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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

FURSTENAU -- We need to step up and fight for the health of our province

 

Since the start of April, eight days ago, more than 7,000 British Columbians have tested positive for COVID-19 -- including a record-breaking 1,293 cases yesterday. 

 

I am deeply concerned that the government is not acting proactively to protect British Columbians. So yesterday I called on the government to impose a targeted three-week shutdown.

 

Over the past two months, the government has loosened restrictions, allowed out-of-province travel, stalled in-school mask mandates and failed to enforce orders or adapt their communication strategy, despite rising variant cases. 

 

This third wave is the outcome of this inaction.

Some experts are saying we could reach 3,000 new cases per day by the end of the month. Instead of placing the blame on individuals, we need a coordinated response from our government that shows they are taking the threat seriously. 

We're calling on the government to adopt the following measures:

  • Create a clear and targeted shutdown strategy for a three-week period that includes:
    • Enforcing non-essential travel measures 
    • Moving school online for most students
    • Providing immediate government support to temporarily close non-essential businesses
  • Increase transparency and revamp public communications by:
    • Resuming daily COVID-19 briefings
    • Publishing case numbers on weekends and holidays
    • Extending media availability
    • Adopting new messaging outside of press conferences to target non-compliers
  • Increase testing and vaccination capacity by:
    • Expanding asymptomatic testing and rapid testing in workplaces, schools, businesses, and neighbourhoods.
    • Improving reporting on variants of concern 
    • Increasing staffing at vaccination clinics and extending hours to administer all doses as soon as they arrive in the province 

“We need to step up and fight for the health of our province. If we do this now, and do this right, we will all be stronger for it in the near future,” said leader Sonia Furstenau. 

 

Sonia Furstenau
BC Green Party Leader

MLA for Cowichan Valley

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