[ Page 4027 ]

The House met at 10:05 a.m.

Prayers.

R. Thorpe: Hon. Speaker, I rise to reserve the right to raise a matter of privilege regarding the Deputy Speaker.

J. Doyle: In the gallery today I've got four guests, residents of Kaslo and new residents of Victoria. There's Arlene Carney, Bobbie Johnston, Sonny Nomland and Agnes Nomland. Agnes and Sonny are residents of Victoria now; they used to live in Kaslo. They are longtime friends of mine. I ask the House to make them welcome.

Introduction of Bills

PHARMACISTS, PHARMACY OPERATIONS
AND DRUG SCHEDULING
AMENDMENT ACT, 1997

Hon. J. MacPhail: Hon. Speaker, this bill will allow information collected on the PharmaNet computer system to be used to improve patient care in emergency rooms and physicians' offices. Since the provincial computerized pharmacy information network was established in 1995, it has proved to be a success in providing important prescription drug use information to pharmacists. This has allowed pharmacists to detect potentially dangerous drug interactions and to assist patients in avoiding overuse or dangerous use of drugs. From its conception, the PharmaNet system was intended to be extended to other health care providers to assist them in providing better patient care. So this includes the expansion of the PharmaNet system to hospital emergency rooms, where often patients may be uncertain about their prescription drug history and there is no way of determining what drugs a patient may be taking. Similarly, physicians in their day-to-day practice are not always able to determine the drug history of the patients they're treating. The PharmaNet system can be connected to doctors' offices to allow access to this important information.

It is important that the information be made available only under strictly controlled circumstances, which protects the privacy of the patients. There will be appropriate controls respecting confidentiality and the persons who will be given access to the PharmaNet system. At present the Pharmacists, Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act provides for access to PharmaNet only by pharmacists. This amendment being presented today will provide the extension of PharmaNet access to medical practitioners and other health care providers. I will be working with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C., the B.C. Medical Association and British Columbia physicians to ensure that access to PharmaNet is designed in such a way as to provide the best service for patients.

Bill 15 introduced, read a first time and ordered to be placed on orders of the day for second reading at the next sitting of the House after today.

Orders of the Day

Private Members' Statements

EARLY PREVENTION, HEALTHIER LIVES

The area that I come from, Bulkley Valley-Stikine, has a large number of first nations communities, and the prevalence of this affliction is much greater in these communities than in the general population. In fact, in my research I came across the number of one in 2,000 FAS victims as the North American average. In one village that's been studied in my area, it was found that there were 22 FAS/FAE children out of 123, or 14 FAS children out of 123, giving an incidence in this village that is conservatively estimated at 227 times the national average.

FAS is a short term for fetal alcohol syndrome. The definition of FAS is as follows: "FAS is a medical diagnosis made by physicians who have received specific training in the assessment of birth defects. When FAS is diagnosed, there is a known or strongly suspected history of maternal use of alcohol." There's a note here that any amount of alcohol is damaging, and the amount of alcohol, of course, has a tremendous effect on the outcome of the disease. The criteria for diagnosis are premature birth and low birthweight, and there's a distinctive pattern of facial abnormalities: small eye openings, flat mid-face, skin folds near the inner part of the eye, flat nose bridge and a number of other things which contribute to the definition of the fetal alcohol syndrome.

Fetal alcohol effect doesn't carry the same physical characteristics, but it does have a lot of the psychological concerns, which include: some degree of brain damage; IQ may range from 20 to 130; learning disabilities; impulsivity; attention deficit disorder; motor problems, both gross and fine; behavioral problems; hyperactivity; hypoactivity; and developmental delays.

FAS/FAE is well known to be caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy, so it is entirely preventable, yet the effects of this problem are entirely irreversible. So the need to deal with this concern breaks down into two basic issues: that of prevention and that of treatment.

In terms of prevention, there are basically four areas that have to be addressed. With drinking problems, the single biggest problem that we're faced with, of course, is why people get into serious drinking in the first place, and that relates back to the kinds of socioeconomic conditions a lot of these young women find themselves in. Those kinds of changes are things that we, as a wider society, are always interested in dealing with in terms of creating healthier families and healthier communities, and ongoing work must be continued and intensified, especially in communities where FAS/FAE problems are more prevalent.

