Campaigns

With the provincial election just weeks away, the future of public transit in Metro Vancouver is at risk. TransLink faces a $600 million annual funding shortfall, which could lead to drastic service reductions as early as 2026 if the next government doesn’t act.

But you have the power to help. By sending a letter to your local candidates and party leaders, you can urge them to commit to saving transit and funding the immediate delivery of our Access for Everyone expansion plan from Day 1 of the next government. With just a few clicks, you can make sure public transit remains a key issue in this election.

We are at a crucial juncture in advocating for the rights of older persons.

The NPF joins with many leading NGOs in a national campaign that includes the CCAA, Canadian Coalition Against Ageism (web site page https://www.ilccanada.org/ccaa)

We have come together to bolster support to our leading cause this week through the International Global campaign for the Rights of Older Persons, now underway (April 29th through May 20th, 2024).

As we approach the pivotal United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Ageism, Session 14, in mid May 2024 it is more important than ever for us to engage proactively with our elected representatives.

I urge you to contact your elected officials and encourage their support for the establishment of a UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons. This convention is vital for ensuring that the dignity and rights of older individuals are recognized and protected globally.

Ageing with Dignity Mobilization Campaign April 29 – May 20, 2024

1. Check out the CCAA information website. https://www.ilccanada.org/ccaa
2. Join us to spread this event on Social Media Awareness with the Hash Tags,#CCAAgeism #UNConvention #OEWGA
3. We ask that you join the Canadian Medical Association’s @CMA_Docs letter writing campaign to Canadian elected officials.Use the letter writing tool can be found here https://bit.ly/UNConventionLetterPlease feel free to use any and all information in your communications:
4. Alternatively, Register or log in to CMA Community, then click this linkto access the letter-writing tool. For support to log in or register, check out the CMA FAQ.

Your voice is essential in this effort!

Please  help spread the word. Share it widely within your networks and beyond to amplify our collective voice.

Campaigners across the world call on governments to start drafting a UN convention on the rights of older people

From 8 to 14 April 2024, campaigners (that means all of us!) from around the world will gather for a ‘Global Rally’ on the rights of older people. Their message for governments convening in May for the UN Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing is “It’s time to start drafting a convention on the rights of older people.”

Meeting on an annual basis at the Open-Ended Working Group on Ageing (OEWGA), UN Member States, National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) come together to consider the existing international framework of the human rights of older persons and identify possible gaps and how to best address them, including by considering the feasibility of further legal instruments and measures. In previous meetings, attendees have heard compelling evidence on why a Convention on the Rights of Older Persons is needed.

The Global Rally was established in 2021 as a component of the Age with Rights Campaign organized by the Global Alliance on the Rights of Older Persons (GAROP). GAROP — a network of over 400 members worldwide, including the IFA — was born out of the need to strengthen the rights and voice of older people globally. The Global Rally is a week dedicated to solidarity and advocacy towards a new UN convention on the rights of older people.

How to Participate:

The Global Rally will consist of a series of unique campaign actions in different time zones over a week-long period between the 8^th and the 14^th of April 2024.

1) Sign the Petition for a UN Convention

Join over 3000 human rights advocates in signing a petition calling on governments to begin drafting a UN convention on the rights of older persons without delay.

2) Write to your National Representatives

We are calling on older people and human rights advocates to contact their national-level government representatives before the next session of the UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing in May 2024 and request that their government:

(a) Expresses support for the elaboration of a new United Nations treaty on the human rights of older persons;

(b) Instruct their national delegation to the United Nations in New York to advocate for and support the adoption of recommendations that will lead to the commencement of drafting of a new convention as a matter of urgency.

The IFA, with support of our members, has created draft letters to Australian and Canadian federal ministers as well as generic messaging to send to political representatives. Visit the IFA’s OEWGA webpage to access the letters and share with your politicians!

Pharmacare legislation could be coming sooner than expected – as early as next week. We also heard disturbing indications the Liberal government could go back on their commitment to a drug plan that covers all Canadians, because they think voters don’t care. So the next couple days are absolutely critical for people like you and me to let the government know that we want universal pharmacare or bust!

