THE BC Liberals on Tuesday noted that a damning report from the B.C. Coroners Service reviewing the heat-related deaths of 619 British Columbians during last summer’s heat dome found the delayed response from government contributed to the number of fatalities.
“Today’s recommendations from the Coroner must be implemented immediately to prevent such a heat dome tragedy from occurring again. The Coroner’s report shows government failed to adequately notify and inform British Columbians of the risks of the extreme heat which killed over 600 people in our province,” said BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon.
“Instead of taking swift action to inform the public about the risks of record-breaking temperatures or ensuring emergency services were appropriately staffed, during last summer’s heat dome Premier Horgan was busy telling the public that ‘fatalities are part of life,’ and that ‘there was an element of personal responsibility.’ Now we can see it was the NDP government that failed to live up it their responsibility.”
The report clearly identifies the lag time between Environment Canada’s heat warnings and the NDP government’s response as a major problem, and something that likely contributed to B.C.’s high death rate.
“Clearly, this government failed to adequately respond to the crisis, and a year later, British Columbians have no confidence the NDP has taken the required steps to prevent this level of tragedy from happening again,” added Falcon. “This government announced last year it would be improving ambulance service in B.C. after the system failed during the heat dome but we have yet to see any evidence of that on the ground. The NDP are great at announcements and rhetoric but consistently come up short when it comes to action and results.”
The BC Liberals said that Tuesday’s report confirms that B.C.’s 9-1-1 system and ambulance response were completely overwhelmed and that of the 619 people who died, nearly 450 people had called for an ambulance, but only 55 people actually made it to the hospital, where they later died. Speaking about the NDP’s promised improvements to ambulance service, Troy Clifford, President of the Ambulance Paramedics of BC has even said, they are “no better off today than we were then,” despite the NDP’s rhetoric to the contrary.
They said that given the crisis in B.C.’s primary care, hospitals, and ambulance service today, in many ways B.C. is less prepared than a year ago. Also noteworthy is B.C.’s high death rate when compared with neighbouring jurisdictions equally impacted by the heat dome. While Washington and Oregon experienced one and two deaths per 100,000 people, respectively, B.C. had a death rate of 12 people per 100,000.
“It’s long overdue for this NDP government to show some responsibility and make important changes to avoid future tragedies,” said Shirley Bond, BC Liberal Critic for Health. “The BC Liberals called for the expansion of the Alert Ready System for the past year. We were glad to see the NDP take some action yesterday, but there is much more work to do, and we have to see government implement the other recommendations from the Coroner. Extreme weather events are only going to get more common, and it is government’s responsibility to learn from their failures and take real, effective action to keep people safe.”