In terms of more direct work with young pregnant women or with any pregnant women who are at risk of alcohol consumption, the pregnancy outreach program that exists in this province has shown itself to be quite successful in dealing with this problem. It's a relatively inexpensive program. How it works is that counsellors are present in communities and they advertise their services and encourage pregnant women -- especially young pregnant women -- to work with them in terms of nutrition counselling and ongoing visits, and counselling to keep them away from drinking during the term of their pregnancy.

In my personal experience with the POP program -- the pregnancy outreach program -- in the first two years of the 

[ Page 4028 ]

operation of that program through the friendship centre in Smithers, there were 100 babies delivered, and we found a very low incidence of any of those children being born with any symptoms that would indicate they were afflicted with FAS or FAE. So just being there in the community and offering a service to people so that they have somebody to turn to has proven to be very effective, and the expansion of that program would do wonders.

[10:15]

In the area of treatment, this is a much more. . . .

The Speaker: Member, excuse me. I'm afraid your time has expired. I'll give you a sentence, if you want, to wrap that up.

B. Goodacre: I figured seven minutes was a lot longer than that, sir, but thank you very much. I will move on to the treatment. . . .

Interjections.

The Speaker: Members, the unwritten rule is no heckling on private members' statements.

Could the member wrap up, please.

B. Goodacre: I will wrap up in the final. It's not a problem.

A. Sanders: This is indeed a very important issue for the member for Bulkley Valley-Stikine. His research is accurate in that the incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome in part of his constituency is very high.

Fetal alcohol syndrome is a teratogenic effect induced by alcohol as a toxin in a mother who is pregnant. The important thing about fetal alcohol syndrome and the lesser manifestation, fetal alcohol effect, is that this is an entirely preventable condition. When we look at any kind of congenital birth defect from a genetic basis, for example, this is something that cannot be prevented with interpregnancy changes or treatment. But in fetal alcohol syndrome this is in fact the case. It does not need to be manifested as a condition; it is something that is totally induced in a normal fetus by the teratogenic effects of alcohol on the fetus as it develops. Specifically, the areas where it creates problems for that unborn child are in mental retardation, developmental delay and cranial-facial abnormalities -- the structure of the face, as the hon. member pointed out, being abnormal and, in fact, characteristic.

Fetal alcohol syndrome in Canada is now one of the leading causes of mental retardation. So if we're looking at our school system and the special education population, especially in areas that have poverty or high native incidence in the community, we will find that up to 50 percent of the individuals with fetal alcohol syndrome are mentally retarded and another 30 percent have borderline mental retardation.

If we're looking at constrained funds for dealing with special education, here is a medical problem that, if dealt with from a prophylactic point of view, could be totally preventable, and we would not have to use services for those children if we were able to prevent the onset of their condition by preventing or lessening maternal alcohol consumption.

The problem with fetal alcohol syndrome, experts agree, is that the actual amount required to produce the syndrome is imprecise. There is a dose-related effect. Specifically, if you look at a pendulum swing, at one end would be very large doses causing interuterine death in early pregnancy, all the way through to fetal alcohol syndrome, with all of the constellation of abnormality, all the way through to fetal alcohol effect, with minimal or borderline retardation. So obviously this is a very important condition because of its preventability.

"The Canadian Guide to the Clinical Prevention of Health Care," done by the Canadian task force on periodic health in 1994, has outlined a number of recommendations. These recommendations are grouped from A through to E. Recommendations A say show "good evidence" to consider inclusion in the periodic health exam. A number of the A recommendations relate to pregnancy -- specifically, smoking cessation, folic acid supplementation, urine cultures in pregnancy and a number of other classifications. But the most important one is restraint from drinking. This is an absolute necessity for those who look after pregnant women in trying to prevent a significant problem.

The average incidence, although it is imprecise, is estimated to be between one and two per thousand live births. The member for Bulkley Valley-Stikine mentioned one community, and this was studied by a number of British Columbia epidemiologists. In fact, one child in eight in that native community, where all the mothers and all their offspring were systematically evaluated, did have fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effect.

