Metro Vancouver’s high cost of housing has consequences

Letters: “With our demographics, we need our young people to achieve their full potential.”

Vancouver real-estate and skyline Photo by Francis Georgian /PNG

Metro Vancouver’s cost of housing, whether it’s home ownership or rental has consequences for our young families, organizations of all sizes, and our overall economy. Young people are our current and future labour force. They are our police officers, nurses, B.C. Hydro power line technicians, teachers, electricians, etc., who keep our cities functioning.

Young people and families are priced out of the housing market. A two-bedroom condominium in the suburbs has gone from working-class accommodations to near upper-class housing. In Surrey, let alone Vancouver, it requires a hefty downpayment and a $200,000-plus household income to qualify for a mortgage for a two-bedroom condominium.

A few years ago, families who followed the prevailing financial wisdom to go with a variable rate to afford multi-hundred-thousand-dollar mortgages now struggle to keep their financial heads above water.

With our demographics, we need our young people to achieve their full potential. However, the average 18-year-old must view the game as rigged. Saving for a down payment is impossible if they pay Vancouver rents, assuming they can afford to pay them. Where is the pay-off from working hard and investing in an education? Can they ever afford to retire?

Even if a young person studies, works hard, gets promoted to management, it makes no difference. If two medical doctors, as a couple, would struggle to buy a townhouse in Vancouver with their combined incomes, why bother going to graduate school, finishing a professional designation, or putting in extra hours at work to get promoted?

John Shepherd, Richmond

Provincial proposal limits work occupation therapists can do

In the process of amalgamating many professions under one professional college (psychologists, occupational therapists, optometrists, opticians, physiotherapists, dieticians, traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncturists), the B.C. Ministry of Health has proposed amendments to occupational therapy regulation.

On Jan. 23, the B.C. Ministry of Health proposed a new definition and scope of practice for occupational therapy, excluding occupational therapists to provide psychological care. Other provinces have made significant advances to define the role of occupational therapy in mental health over time.

Should the amendment pass, it appears that occupational therapists will be limited to providing physical and cognitive treatment in our province.

Today, occupational therapy is an integral part of mental health care in British Columbia. Occupational therapists work in a range of mental health settings, including hospitals, primary care clinics, corrections, community mental health centres, ICBC, and schools.

With record numbers of British Columbians seeking mental health and substance use services, the need for occupational therapy has never been more significant. However, in the merger of professions under this regulatory approach, our scope of care will be limited.

Dr. Skye Barbic is a registered occupational therapists and an associate professor at the University of British Columbia in the department of occupational science and occupational therapy

Essential for public to see transit contract details

Re: Metro Vancouver transit strike: Should buses, SkyTrain be an essential service?

Thank you Lori Culbert for a very informative report.

It would be helpful to those of us who want to decide if the union or the employer has a case, if there was a comparison to the overall contract terms for the supervisors, with the terms for the other union, with which the supervisors want parity.

I am wondering if this is a classic see-saw strategy. One union cherry picks a term that they use to say that all they want is equity, whereas they do not want equity in a total sense as both union contracts have terms that are very different.

Each contract would have its own history and trade-offs likely occurred in exchange for gains.

If the supervisors want equity, would they accept dropping their current contract to then accept all of the terms of the contract they are using as comparison?

An article that sets out the terms of both contracts would be very helpful to the public in deciding if the dispute is really an example of see-sawing: a classic negotiation strategy.

Tarry Grieve, Port Moody