Letters to the Editor - July issue

The Editor:

I can somewhat understand the need to control dogs entering the U.S. It may be that there are lucky dogs being rescued from foreign countries and adopted by animal friendly folks living in the U.S.

But here we go again, Point Bob is a landlocked peninsula completely ignored by the rule makers in the east. What are we (Canadians) who love to summer at our cabins, or run on the beach, or day trip to Lily Point with our four-footed friends to do? Register every week to come down, pay vets to sign papers for the bureaucrats to rubber stamp? Is there no common sense in governments these days?

I bet the border folks are going to love this new caveat to turn back those of us who come down to the Point, spend money and support the local community. I hope the powers that be can somehow get an exemption applied to the Point, but I’m not holding my breath if Covid was any sort of example.

Graham Finn and Barley (our golden

retriever)

Beach Grove, B.C.

The Editor:

Would you like to have a clinic here with three doctors? After waiting over 100 years, we finally have that! Are you happy about that? Would you like to have three hospital district commissioners who are happy with that?

Well, that we do not have. And “why not?” is the big question.

At the June hospital district meeting, there were a couple of suggestions that SuperTrack’s front office could be improved but there were no complaints about the medical services being offered by their three physicians. That’s truly outstanding medical care. So why aren’t commissioners Falk and Oggel happy about them being here and in support of giving SuperTrack an extended contract?

Dr. Sean explained (as did others) that running a clinic (or any business) on a one-year contract is not ideal. A longer term contract would allow SuperTrack to offer employees more job stability and open the door for additional improvements. When commissioner Noel Newbolt made a motion to extend SuperTrack’s contract to five years the crowd went wild, literally. Did either commissioner Falk or Oggel second the motion? No. The disappointment was palatable; the crowd was angry. Their lack of a second to the motion was illogical and not well received.

When people in power appear to be acting irresponsibly, without transparency, and against the common good, citizens should forego their complacency and get involved. That is exactly what we witnessed at the June hospital district meeting when over 80 concerned residents attended in person and via zoom, shared their positive experiences about their doctors at SuperTrack, and demanded that they be left in place and provided a long-term contract.

Any commissioner who isn’t going to work for the community’s majority and put its interest and welfare first should resign effective immediately. We elected them to work for the community, not themselves or a small self-interest group. Either represent us or do the decent thing and resign.

We will happily keep Noel though. She had the foresight to put forth the motion to give SuperTrack a five-year contract. Thank you, Noel, we love that you tried. Kudos to district superintendent Barbara Wayland for holding the hospital district together while others try to rip it apart by removing sanity, reason and logic from our town. We should also thank the All Point Bulletin, as well as the Small Point Bulletin (Vic and Shannon Riley) for shining spotlights on this. Citizens need to be informed. This idiocy is not over so stay sharp. Your medical care depends on it.

Lucy Williams (20-year resident and widow of former hospital district commissioner and chair, Dr. Dick Williams)

Point Roberts