The MLA for Kootenay East views 2022 as “the good, the bad and the ugly”.
Tom Shypitka is happy BC appears to be moving past the COVID-19 pandemic, but he has concerns with worsening issues on homelessness, crime and the opioid crisis.
He says a big challenge in 2022 was the health care system and how it impacted frontline workers.
“I’ve been talking today to some nurses and they need support, they need help,” Shypitka says. “These frontline workers are getting burnt out, they’re leaving the province, they’re going to other jurisdictions. This isn’t just an issue that’s exclusive to British Columbia, other jurisdictions are feeling the pinch as well. But they’re responding in a way that are attracting and retaining their health professionals and I think BC needs to do the same.”
He’s interested to see how new Premier David Eby addresses these issues in the new year.
Shypitka says a personal success was presenting a private members bill which would provide a new funding source to help with conservation efforts for wildlife and habitats.
“The only people that aren’t in support of this bill are the Treasury Board, they don’t want to release funding to an independent funding model,” he says. “But it’s incredibly important to have an independent funding model so that it skirts itself outside political cycles so that we’re not making decisions on our wildlife and habitat based on the flavor of the day or whatever get’s government the most votes.”
Shypitka will continue trying to push the bill into Legislature in 2023.
– Tom Shypitka, Kootenay East MLA
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