This condition costs us extremely in society, and there are some conclusions that need to be made concerning the condition. There is fair justification to support recommendations that screening and counselling be included in the routine health exam for pregnant women, but it's very difficult in many cases to truly evaluate consumption of alcohol in pregnancy. The research agenda includes unanswered questions, such as evaluating promising treatment programs for alcoholic women, including public awareness of the effects on offspring and determining the effectiveness of counselling on high-risk populations. This is where our work needs to be done.

B. Goodacre: Thank you to the member opposite for sharing that with us.

The other area of FAS that presents a real significant challenge to society is dealing with the young people who are afflicted with FAS or FAE as they grow up. In particular, we had an experience up in Smithers, through our family court committee, with one judge, who's no longer in Smithers, by the name of Carlie Trueman. She had taken the study of alcohol and its effects on people in the judicial system to the bench in terms of trying to train other judges in taking into consideration the effects FAS and FAE have on the behaviour of young offenders. It was quite instructive when Judge Trueman brought to our attention that before she started talking to 

[ Page 4029 ]

the bench, it was virtually unspoken and unknown amongst the judicial community that this syndrome and the effects it was having on young offenders were out there.

It's not just the judicial system. Also, the education system is in a position right now where it's starting to realize the need for research into the effects that this syndrome has on the development of young children and on their entire lives, and the need for society to create an atmosphere for these young people to be treated as victims of a disease rather than as criminals or as deviant children -- or as anything else that one would call putting the responsibility on the child for acting the way they do -- rather than on the disease that they're suffering from.

Here in British Columbia we are blessed with an incredibly strong network of parents and practitioners who are doing extensive research and networking right now to develop more effective ways of intervening in the case of fetal-alcohol-syndrome and fetal-alcohol-effect children as they grow up. I think it's very useful for us as legislators to take this into consideration as we do our jobs and assist these people in creating a better life for these young people.

THE MARROW OF LIFE

Today I want to talk a little bit more about him and the work he's doing. Steve was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was six months past his twenty-fifth birthday and on the verge of writing the final exam to become a chartered accountant. He underwent ten months of chemotherapy. The therapy appeared to succeed. He returned to work; he passed his exam. Then in March of this year, the results of a bone marrow biopsy revealed that his leukemia had relapsed. He learned from his team of doctors at the Vancouver Hospital leukemia bone marrow transplant program that a transplant program was his best chance for long-term survival, leukemia-free.

A bone marrow transplant is a promising treatment option for leukemia patients, but as with other forms of medical transplants, there is a significant risk of rejection. So you need to find an acceptable genetic match. The best donor -- and I think you may be aware of this, Mr. Speaker -- is generally a sibling. But unfortunately, Steve's younger sister did not match, which forced Steve to seek an unrelated bone marrow donor. Now, finding a suitable match from unrelated donors is normally very difficult, and in Steve's case this is especially true, because Steve's mother is Japanese and his father is Caucasian. A search of the four million names on the Canadian and worldwide donor registries has uncovered only 19 potential matches, and subsequent testing, unfortunately, has so far uncovered no truly suitable match among the 19.

The Canadian national bone marrow donor registry has 152,000 potential bone marrow donors registered, 26,000 of whom are in British Columbia. This is not enough. So Steve is campaigning to raise awareness of the registry and to encourage others to enrol in the registry so that he or, if not him, others might find a match. If you are aged 17 to 50, if you're healthy and you're eligible to give blood, then you are a candidate for the unrelated bone marrow donor registry. To join the registry, however, you have to attend an information session, because you need to know what is involved in donating bone marrow. Once you've joined the registry, you will be asked to give some blood. The blood will be tested. After the testing is complete, the results will be entered into a computerized database. Many Canadians donate blood every day, but the blood they give is not automatically tested and registered in the bone marrow donor registry. You need to attend the information session, sign the forms and then give blood specifically for this purpose.

[10:30]

I said that the idea was simple; it is. By adding your name to the registry, you may help save Steve Hayward's life or the life of someone else.

M. Sihota: I wish to thank the hon. member for his comments. I had the opportunity to meet ever so briefly with Steve yesterday, and I want to commend him for his efforts to draw awareness throughout British Columbia and for being creative enough to realize that one of the ways in which to communicate that message is to approach members of this chamber. I appreciate the hon. member opposite's efforts in providing all of us with information to make us all aware of the need to promote this vital partnership between those that are potential donors and those that are patients that require this gift and this donation.

