If you have a letter you’d like to submit to the editor for consideration, please email us at editor@mapleridgenews.com. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

If you have a letter you’d like to submit to the editor for consideration, please email us at editor@mapleridgenews.com. Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

LETTER: Turn to federal care home system for long-term jobs, not pipeline

A Pitt Meadows reader calls for Trudeau to rethink his priorities

Dear Editor,

Let’s invest in what matters.

The global pandemic has revealed the dire state of long-term care in Canada.

The vast majority of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada are connected to private long-term care facilities that treat elder care as a form of profit, not a public good.

As we enter the second wave of COVID-19, it’s clear that priority #1 should be to bring long-term care under the Canada Health Act, and bring all for-profit long-term care homes under public control.

RELATED: Maple Ridge care home confirms one death as COVID-19 outbreak grows

None of that can be done without the help of the federal government.

Instead of spending tens of billions of dollars on a crude oil pipeline – a poor idea at the best of times – Justin Trudeau should be increasing funding to the provinces and putting an end to for-profit long-term care facilities.

RELATED: COVID outbreak ends at Maple Ridge seniors care home

While the Trans Mountain pipeline will only create a few hundred long-term jobs, investing in a public long-term care system could create thousands of well-paid care jobs across the country.

It’s time for Justin Trudeau to re-evaluate his priorities.

It’s time to defund the Trans Mountain pipeline and invest in protecting our most vulnerable once and for all.

Joanne Fry, Pitt Meadows

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Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows News