from what I know about this one, this is the big Royal BC Museum. They've

00:07:06.400 basically declared the old one to be so colonial and so tainted and everything else that it just can't

00:07:10.800 be salvaged. We've got to get rid of it because it's inherently evil. And they're going to replace

00:07:15.680 it with, well, they're saying, what, 800 million dollars. But we know with government projects,

00:07:18.960 that'll probably come in well over a billion for, I'm just going to guess, to be a monument to wokeness.

00:07:25.040 Yeah, yeah, that was sort of the the focal point to begin with, was more of an identity

00:07:30.320 politic focus. But that's transitioned in response to criticism to a focus on, you know, the seismic

00:07:37.440 danger. They're focusing on that, that it needs to be seismically upgraded, that it's prone to flooding,

00:07:44.080 and that it's riddled with asbestos. And they're saying that the proposal that they've set forth

00:07:49.920 is actually three million dollars, no, actually the number, yeah, three million dollars cheaper than

00:07:56.800 upgrading the existing building. So they might as well just tear it all down, build a new one.

00:08:01.840 And Kevin Falcon said if he's elected as premier, he'll scrap the project. But according to the business

00:08:07.920 case that the NDP government released last week, the demolition process will begin in March of 2024,

00:08:16.000 which is seven months prior to the next provincial election. So it won't make a difference. Even if

00:08:21.200 he says he'll scrap it, by the time he gets into office, if he will, the building will already be

00:08:27.920 torn down. Yeah, that's too bad, because a lot can be lost. And as others are pointing out too,

00:08:32.320 these are times when things are getting tight. I mean, Jennifer Schofield and commenters saying,

00:08:36.320 you know, try free rehab instead of free drugs. Well, you know, you can spend a lot of money with

00:08:40.480 800 million dollars on rehabilitation facilities or there was Cheryl, I think it was brought up, 1.00

00:08:46.240 you know, 800 million could hire a heck of a lot of nurses back as well. Like as you wonder about 0.81

00:08:52.560 the priorities with some things. But as you said, I mean, I can understand that some old buildings

00:08:56.880 actually can't be rehabilitated or it's expensive. That happened in Calgary, the general hospital,

00:09:00.960 we had to blow it up. And you know, the left still goes wild about that. Oh, you blew up a hospital.

00:09:05.440 This thing was so ancient and out of date, though, that it just wasn't worth fixing. That might be the

00:09:10.720 case of the museum. But a lot of what we heard on shutting down the old one wasn't based on that.

00:09:14.240 They're kind of pivoting. It was more all well, it's a symbol of colonialism. And that's right.

00:09:19.440 Right, right. And yeah, the the business case that they that they released last week was heavily

00:09:24.720 redacted. Much of it was was blacked out. So we don't really have a lot of detail on it, just a

00:09:32.480 timeline and, you know, a rough cost, which they maintain is still going to be significantly

00:09:37.440 cheaper than seismically upgrading it. But a lot of people have pointed out a lot of critics have

00:09:42.800 also said that if you're going to be consistent with the need to, you know, seismically modernize

00:09:47.760 buildings, then they should address, you know, the elementary schools that need to be seismically

00:09:53.680 upgraded because there's a bunch of schools in BC that that are waiting for their funding to renovate

00:10:00.640 for that exact reason. So that's what critics are saying, at least.

00:10:04.960 Well, again, yeah, it's a matter of priorities. I mean, it'd be horrible to see. But if they're,

00:10:08.400 you know, Vancouver could, every seismologist says it could have a very big earthquake at some point.

00:10:13.200 And I'd rather we deal with a bunch of squashed artifacts in a museum than a bunch of crushed

00:10:18.160 children in a school. So yeah, it's first. So going a little further, I guess, getting on to

00:10:23.520 municipal crazy governments, just seeing down your stories there, it looks like the Vancouver's looking

00:10:28.000 to punish gas stations if they don't have a electric vehicle charging setups.

00:10:31.920 Yeah, by 2025, Vancouver gas stations, right now they pay a business license fee of $253 a year.

00:10:41.360 And that will raise to $10,000 a year in 2025, unless if they haven't put in one EV charging station

00:10:53.360 of 50 kilowatts. And then commercial parking lots pay a slightly cheaper annual fee. And that will

00:11:00.800 also be raised to $10,000 if they don't put in a minimum of four charging stations with a minimum

00:11:08.880 of 26.6 kilowatts per station. I can't imagine these stations are very cheap to install.

00:11:16.000 No, no, they're the the gas stations are looking at a minimum of $100,000. Or sorry,

00:11:23.840 the commercial lots are looking at $100,000. The gas stations are looking at at least $130,000.

00:11:29.680 Yeah, and that really depends on the gas station. I mean, some might have a big parking area where

00:11:33.680 perhaps they could find a couple appropriate spaces. But if you've got a small one, you might

00:11:37.840 not even have room to stick that on your lot. And the other thing I don't know about Vancouver,

00:11:41.920 but we've got charging stations all over the city of Calgary, you can tell where they are,

00:11:44.960 because there's no cars in front of them. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. And I actually,

00:11:48.720 I forgot to mention, the gas stations, regardless of the size, will be subject to this coming policy.

00:11:57.120 But commercial parking lots that have fewer than 60 parking stalls will be exempt.

00:12:02.720 Well, I guess that's a small relief. I mean, you know, that's a big investment for a smaller

00:12:07.600 parking lot, but still. Yeah, it's part of Vancouver's climate emergency plan that was set

00:12:13.920 forth in 2020, which aims to reduce the city's carbon emissions by 50% of 2007 levels by 2030.

