Health — Issue No. 22 — Thursday, March 31, 2016 (HTML)

370 HSBC Executive Meeting Room, Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, B.C.

Present: Linda Larson, MLA (Chair); Judy Darcy, MLA (Deputy Chair); Dr. Doug Bing, MLA; Marc Dalton, MLA; Sue Hammell, MLA; Dr. Darryl Plecas, MLA; Selina Robinson, MLA; Jane Jae Kyung Shin, MLA; Sam Sullivan, MLA

1. There not yet being a Chair elected to serve the Committee, the meeting was called to order at 9:17 a.m. by the Committee Clerk.

2. Resolved, that Linda Larson, MLA, be elected Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health. (Judy Darcy, MLA)

3. Resolved, that Judy Darcy, MLA, be elected Deputy Chair of the Select Standing Committee on Health. (Dr. Darryl Plecas, MLA)

4. Resolved, that the Committee meet in-camera to deliberate on its draft report to the House. (Selina Robinson, MLA)

7. It was agreed that the Committee invite Ministry of Health Officials to provide a general update regarding the Ministry’s work on physician-assisted dying.

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH


CONTENTS
Page
Election of Chair and Deputy Chair	319
Ministry of Health: Request for Update on Assisted Dying	319

As this is our first meeting of the fifth session, and we do not yet have a Chair or Deputy Chair, I’d like to ask for nominations for the election of a Chair.

S. Sourial (Committee Clerk): Darryl has seconded. Any further nominations? Any further nominations? And one more time, any further nominations?

L. Larson (Chair): Thank you very much. Now we’ll go to election of the Deputy Chair.

Any further nominations from the floor? Any further nominations? Third time, any further nominations?

J. Darcy (Deputy Chair): You took the words right out of my mouth, Linda. [Laughter.]

We need a motion, please, to go into in camera for our deliberations this morning.

L. Larson (Chair): We’re putting on the table any further discussion that there might be on the report we did initially on the right to die.

J. Darcy (Deputy Chair): I understand that we’re not really debating the issue. We spent a lot of time on it. We made a report. Some of us were very disappointed about it not being approved by the Legislature, not coming forward for approval.

I’m not suggesting that we reopen that question, but we had, at the very outset of our deliberations on this issue, passed a motion that we would request that the Ministry of Health make a presentation to us on the issue and about what work was being done in British Columbia to prepare for this. There was a Supreme Court decision at the time already, because this was well over a year ago. We made the request. The Ministry of Health said that they wouldn’t be ready until the fall. In the fall, they said they wouldn’t be ready.

We now are staring down a deadline of early June 2016, when there will be a federal law, and provinces are
[ Page 320 ]
mandated to provide health services, under the law. The Supreme Court has ruled that physician-assisted dying is about access to health services and that the provinces need to…. There needs to be a law, and there need to be services in place.

This is not about trying to reopen that debate. People have strongly held views on it. We were guided by the Supreme Court of Canada decision and what was required of provinces.

As a committee that has spent a lot of time deliberating on it and that has received hundreds of…. As we said in our report on end-of-life care, three out of four of the submissions that we received on the broad topic of end-of-life care were related to physician-assisted dying.

I think it’s completely fair to ask for an update on what’s happening with the Ministry of Health in preparing for what will be the law. There will be expectations, not six months after that law comes into effect but immediately after the law comes into effect.

They gave the Supreme Court of Canada a delay, a year, to bring themselves into compliance. Then they gave a delay of four months on that. That’s for the federal government to bring itself into compliance. There is no delay after that, then, for provinces needing to ensure that services are in place. Whether we agree with it or not, it’s fact. It’s law. I think that the committee should request of the Ministry of Health that they give us an update about what preparations are happening in British Columbia.

L. Larson (Chair): I agree with you, Judy. I think that if the committee is in agreement, we’ll put in a request to the Minister of Health to appear before the committee and give us an update on what the province is doing in preparation for this court decision.

D. Bing: Certainly, we’re bound by the Supreme Court. But the problem, I think, is that the federal government doesn’t really know what they’re doing. They’ve had a parliamentary committee that made recommendations that were just all over the map. They’re talking about children having the right to do this, the mentally ill. It just opened up a whole new can of worms. It’s totally different from what the previous federal government looked like they were going down. They’re going down a totally new path with this new government.

I can understand why our provincial government is confused as to where we’re going, because unless the federal government makes their determination of where they’re going, they can’t do anything. You can ask the provincial government to give a submission, but I’m sure they don’t know. They’re waiting for the federal government.

L. Larson (Chair): I’m sure they don’t know what the end piece is going to look like, Doug, but I know that, certainly, the province has done some preparations in conversations with the Doctors of B.C. and with other organizations about how to handle this. I think that it’s not an unfair question at this point.

M. Dalton: No. I echo what Doug has just said, that the province is waiting for the government. They’re probably doing some different directions, depending upon the legislation. So I think it’s premature. I think we can make the request but leave it with them. It is under the Ministry of Health.