I know that efforts have been in place for some time to establish a national registry, so as to increase the number of people who will become aware of and can partner with those that have the need. Of course, a registry should not just be limited to our need within national boundaries, but to the need on an international basis, as well. In that regard, it is true that over the past few years, we have been successful in expanding the list of potential donors and recipients across borders. For example, last year approximately 60 Canadian donors were able to provide assistance to patients in the United States and about 230 Americans were able to provide assistance to Canadians. Inasmuch as these efforts to establish a donor registry program have been underway since the 1980s, the hon. member is quite correct in pointing out that awareness is not at the level that it needs to be, nor is participation at the level that it needs to be. That's why our government has made a commitment to work strenuously towards the establishment and the promotion of a national registry. We have increased funding by about 20 percent to allow for this to occur, from our side, through the Ministry of Health. And we're grateful that so many British Columbians are willing to make this important decision and contribution. Clearly there needs to be more awareness.

This week, I know that the UFCW is organizing an awareness campaign by having a run from Dawson Creek to Burnaby. I believe it's an annual event that they engage in to 

[ Page 4030 ]

generate awareness with regards to leukemia, leukemia research and the matter of bone marrow transplants. We need organizations such as the UFCW to continue to do that kind of work and to be joined by many others to generate further awareness and understanding with regards to these matters. I know that these matters can often be personal. I know that the Minister of Tourism and Small Business, who initially intended to respond to this matter, went through a personal experience in this regard several years ago. I remember discussing the matter with her at that time. In that case it worked out well, because she was able to provide assistance for her brother. But sometimes, as the hon. member mentions, matches between siblings are not at all possible, and when that doesn't occur, clearly we need to have both the awareness and the registry programs that we've all alluded to in this House.

I wish Steve the best of success in his endeavours. I know that all members of the House who had the opportunity to meet with him were touched by his sincerity and his effort in trying to draw greater awareness to the challenges that he and many others in society face. We are all better off as a result of his initiatives in that regard and, quite frankly, if it had not been for his efforts to contact his local MLA, the matter would not have reached the attention of this chamber. He deserves a lot of credit for that.

G. Plant: I want to thank the hon. member for his remarks, and I also want to thank the Premier, the Minister of Health, the members of the caucus opposite, the members of my caucus and the caucuses of the independent groups at the end of the chamber for taking time to meet with Steve yesterday and to learn about his experience and, hopefully, to have their own awareness raised about the program.

I want to say one or two more words about the bone marrow donor program in B.C. It's run by the Red Cross, but I'm told that it came into existence because of the financial support and dedication of members of the RCMP, through the Bruce Denniston Bone Marrow Society, in honour of two RCMP officers who died of leukemia in 1989. I'm told that to date, the society has raised over $1 million for the donor centre here in British Columbia. And as the member points out, over the last decade many organizations, many companies and many individuals in British Columbia have lent their hands to support the program, financially and in other ways. However, the registry is still underfunded, and this affects the speed at which donors can be tested and processed. Steve's own drive has been affected by this underfunding. At times it has bottlenecked his search, and it has forced the delay of testing and processing donor samples. So there's more we can all do to help.

We can support the work of the program financially, and we can call upon government to continue to assume a larger role in assisting the program. I encourage all members of the House to undertake these initiatives. I encourage all British Columbians -- and I think I am joined in that by the member opposite -- to try to work together to see what we can do to make a difference for Steve Hayward and for all who find themselves in his position.

COMMITMENT TO
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

Many of us in British Columbia still think about environmental stewardship in terms of "they," as in: "What are they going to do about the fish? What are they going to do about the air?" And then we -- all of us -- get into our automobiles and drive to the store in the next block. The point is that there is really not a "they." There is only "us," and in some respects we are all part of the problem. And we share the responsibility for being part of the solution, too.

The consequences of climate change include a rise in sea levels along the northern coast of some 30 to 50 centimetres, more frequent and severe droughts in southern British Columbia, and a transformation of our forests due to increased fire, pests and disease. Understanding these issues is the first step; choosing to make a change is the next. Even small changes can have a great cumulative effect.

