Vancouver Park Board commissioner pushes plan to help seniors during heatwaves

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — In the wake of the deadly heat dome which enveloped Metro Vancouver earlier this month, a Vancouver Park Board commissioner is pushing a plan to ensure seniors are safe if — and when — temperatures skyrocket again.

Tricia Barker is hoping to create a voluntary registration system for seniors and other vulnerable people to ensure they’re doing okay during a heat emergency.

“I think we have to have a call list, but I think we have to be prepared for if someone doesn’t pick up the phone,” she says.

“If someone doesn’t answer, maybe we can make sure that the managers [of the building] are all going to the suites and knocking on doors. We can’t just rely on family and friends. Sometimes that’s not available to some of these compromised seniors. So we have to look at all types of ways to get in touch with these people.”

Barker says, for example, if a fire was raging, neighbours would knock on doors to make sure people are safe. She says the same urgency should be present when there is a heatwave.

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Barker’s proposal, which goes to the Park Board next week, also calls on the City of Vancouver and the province to back the initiative as well.

“And not sometime in the future,” she says. “This is going to happen again this summer … It’s going to take some money, but this is money that —  if we spend it — we can be saving lives. Let’s not let the horrendous death toll happen again. Let’s get something done, and let’s get it done now. We are in a climate emergency, and I don’t see any bigger emergency right now than people losing lives.”

The BC Coroners Service responded to hundreds of sudden deaths amid extreme temperatures, and review is underway to determine how many of those deaths were due to heat, including what role prolonged ambulance wait times played in the tragedy.