S. Robinson: I appreciate that without having the specific legal framework set out, the province may not have every single duck in a row. I can appreciate that, but I refuse to believe that there haven’t been any preparatory conversations and engagements with stakeholders and some preliminary decisions or structures put in place for when it becomes law. I refuse to believe that we wait until, you know, you see the legal details, and then you do the work. I don’t think that’s good governance, and that’s certainly not good preparation for what we know is coming.

I do think it’s reasonable to ask for an update of some of the preparations that the Ministry of Health has been doing so that we can share with British Columbians that our government is getting ready for laws that are going to be developed and brought forward by the federal government so that we are ready and things are in place, structures are in place, for their health care needs when that happens.

I’m not expecting to say: “Well, we’re going to do this. We’re going to do this. We’re going to do this.” But I would expect: “We are looking at…. We have talked with…. We are considering doing…. Depending on this or this, we will determine whether or not this happens.” So I think that kind of broad-stroke update is a reasonable request from this committee.

M. Dalton: The Ministry of Health and the government has the accountability to the public. There’s been a report that’s been presented. It’s not like we have the final say or have that accountability. We’ve brought those measures forward, and I don’t see the urgency in making this request.

D. Plecas: I think it’s important that we get an update. I mean, we’re not asking for a full answer, but in light of the work we’ve done, in light of this court decision, and come June…. I agree with Judy. Things better be together, or all hell is going to break loose. We’re just saying we want an update, and somebody in that update can say, “Look, we’ve done nothing” or “We’ve moved along” or “We can’t do anything until the federal government does its thing” — whatever. There’s no harm in us getting an update.

S. Hammell: I would just like to comment that the committee is a little bit like us — the federal committee. The government is not bound by anything they say. The federal government is not bound by it.

The issue for me is that people are already acting on the Supreme Court order. Therefore, we need to be — just respectfully update, respectfully to the minister and respectfully to us. We are a working body of the Legislature and have a role to play. For us to assume that everything we say will be taken in by the government would be naive, but there is a respect and a part we play in this bigger scheme of things.

Are we agreed, then, generally, that we will certainly request an update? They may not, but we certainly can request it.

S. Sourial (Committee Clerk): I can note it in the minutes as “The committee agreed to request….”

L. Larson (Chair): No? Okay. The general consensus is that we request a general update, if you want to call it, or whatever, on what’s hap`pening.

Anything else that anyone wants to put on the table? We are in the open meeting at the moment.

I think we’ve covered off everything. We’re looking at our schedules as we come up.

S. Hammell: I would just like, on behalf of all of us, to formally again, on the record, thank the staff for the excellent support.

L. Larson (Chair): Agreed. Thank you very much to Lisa and Susan — and Aaron, who worked on this before — and everyone else that’s been involved in it. And also for trying to put together meetings at times that were not always easy — thank you.

J. Darcy (Deputy Chair): I think one of the really wonderful things about how the report is being put together, as Linda said earlier, is that it’s very readable, which is very good and very important. There’s not lots of jargon, as documents that deal with health care often have.

The other thing it does is it mirrors what people presented to us. I think when people read it…. The presenters will see themselves in it, which is really important. It’s an important part of people feeling like government is listening to them, politicians are listening, what they say matters. People put a lot of work and effort into those presentation they make it us, and sometimes they think it goes into a big black hole somewhere. Sometimes it does. But we’ve got a report that reflects what people said to us. We developed recommendations based on it, and they can see themselves reflected in the report.

J. Shin: I just have to add that I’m very happy to be back on the committee. The kind of dialogue and discussion we can have very candidly amongst all the members here, I think, really speaks to the leadership of the Chair and the Deputy Chair. So I just want to thank both of you for setting the kind of tone where you invite that and are receptive to the kind of conversation that I hope to have in committees like this.

I just want to also welcome Selina and Sam to our committee. We welcome your insight and your different ideas, because we don’t ever want to get stale in what we’re doing. It’s great to have new people at all times. You’re all involved in different committees and areas in your communities, and we welcome that. So thank you very much.

Access to on-line versions of the report of proceedings (Hansard)
and webcasts of committee proceedings is available on the Internet.

Chair:	Linda Larson (Boundary-Similkameen BC Liberal)
Deputy Chair:	Judy Darcy (New Westminster NDP)
Members:	Donna Barnett (Cariboo-Chilcotin BC Liberal)
	Dr. Doug Bing (Maple Ridge–Pitt Meadows BC Liberal)
	Marc Dalton (Maple Ridge–Mission BC Liberal)
	Sue Hammell (Surrey–Green Timbers NDP)
	Dr. Darryl Plecas (Abbotsford South BC Liberal)
	Selina Robinson (Coquitlam-Maillardville NDP)
	Jane Jae Kyung Shin (Burnaby-Lougheed NDP)
	Sam Sullivan (Vancouver–False Creek BC Liberal)
Clerk:	Susan Sourial

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
HEALTH