On Wednesday of this week, the British Columbia Environment ministry and Environment Canada published a report on climate change in British Columbia and the Yukon, and I have a copy of it here. It's a plain-language summary from a group of experts that met at Simon Fraser University in February to do three things: firstly, to summarize what is known about the expected impacts of future climate change on British Columbia and the Yukon; secondly, to identify what needs to be done to improve our knowledge about the impact of climatic changes; and thirdly, to identify what needs to be done to get the public, industry, agencies and government to consider climate change in their decision-making.

What is really important about this report is that for the first time, in one place, we can get a sense of what the problems are likely to be in our own back yards and what the gaps in our knowledge base are that need to be filled, so that problems can be tackled in a systematic way.

My constituency of Vancouver-Burrard is the most densely populated area in Canada. By no stretch of the imagination could you describe it as an environmentally sustainable development. But my community is in an environmental relationship with the rest of the province around us. For example, we consume vast quantities of water that comes from the North Shore, and when we're done with it the sewage has to go someplace else for processing and disposal. Automobiles go slowly up Georgia Street or Robson Street and add to the air pollution, not just in my own community of Vancouver-Burrard but also in communities all the way up the Fraser Valley.

The climate change report is quite blunt and wide-ranging. I can only give a flavour of a small part of it this morning, so I will talk a bit about alternate energy and rainfall. Like many members here, I've been excited by the prospects for reduced air pollution through alternate fuels, such as the Ballard fuel cell. The report suggests that if we are to move to lower carbon energy sources and alternate energy sources which are used in B.C. only sparingly at present, there needs to be a policy review with research into opportunities in the unique British Columbia mix. One possible outcome of restructuring could be increased competition for land and water, particularly if hydroelectric alternatives are favoured.

But before the policy review can take place, there is a knowledge gap to be filled. How are the evolving alternate energy technologies to be matched to the conditions in British Columbia, and what would be the cost implications? We can expect changes across the province in the amount of rainfall, resulting in an altered hydrologic cycle. There will be implications for water flows, for storage and for the timing and release of stored water.

The bad news is that the scientific opinion is not yet clear about how the frequencies and timing of high and low flows 

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are going to change. We also do not have a clear handle on what this means for how often we can expect floods and how severe these floods might be. Until we do, it's hard to plan practically to mitigate the effects.

This report predicts increased runoff, overflows and flooding of the systems in urban areas like Vancouver-Burrard. It predicts an increased cost for design of storm and sewer infrastructure to handle extreme events. But as I read the report, bigger may not necessarily be better. Minimum flows in the system have different requirements, so this will complicate the quest for efficient and effective design. Some climate change is natural, but much of it is due to human activity and to our collective poor stewardship of Creation over hundreds of years.

[10:45]

J. van Dongen: I'm pleased to have this opportunity today to respond to the member opposite on the area of commitment to environmental stewardship, and I thank him for raising this issue during Environment Week. I thought what I would do is convey a bit of a message on behalf of agriculture in terms of agriculture's commitment to environmental stewardship. I recognize that this isn't in direct response to the member's topic or comments, but I agree with him that what's critical in environmental stewardship is what we do ourselves -- that's what matters. It's the commitment that agriculture brings, not what they do. I think it's particularly timely, because there's a very-good-news story to be told on behalf of agriculture and all of the work that's being done to improve environmental stewardship. So I'm going to talk a little bit about what farmers are doing to improve stewardship.

I was really heartened recently at the Cattlemen's Association annual meeting, where they spent a whole day talking about caring for the green zone -- riparian area management. I'll just read you one of the topics they had at that whole day of education for their members: "B.C. Riparian Systems Overview." They had Bruno Delesalle of Ducks Unlimited speaking to them about that. They had experts caring for the green zone talking about cows and fish co-existing. They had an individual there from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans talking about ways to address bank erosion problems. They also talked about riparian and wetlands management.

I think it's absolutely tremendous that a group of beef producers took a whole day. . . . And there were a lot of them there, because I attended for part of the day to talk about environmental stewardship in terms of their own operations. They also have an environmental stewardship award, which they use to honour an example of a very progressive, environmentally friendly cattle operation. They have a peer advisory group -- which a lot of the farm groups have -- which is an attempt to have fellow farmers work with other farmers to improve environmental compliance.

