Okanagan MLA target of recall petition amid displeasure around B.C. COVID, health handling

An Okanagan MLA is the target of a potential recall effort.

Harwinder Sandhu, who represents the provincial riding of Vernon-Monashee, is facing pressure for the NDP government’s handling of COVID-19 and health care in general.

Local resident Genevieve Ring says she’s not prepared to wait for the next election, scheduled for next year, to improve the health system in B.C.

In order for the recall petition to be successful, Elections BC says canvassers must collect signatures from 40 per cent of eligible voters in that riding by October.

Sandhu, a nurse who had been working at Vernon Jubilee Hospital as a patient care coordinator before being elected in 2020, says she stands by the government’s decisions on health care and will not be intimidated by those she calls a “small group of extreme activists” who don’t represent the vast majority of people in the riding.

Sandhu ousted Liberal Eric Foster, who had held the Vernon-Monashee riding since 2009, in the 2020 election by just 424 votes. Her win in that riding marked the first non-Liberal victory there since 1996.

During the election campaign, Sandhu made headlines after one of her signs had been defaced with a sexist slur and a swastika.

“I was sick to my stomach when she told me about the swastika and ‘C-word,’ but you know I had to get there to see and fix it because I still was hoping that it was not true. You live in a community, you hope that this behaviour doesn’t exist, but sadly it does,” she previously told CityNews.

Government handling of COVID-19, health system

Various governments’ handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have come under fire in recent months. However, according to a poll conducted in April by Research Co., the level of satisfaction in B.C. was one of the highest nationally.

Questions have been raised though after the province announced it was launching a survey to ask what British Columbians thought about the B.C. government’s handling of the pandemic.

Some have said the parameters of the review didn’t go far enough, with it not examining B.C.’s economic and policy decisions, or the decisions made by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.

The results of this survey have yet to be released. The province says a final report is expected to be submitted to the B.C. government by Sept. 30, 2022.

That report “will be a summary of findings developed from best practices research, the internal operational assessments and stakeholder/public input and is intended for public release.”

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Meanwhile, the final report will not make any recommendations, the province adds.

The state of health care in general has also come back into focus amid a shortage of doctors and nurses province-wide. Many have already expressed concern that the system was reaching a critical point.

Earlier this month, the BC Nurses’ Union (BCNU) warned that staffing shortages and hospital wait times were hitting crisis levels, adding “the situation is dire.”

“Many emergency rooms around the province, whether it’s a small community hospital or large urban center, there’s significant staffing challenges,” Adriane Gear, BCNU vice president, told CityNews on Aug. 6.