00:12:25.280 And also by 2030, it wants to ensure that 50% of all kilometers driven

00:12:32.640 in the city of Vancouver are done so in zero emission vehicles.

00:12:36.640 Yeah, good luck with that. But well, I guess if they bankrupt enough people,

00:12:40.880 you know, there'll be a lot of people walking and riding bikes, and they won't be able to

00:12:45.360 reach their targets that way. I just, well, you're in the land of the woke, I guess.

00:12:50.880 Yeah, that I am.

00:12:52.400 We're not immune. What we see in Vancouver this year is what's coming here in three years. So,

00:12:57.120 are there any core challenges pushing back on that again? I mean, this is the sort of thing that

00:13:00.080 honestly, for some smaller businesses could actually break them.

00:13:03.840 Pushing back on the EV charges? Yeah. Not that I'm aware of at this point, I haven't seen any,

00:13:09.920 any court cases pushing back on that. Again, you know, at least 60 70% of the gas stations already

00:13:18.400 have chargers. I mean, I've, it's, it's become pretty widespread recently. So

00:13:24.400 I don't know the exact number of how many gas stations do not have EV chargers in Vancouver

00:13:31.360 right now, but they're definitely in the minority. I mean, there's not that many gas

00:13:36.480 stations in the city to begin with. I think it, I think it's less than 70.

00:13:40.960 Oh, really? Okay. Like most are out towards getting into Abbotsford and Burnaby and all through there.

00:13:46.720 66 to be exact. Okay. So people kind of move more to the suburbs to fill up anyways. But still,

00:13:52.400 even a small amount being abused is too many in my view, as far as businesses go, but okay,

00:13:56.800 we'll wrap up. Let's up a little more light and from the world of the bazaar. And you can see at

00:14:00.880 the bottom of the story there, everybody's favorite transgender activist, Jessica Yaniv is, 0.95

00:14:06.960 her court's finished. She's been found guilty of assault.

00:14:10.400 Yep. Yep. She has been found guilty of assault. Jessica Yaniv, formerly Jonathan Yaniv,

00:14:18.240 uh, biological male transitions goes by, uh, uh, actually she calls herself Jessica Simpson. Now,

00:14:26.000 uh, she legally changed her name to that striking. So I can see people getting that mixed up. 0.99

00:14:31.600 Yeah, I actually did genuinely get it messed up at first. Uh, I needed to be corrected. Um,

00:14:36.960 but, uh, yeah, so that court case wrapped up, that was a former rebel news, uh, journalist,

00:14:41.760 Kian Bext. Uh, he, uh, he was covering a court case, uh, that, uh, uh, uh, Yaniv was, uh, leaving

00:14:48.960 from, uh, regarding, uh, weapons charges. Uh, so he started asking her questions. Uh, she then attacked 0.99

00:14:55.920 him, uh, and the camera went sideways, but you could see in the video that's embedded there, uh,

00:15:01.040 you could see what looks like punches were being thrown. And, uh, yeah, the judge did, uh,

00:15:05.840 uh, did find, uh, Yaniv guilty of assault. Um, and, uh, Yaniv will actually be in court again

00:15:12.960 next month, uh, for, uh, I don't know if you're familiar with billboard, Chris, uh, Chris Elston.

00:15:18.160 Um, he's, uh, he travels around the country with a sign saying, uh, children cannot consent to

00:15:24.400 puberty blockers. Uh, and, uh, yeah, he was also attacked, uh, by, uh, Yaniv, uh, a couple of years

00:15:31.440 ago and that, that will, that hearing will take place next month. So I'll be covering that.

00:15:35.840 Okay. Well, as much as we kind of look at it as a bit of dark comedy, honestly, it appears that

00:15:40.320 Miss Yaniv has some, some mental issues to be dealt with. I hope actually perhaps in sentencing, 0.99

00:15:45.680 they can, uh, get her some help because she's actually got some, some serious problems going

00:15:50.080 on that one, but it's, uh, it's hard not to turn away from that accident sometimes as you're watching

00:15:54.640 it go. So, uh, for her sake and everybody else, hopefully this is a closure and moving on to a better

00:16:00.400 part of her life, I guess. Um, so before I let you go, is there anything you're, you're working

00:16:04.320 on you want to let us know about or things coming up? Uh, yeah, just stay tuned for, uh,

00:16:09.760 decisions that will be coming out, uh, regarding, uh, constitutional challenges to, uh, previous, uh,

00:16:15.040 COVID related orders. Um, a lot of those are, are, you know, concluding in, uh, in a, in a close

00:16:21.520 timeframe right now. Uh, so we're, we're going to be expecting a big decision, uh, possibly this week,

00:16:27.840 um, you know, within a couple of weeks at the latest, uh, regarding the legality of, uh, the

00:16:32.800 vaccine passport system in BC, uh, chief justice of the Supreme court, uh, is he'll be releasing

00:16:39.440 his decision on, uh, whether it was constitutionally sound in the coming days. Great. Well, we're looking

00:16:44.880 forward to it. So thanks for that extended update on the wet coast there, Reed. Always good to talk to

00:16:50.000 you and keep up the good work. Likewise. Thanks very much, Corey.

00:16:53.680 Thank you.

Western Standard - May 31, 2022

BC UPDATES： Staff shortages force more ER closures in BC...

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