Similarly, in the dairy industry, they have a dairy producers' conservation group, and that group has been operating since 1990. They also attempt to encourage good conservation farming practices that sustain soil and water productivity over the long term. I think one of the very great, innovative practices they have developed and pioneered in the Fraser Valley is what they call relay cropping, where once a corn crop has just started and is out of the ground, they overseed a grass crop, such as fall rye. That crop grows up underneath the corn, and the corn is cut off by corn-harvesting equipment in the fall when the grass crop is already growing. What that does is provide a cover crop over the winter that prevents soil erosion, and it is also there to absorb excess nutrients. So it's a very innovative, progressive cultural technique that is very effective in terms of managing environmental concerns. They also have a regular newsletter that they put out to promote these sorts of progressive practices.

Similarly, in the poultry industry, we have a sustainable poultry-farming group, with a very low budget and an industry-driven process that has farmers on a board of directors. It provides leadership in terms of dealing with manure management issues, again in the Fraser Valley. They've done some interesting stuff in terms of moving poultry manure that's excess to the Fraser Valley to places like Merritt and Ashcroft and the interior ranchlands, which are very seriously in need of organic matter. So it's well used in that area.

I also want to talk a little about pesticides and good environmental management.

The Speaker: I was thinking the member would say: "But I'll save that for another time." I'm sorry, hon. member, your time has indeed expired. I'll give you a sentence to wrap up, if you wish.

J. van Dongen: I just want to reiterate that, as the member opposite said, action speaks louder than words. It's important for all of us, in whatever area we operate in in the economy. Agriculture is certainly doing its share to improve environmental stewardship.

J. Dalton: I ask for leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

J. Dalton: On behalf of my colleague the MLA for Vancouver-Quilchena, I would like to welcome 60 grade 5 students from Lord Kitchener Elementary School in Vancouver, accompanied by their teachers -- and I'm sure some parents, no doubt. Welcome to Victoria.

D. Symons: Since it's introduction time, I also ask leave to make an introduction.

Leave granted.

D. Symons: Like my colleague here, there are 70 grade 7 students from R.C. Talmey School in Richmond that are somewhere in the precincts. I believe they'll be coming into this chamber later. So I'd ask this House to make them welcome, please. They are accompanied by Mr. Sakai, their teacher, and several adults.

The Speaker: We have indeed started something.

I. Waddell: I'll just finish this off. I would ask leave to make an introduction, too.

Leave granted.

[ Page 4032 ]

I. Waddell: Just a couple of schools: the Cougar Canyon Elementary School from North Delta are here in the precincts with a couple of teachers, including Ms. Dale Clark. She has a connection with this Legislature and this government. Also, there are students here from my riding, from the Captain James Cook Elementary School -- that's in Vancouver-Fraserview -- and Mrs. D. Blaine. There are 30 grade 6 students and several adults. And I notice my mother, Isobel Waddell, in the gallery. I hope the House will make all these people welcome to the precincts.

The Speaker: Thank you, Vancouver-Burrard, for allowing that interruption. Vancouver-Burrard to conclude the statement.

T. Stevenson: Well, I don't have an introduction. And you know what? I would be interested if one of the students from Lord Kitchener would write me a letter and tell me about Lord Kitchener. I don't know of him, and I'm interested in history. So if someone would like to write me a letter sometime telling me who Lord Kitchener was and what he did, I'd appreciate that, being from Vancouver myself.

I thank the hon. member for Abbotsford for his comments. There are indeed no cheap, simple, quick or even popular solutions to the problems of the environment or to climatic changes, but I'm proud to be part of a government that has made a start with the greenhouse gas plan. But the reality is that there is a lot more work for all of us to be doing. The group of experts that has prepared the B.C. and Yukon climate change report has also developed a list of plain-language messages that they will amplify over the coming months to improve the level of information and education among public, industry and stakeholder groups, as well as the policy-makers. I have no clear idea where that will lead. But as a result of looking at this report, I am now much more open to the notion of taking action in a comprehensive way -- keeping an eye, of course, on the expense. I want to know more about the pros and cons of implementing water meter systems and demand-side management tools, as well as improvements to the existing water supply infrastructure.

