Hope Dallas From: Bowen Island Municipality Sent: May 12, 2016 3:45 PM To: Hope Dallas Subject: FW: TeleHealth Attachments: IslandTides(1).pdf From: Susanna Braund Sent: May 8, 2016 5:38 PM To: Mayor Council <[email protected]> Subject: TeleHealth Dear Mayor and Councillors I was reading in Island Times about TeleHealth available now on Salt Spring and Mayne (see pages 1 and 3 of the attached). I expect you are already aware of this, but in case you are not, I would like to see this discussed by the appropriate committee. Sincerely, Susanna Braund -- Susanna Braund Professor of Latin Poetry and its Reception (Canada Research Chair) Killam Research Fellow (national competition), 2016-18 http://killamprogram.canadacouncil.ca/ Associate Head 2015-16 Dept of Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies, UBC Buchanan C, 1866 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC Unceded Musqueam territory V6T 1Z1 Canada Email: [email protected] For info about CAWES on Bowen Island, please go to cawes.org 1 SalishSalish SeaSea SCAN TO VISIT OUR ADVERTISERS CLICK LINKS FROM OUR Giving The Coast A Community Voice For 27 Years HOME PAGE Canadian Publications Mail Product Volume 28 Number 9 May 5—May 18 2016 $57.75 Addressed Subscription Sales Agreement Nº 40020421 Photo: Toby Snelgrove, SNELGROVEimages.com Springtime swimmers brave the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean at Miners Bay on Mayne Island. Island Health – welcome to Malahat First Nation LNG project - Adam Olsen n August 20, 2015, Steelhead LNG and Malahat First poses a risk to Canada’s climate action targets. Fracking also the future - Frants Attorp Nation announced a 25-year lease agreement for scars the landscape, leaves behind toxic tailings ponds, Malahat’s newly purchased Bamberton lands on the threatens groundwater, and is proven to cause earthquakes. growing number of islanders with appointments to see OSaanich Inlet, and a partnership agreement to explore the Gas liquefaction plants also damage the local environment. health care specialists in Victoria, Vancouver and other potential of installing a floating gas liquefaction plant at the site A number of questions are posed about the design of the urban centres are not setting aside a whole day for of the former cement plant. Malahat LNG proposal. Will they burn gas to power their Atravel. That’s because travel is not always necessary. In October 2015, the National Energy Board approved a six project? Will they use chemically treated ocean water at a rate A program introduced several years ago at Lady Minto million tonne (per year) export licence for the proposed Malahat of thousands of litres per hour to cool the gas to liquefy it? Will Hospital on Salt Spring Island makes it possible for some LNG project. Since then the partnership has hired consulting they discharge that heated, treated water back into the inlet? patients to connect with their specialist physicians at a distance companies to collect background data of the site and How much excess gas will they flare? How will the gas plant and via Telehealth. surrounding area and to draft technical design details for the pipeline disrupt the Goldstream salmon run and other ‘It’s a great way to save on travel time and deliver quality infrastructure. important fisheries and recreation activities? What will be the health care to people in rural areas,’ says Bill Relph, Island Williams Companies, an energy infrastructure company impact of increased shipping in the Saanich Inlet and the Salish Health’s rural site director for the Southern Gulf Islands. from Oklahoma, is partnering with Steelhead LNG to explore Sea? What security measures will have to be put in place and Telehealth is the use of communication technologies such as constructing a 130km pipeline called the Island Gas Connector, how will that limit access to the inlet? video and audio over a secure, high-speed provincial network which will run from Sumas to Cherry Point, in Washington, at Social Impacts to enable virtual clinical conferencing. At Lady Minto, patients which point the pipeline will run along the ocean floor through The Malahat LNG project would come at significant social cost will find a quiet room where there is a sophisticated remote the Southern Gulf Islands and the Salish Sea to Bamberton. The to the communities around the Saanich Inlet. The hopes that control camera and a large screen that makes physicians appear project is similar to the Georgia Straight Crossing (GSX) that the inlet could recover from the years of industrial use by the as if they are in the room. was approved by the Canadian government in 2003. Bamberton cement plant would be dashed by another heavy If a doctor needs specific clinical information, such as heart Steelhead LNG and Williams are currently preparing their industrial operation there. rate or blood pressure, arrangements can be made to have a gas plant and pipeline project descriptions, and will require The Saanich Inlet is in the heart of W̱SÁNEĆ territory and health care professional attend to such matters. Additionally, approvals from the BC Environmental Assessment Office, while Steelhead has partnered with Malahat First Nation, the the Telehealth room is equipped with a digital stethoscope Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, NEB, and the US company has damaged their relationships with the other which transmits heart and lung sounds, and an exam camera Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. W̱SÁNEĆ First Nations. Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, that transmits detailed skin, ear, nose and throat images to The general feeling around the Saanich Inlet is that the Tseycum and Malahat First Nations are all descendants of the specialists. project is so absurd that it will never happen. However, despite signatories of the Douglas Treaties. All the communities except ‘The program is still evolving, but it looks very promising,’ significant challenges, the proponents continue to move the Malahat have expressed strong opposition to the project and says Relph. ‘There has been a positive response from specialists.’ project forward and intend to apply to the regulators later this even some Malahat members have publicly expressed their Telehealth, which is provided free of extra charge to patients, year. concerns about the proposal. Yet First Nations’ concerns have is voluntary and aims to create a similar experience to in-person Despite the provincial government labelling LNG ‘clean’, been ignored. consultations. Patients are encouraged to bring family and there are high environmental and social costs to the gas Economic Challenges support members to their Telehealth sessions. They are not industry, from extraction to consumption. required to operate the Telehealth equipment. In addition to the environmental and social impacts, this project In British Columbia, gas is ‘fracked’ in the northeast of the Typically, physicians provide the service from Island Health faces formidable economic challenges. With the depressed oil province and piped to tidewater. Fracking is an energy intensive Telehealth rooms. In the near future however, the Telehealth industry and escaped methane from extraction and piping MALAHAT LNG, please turn to page 6 ISLAND HEALTH, please turn to page 3 JTBUUIFTF6(5,286&2))(( MPDBUJPOT MPPLGPSUIFA*TMBOE5JEFTZFMMPXCPYFTPVUTJEFPSSBDLTJOTJEF 4JEOFZ#FBDPO"WFOVF /BOBJNP7*$POGFSFODF$FOUSF 1BSLTWJMMF)FSJUBHF$FOUSF.BMM 4PVUI%VODBO4VO7BMMFZ.BMM /BOBJNP#FBVGPSU$FOUSF4PVUI1BSLXBZ1MB[B $PVSUFOBZ4PVUIHBUF$FOUSF $MJòF"WFOVF %VODBO$PXJDIBO$PNNPOT.BMM /BOBJNP$PSOFS*TMBOE)XZ!)BNNPOE#BZ3E 1PSU"MCFSOJ4IPQQFST%SVH.BSU1MB[B UI"WF .JMM#BZ*TMBOE)JHIXBZ!'SBZOF3E 1PXFMM3JWFS1BDJöD1PJOU.BSLFU 5IVOEFS#BZ4U $BNQCFMM3JWFS5IF7JMMBHF 8JMMPX1PJOU www.islandtides.com Page 2, Island Tides, May 5, 2016 Readers’ Letters Cost of Alberta’s Oil Spree Watch a popular Danish TV drama series call ‘Borgen’— Dear Editor: subtitled, with freestreaming online—to see how a politician Alberta Premier Notley should spend some time studying our struggles in this system to keep her integrity amidst the endless Every Second Thursday economic history before shooting herself in the foot. Alberta’s jockeying and deal-making. In Germany, which uses a form of Strait of Georgia’s only past 15 years of relying on oil to the exclusion of other economic Mixed Member Proportional Representation, the ruling party Free & Mail-Delivered Newspaper factors has been pulling the Canadian dollar up to the level of has run the country for decades, through bullying coalitions and the US dollar (oil is traded in US dollars), allowing the tar sands with no hope in sight for another party to win the lead. The 24,000 copies this edition to be exploited during high oil prices while having a negative system entrenches parties more deeply than FPTP alone. impact on almost every other aspect of our economy, especially All this is to say that there’s proportional representation for 13,393 print copies delivered to all manufacturing. Former Canadian Imperial Bank chief parties and there’s straight-forward proportional representation households on 12 Gulf Islands economist Jeff Rubin has documented this impact in his latest for voters. If we continue to frame elections in party terms, that’s book. Alberta’s oil policy has cost the rest of Canadians billions all we’re going to get. We can do better. Winston Churchill will be cheering. Salt Spring • Mayne • Galiano • Pender • Saturna of dollars. Brenda Guiled, Salt Spring Island Gabriola • Denman • Hornby • Read • Texada • Then there is the $600 billion-plus yearly taxpayer subsidy Lasqueti • Thetis to the fossil fuel industry that has allowed oil corporations to Enbridge and the Climate Wars bank obscene profits while living off the rest of us. Corporate Dear Editor: welfare is what real NDP activists used to call it. Canadians have failed to adequately respond to dangerous And we shouldn’t forget the increased climate change costs climate change because global warming is not yet a life and of spruce budworm, forest fires, crop failures, floods, increases death issue in Canada.