Together we need to remind key government actors – cabinet members, and a few target MPs – that voters are paying attention, and if they introduce a pharmacare bill tailored to protect Big Pharma’s profits, rather than provide for people, it’s going to hurt them in the next election.

This is an all hands on deck moment — our movements have been fighting to bring coverage for medicines into our public health care system since Medicare was established more than 60 years ago, and your voice is needed, right now, to help get it across the finish line.

Having our voices heard now is so important. During my meetings with MPs in Ottawa this week, many told me they haven’t heard from their constituents about pharmacare, and that makes them feel like it’s not a priority issue. In these last few days before the legislation arrives, we need to make sure MPs know that you want to see universal pharmacare, and you expect them to live up to the promises made to deliver it.

Summary of the Pharmacare Check-in (recording link below)

• Campaign update from Nik:
  • We are gathering very good intel from both sources close to the NDP and report backs from the Canadian Health Coalition lobby days last week. The NDP is committed to the red line they’ve drawn over universal pharmacare, and the Liberal caucus is split on universality.
  • Negotiation between NDP and Liberals still going, and the big sticking point is whether it will be a universal program or one that just covers the uninsured. The latter is pushed by Big Pharma and the insurance industry. Discussion also includes what will be covered by the initial roll out, and it sounds like oral contraceptives and diabetes medications are what’s on the table.
  • The phone calls we’re making are having an impact: Since a week ago, we have made 4000+ calls to MPs and key cabinet ministers. This is thanks to the incredible mobilizing work from chapters and organizers on the ground. MP offices are telling us that these calls are effective in bringing the pressure!
• Sharing the calling tool to your network
  • Please continue to share the calling tool far and wide in your network. Personal touch makes a big difference, so send a personal text, email, message, etc. encouraging people in your network to make the calls and share the calling tools.
  • If you are member of a union local, faith group, other community organizations, etc., ask them to share the call tool with their network.
  • Link to call tool is here: https://canadians.org/action/pharma-phone-mp/
  • There is an email from Nik this morning titled “Keep on fighting for pharmacare”. You can forward that along.
• Phone outreach to Council of Canadians members
  • Since last week, we’ve also built an elaborate but effective phone tree. Chapter members and key organizers in the pharmacare campaign have also been making calls to Council of Canadians supporters, asking them to use the calling tool to call their MPs and cabinet ministers. These are people who have engaged with the pharmacare campaign through phone zaps, town halls, letter writing, sharing personal stories, etc, and live in target ridings. It won’t be cold calls!
  • 32 people have been making nearly 800 calls to Council supporters in the last 7 days. And it works! We saw 4000 phone calls made to MPs because of this outreach strategy.
  • Can you help us make more calls? Each list is between 15-20 names, probably takes an hour to get through, and there is a step-by-step guide and script to help you along the way.
  • Please reach out to me (vbui@canadians.org/ 613-355-6957) or David (dravensbergen@canadians.org/ 778-998-5493) if you have an hour or even half an hour to make some calls.

Seniors’ care in B.C. has been improving recently. It’s because of a simple formula.

We have a government willing to listen and act. And a movement of seniors’ care supporters that won’t stop (that’s YOU). Now it’s time to take things to the next level.

The government has made important commitments to improving seniors’ care in the long term — and our seniors are counting on them to fulfill those promises. 

With Budget 2024 coming up, we need to urge the Finance Minister, Katrine Conroy, to include a plan in her upcoming budget.

Diane, will you take a minute to help by signing a letter to the Finance Minister?

I know how busy you are. We’ve drafted a letter, so all you have to do is add your name.

The government has committed to do things like:

• Restore common standards for wages, benefits and working conditions, so seniors can count on receiving the same quality of care if they are in a public care home or a private one;
• Build more public and non-profit care homes; and
• Improve oversight of for-profit care home operators to make sure the funding they receive goes to helping seniors.

Seniors are counting on the Finance Minister to include a plan in her upcoming budget — a plan showing how and when these commitments will be achieved. 

This could be a big year for seniors’ care in B.C. But it will take all of us, working together.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to help today. Hurry — the budget comes out February 22.

https://carecantwait.ca/letsdothis/

Thank you!

Barb Nederpel
President
Hospital Employees’ Union

Calling all advocates of public health care – health care workers, patients, seniors, researchers, and the public – to stick together for health care solutions, not privatization. 

