Maple Ridge has managed to get its ideas aimed at easing the doctor shortage endorsed by its sister cities in the province, but whether it will help, remains to be seen.
One resolution passed last week at the 2018 Union of BC Municipalities, a call for the province to streamline the licensing system for international medical graduates and to create more hospital residency positions for medical school grads.
Both measures are intended to bring more doctors into B.C. to ease the shortage that’s being caused by a growing population and physicians retiring.
Coun. Bob Masse, who led the initiative, said getting a resolution passed doesn’t mean the provincial government will respond positively. However, resolutions can bring attention to such issues and lead to discussion and foster improvements.
For instance, a previous resolution about re-opening Riverview Hospital led to more discussion about on the topic of mental health.
When it comes to the suggestions made to attract more doctors, “I would hope for a more direct response to this,” Masse said.
Maple Ridge also called for the government to review its current fee-for-service model of paying family doctors, saying that it doesn’t do enough to motivate recent grads to that type of practice.
That resolution also passed.
Maple Ridge also proposed another resolution, initiated by Coun. Corisa Bell, that called for senior governments to support low-energy heating systems for houses as opposed to costly electrical baseboard heaters.
That resolution also was endorsed.
“Since Hydro rates are going to continue to rise, I felt the solution was to encourage development of new technologies,” Bell said on Facebook.
Another resolution was part of a block of suggestions considered and passed at UBCM. Maple Ridge’s resolution called for Health Canada to make labelling of genetically modified food mandatory. Currently, labelling is only mandatory when there are scientifically established health risks.
Another resolution sponsored by Maple Ridge wasn’t successful. It called for B.C. Housing to pursue instances of discrimination in the rental housing market.