To the editor:
The issue of problems with the quality of care in senior facilities has been widely reported in the last year which has been confirmed by the Senior Advocates Reports.
As a result of these reports, the citizens of B.C. have been expecting some news of improvements concerning staffing levels, enforcement procedures and enhanced training.
Instead, we have been informed that the Liberal BC and federal governments have approved the takeover of Retirement Concepts senior facilities by a foreign company that has been reported as having a "murky ownership structure and no experience with senior care".
The investigation into Anbang has found that this company's interest is in acquiring Canadian land, not in the structure that may be upon it.
Recent negotiations with China by Christy Clark and Justin Trudeau are common knowledge. Whether selling our land to the Chinese is a good move or not is debatable, but there can be no doubt that selling the care of our seniors to a foreign country is not.
This takeover will put China in control of ten percent of residential care beds in BC. Would the taxpayers of B.C. approve of this takeover?
Who knows?
The Liberal Government didn't bother to ask.
Judy Galley
Sorrento