This week, I read that in the United Kingdom, believe it or not, over 40 percent of the water that goes into the privatized supply system never makes it to the taps, because the pipes are, for the most part, over 100 years old. I hope our public system is a bit better than that.

Another logical thing for communities to think about is the use of effective water quality protection measures to alleviate anticipated stresses on water quality. There are probably economies to be made by educating the industry and the public about the value of conservation strategies rather than just continuing to expand the water supply system. While I have spoken only about air and water this morning, this report is a clear wake-up call and has much to say about forestry, agriculture, fish and ecosystems. I hope this report will get a wide circulation and generate a thoughtful response from British Columbians.

ELDER CARE

Their oldest son Harry has recently retired from a successful career as a bank executive. A snowbird, he lives in Toronto and winters in Florida. Both his sons are grown and independent.

James and his wife own and operate a family business in Burnaby. His second daughter, recently divorced, has returned home with two young children. His son attends BCIT.

Their daughter Helen is 55. Helen lives in Kerrisdale and teaches chemistry at Burnaby North. Her husband is struggling to establish a home-based consulting business after losing his job when his company downsized. Helen has a daughter at Simon Fraser and a son at Douglas College.

A year ago, Bert suffered a stroke. He has done pretty well, but can't get around much without help. Daily routines like getting out of bed and getting to the bathroom have become real chores. He can manage with Sarah's help, but it's a struggle. Since his stroke, Bert becomes confused very easily and gets extremely agitated if Sarah is out of sight. He won't be left alone, except with a family member. On occasion, he has overwhelming bouts of depression and confusion.

Sarah is known for her cheerful and outgoing personality. She's bothered by a bit of arthritis and high blood pressure, but both conditions are under control. Recently, however, Sarah too has been showing symptoms of depression, and her arthritis seems to be flaring up more than usual. She complains to Helen that she doesn't see her friends anymore and rarely manages to make the bridge afternoons at the seniors centre. Sarah seems to have lost interest in cooking. They tried Meals on Wheels for a while, but Bert fired them. "Too much broccoli," he said.

[11:00]

Helen has tried to intervene, but seems to get the runaround. She has discovered that there is home support, home nursing, mental health and rehabilitation involved with her parents' care. They never seem to talk to one another. She can't figure out who's in charge.

Bert and Sarah have a moderate retirement income. Their care services cost them about $1,100 per month, not including drugs and handyDART. Helen tries to get over there each evening, to give Sarah a bit of relief and to help Bert get to bed. They could get home support, but Bert would have to go to bed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon in order to fit the agency's 

[ Page 4033 ]

schedule, and they really can't afford the $24 per hour that's charged by the agency. Helen estimates that since her dad's stroke, she is spending about 30 hours a week assisting with her parents' care. It's taking its toll on her. She feels guilty about feeling trapped. Even the grandchildren feel trapped. They resent being asked to babysit Granddad. Helen knows the present situation can't continue. James agrees; he wishes he could do more.

Helen has been searching for alternatives. She and James agree that their parents would benefit from an assisted-living facility, a facility that blends health care and housing. Helen has discovered, however, that such facilities are few, and most are very expensive. Helen doesn't know where to turn. All she know is that right now she would die for a weekend to herself.

The family portrait of Bert and Sarah is a mere image of seniors issues. Seniors issues are family issues, affecting all generations in a family. Eighty percent of seniors care is provided by family, and the caregivers are getting older. Seniors care is holistic. It has as much to do with who mops the floor, who does the driving and who does the cooking, and with social and recreational opportunities, as it does with heroic medical interventions. Welcome to the clubhouse generation.

I. Waddell: I'd be pleased to respond, however briefly I can, to the member for North Vancouver-Lonsdale. I think it was an excellent presentation. It focuses on a real issue and on real people. I know Kitsilano; I lived there. I don't know Bert and Sarah, but I feel like I do after the member spoke about them. I congratulate the member for that.

The member spoke about the challenge of old age. It's a great challenge. It's one we're all going to have to face, and it's an increasing number of people, with the demographics of our nation. Our nation is getting older, and people are getting older. We're all going to have to face it.

