Lost in recent days amid the swirl of shock and uncertainty here and abroad was a report in our own backyard with revelations about long-term elderly care—neither surprising nor unclear in how they could have been avoided.

I didn’t say the disclosures weren’t troubling, though. Nor do I have much faith they’ll be fixed.

The emerging crisis in long-term care in this province has been glacial in the making over decades, but its acceleration under the BC NDP government is undeniable—even if it has been more productive comparably in providing new beds. It has been so easily foreseen with our aging population and so simply avoidable had it been anyone’s political priority.

The reality painted by B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt in his July report is more reminiscent of dystopian fiction: a widening gap between what we have and what we need, growing and desperate waitlists, overloaded and inappropriate acute hospital care, extensive familial burnout, along with staffing chaos and chronic shortages that deliver daily care hours mainly below the national standard.

Seniors languish at home or are jammed into hospitals when they can’t get the bed and attention they require, without even a simple benchmark to tell them what’s acceptable to its government as a wait time. It is indifference, bordering on negligence, crushed by incompetence.

As it is, every day of delay........

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