• Where: SFU Harbour Centre – 515 W Hastings St, Rooms 1410-1430, Joseph and Rosalie Segal Centre Vancouver, BC V6B4N6
• When: November 20, 2023 – 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Our health care system is in crisis. We’re in urgent need of reform, innovation, and brave conversations about what the future must look like for public health care.

We’re extremely concerned that the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is sponsoring a cross-country conversation about the role of private health care. They’ll be in Vancouver on November 23rd, at a Globe & Mail hosted townhall focused on “new players” (read: for-profit companies) in the health care landscape. We can’t afford to revisit this old, tired argument about the role of private health care when we need urgent fixes for our public system.

We’re pushing back. Join us for an evening of learning and organizing, where we will examine the overwhelming evidence against growing the role of private for-profit providers. To be clear – this is not a debate. Public health care is the proven best way to ensure access to health care is based on need, not wealth.

We will hear from health care providers and experts on the many possibilities for improving access and quality of health care within the public system. We’ll make a plan together to organize a delegation to stick up for public health care solutions at the CMA townhall later that week.

We can’t afford to give up on our public system. It’s time to make our public system better and ensure it works for everyone.

Dear Seniors!

Yesterday at our Campaign Call to end profit in long-term care, we launched a post card action to make a show of support for the provincial government’s plan to create a new provincial funding model for long-term care operators. We need your help to sign up as many people as possible to send a postcard by our sign-up deadline on November 14. 

There are a number of ways you can help:

BC’s long-term care (LTC) system is in trouble. COVID-19 worsened the system’s glaring deficiencies and weaknesses; however, the problems have resulted from decades of underfunding, failure to address serious systemic issues, and lack of oversight and monitoring of standards. With continued short staffing resident care and quality of life suffer and both staff and families feel powerless to change things.

Full-scale transformation from the ground up is necessary. Government’s efforts to address issues have been piecemeal while new national standards are at best guidelines. British Columbians are rightly concerned about the state of long-term care.

Your support can improve the lives of the vulnerable residents in LTC, their families and care providers.

Send a letter to the Premier David Eby, Minister of Health Adrian DIx, Parliamentary Secretary Harwinder Sandhu, Assistant Deputy Minster of Health Ross Hayward, and your MLA, asking the BC government to strike an advisory forum to develop and guide implementation of an action plan for system change, informed by those who live, visit, and work in facilities.

Your action today will benefit both the 30,000 residents in LTC today and those of us who may need care in the future.

News broke last week that the NDP has rejected the Trudeau government’s draft pharmacare bill which fell far short of the public, universal drug coverage that had been promised. Health Minister Mark Holland will have to go back to the drawing board and quickly come up with another draft – this is a chance to make our voices heard.

Our friends at the Council of Canadians are organizing an emergency online rally and phone blitz tomorrow to flood the Health Minister’s office with messages of support for public, universal pharmacare. Can you register now to join us on Thursday, October 12, at 4:00 pm PST?

You are invited to join this campaign from the BC Health Coalition:

Have you seen the latest report from the Office of the Seniors Advocate reviewing long-term care in BC? For-profit long-term care operators are making record profits while under-delivering care hours at alarming rates, and British Columbians – whether residents, family members of residents, or workers in long-term care homes – are paying for it.

Join us on October 31, 2023 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm on Zoom at a BC Health Coalition Campaign Call to hear directly from the BC Seniors Advocate, Isobel Mackenzie on her latest report.

British Columbians to mobilize a show of support for funding reform in long-term care. Minister of Health Adrian Dix has said the province is working on a new funding model, but for-profit companies will be lobbying hard to safeguard their publicly funded profits.

You can send a clear message: we support funding reform!

The current model incentivizes operators to spend less money on care hours, food, and maintenance because they get to turn anything they don’t spend into profit. Isobel Mackenzie stressed that “incremental reform is not going to be sufficient here”. One of the Seniors Advocate’s key recommendations is to improve accountability for taxpayer dollars and ensure funding for direct care is spent on care.

Join the BC Health Coalition’s campaign call to find out what you can do to support funding reform in long-term care.

Sign up for the Campaign Call on Zoom on October 31, 2023 from 2:00pm to 3:30pm PST.