When the member first spoke, I thought: it's not a bad life that they have. They've got a good family; their son, the banker, spending time in Florida. It's not bad. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren -- they're lucky. They've done well. But now old age is catching up. They're in their eighties, and they're both still there. My mother is here in the House. My father passed away in his fifties. I'm sure, in our family, we would have loved. . . . It would have been wonderful to have our father here until his eighties and beyond. Bert is struggling now; he's 84, as you say, and has to face the challenge of old age.

I note that the member talked about the difficulty with health care. The blending of health care and housing, I think, is a good idea. The mother of one of my friends in Victoria has this situation. She sold her house and moved into a complex. She can get on, she can get by and she can get help with her meals and with some health care there. I think that's the way of the future. That's worth doing.

Seniors in my riding, in Fraserview, are concerned about a number of things -- three, I think. First of all, housing. These people in Kitsilano, as you mentioned, have their own house. They were able to sell a good house and move into an apartment. Not all seniors are that lucky. They have to spend a lot of their income, a lot of their pension, on housing, especially in the east side of Vancouver. That's a concern of the people in my riding.

The second is health care and the cost of drugs. We in the NDP are proud of our battle. We would hope that the opposition would join us in fighting the big multinational drug companies, to help get the price of drugs down for seniors. Alexa McDonough, in the federal election campaign, fought that battle -- clearly and out in front of the rest of the people in the country. That's another area that seniors are concerned about.

The third area -- the mayor of Vancouver just found to his astonishment yesterday that there's crime -- they're concerned about is safety. So I think these three areas -- housing, cost of drugs and safety -- are some of the things that seniors are concerned with.

In my riding I'm very proud to have been able to announce this week a new bus service for people in the Fraserview lands. There are a lot of seniors who are isolated in southeast Vancouver, which has been ignored for so long. Finally we've got a bus service that will take them to the community centres, to the SkyTrain, to areas where they can move around -- this is really important -- and to doctors' appointments and so on. So transit, safety, cost of drugs and housing are big issues for seniors.

But I do want to say, again returning to the hon. member's remarks, that the day-to-day living she got there. . . . She showed us the difficulties of the stroke victim and of dealing with that -- dealing with conflicting caregivers and fitting in with that system. That's a challenge for all of us on both sides of the House, and it's the challenge of our generation right now to meet for an older generation. If we meet that challenge, it's going to pay off in our own lifetimes when we become seniors.

K. Whittred: I thank the member opposite for his supportive understanding of the issues surrounding the topic. But I would like to use this time, if I may, Mr. Speaker, to pay tribute to our senior citizens who this past week have celebrated Seniors Week, an event which, unhappily, has gone unrecognized in this House.

We have much to celebrate, for this is a generation that has given so much more than it has taken. Today's generation of seniors is a generation that grew up and matured into adulthood during the Great Depression. They became men and women in hopeless economic times, and then they went to war for six years. Fifty-two years ago today this generation left countless of their peers on the beaches of Normandy in order to make our world safe from tyranny.

The Dirty Thirties and the war became the major defining events or moments in the lives of our senior population. From these experiences, they learned and said: "Never will our children suffer the degradation, the humiliation and the hopelessness of the thirties." They introduced compassion and caring and sharing into our political agenda and translated those values into action. Today we enjoy the legacy of these values in the security of our social safety net.

From their experience, they also said: "Our sons and daughters will not go to war." From our parents and grandparents has been passed the legacy of peacekeeping and the unselfish belief that harmony among nations is best achieved by sharing our resources and expertise.

The selflessness that has characterized the lives of our seniors continues today in countless ways. Seniors helping seniors is a way of life in the community. Seniors counselling their less fortunate peers, delivering Meals on Wheels to those who cannot fend for themselves and visiting those who are homebound are but a few of those ways.

This week's celebration of seniors affords each of us an opportunity to reflect upon the lifestyle we enjoy and we have inherited, 

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and to treasure the values that have been passed on to each of us. Seniors Week also serves to remind us that from time to time, our seniors need a little of our help to ensure that they can continue living their lives independently, with dignity and participation in the community. Let us hope that we can give as unselfishly as this generation of seniors has.

Hon. U. Dosanjh: Hon. Speaker, I move the House do now adjourn.

Motion approved.

The House adjourned at 11:11 a.m.

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