Opinion

It comes as no surprise that our country’s premiers apparently see the pandemic as the perfect time to put the touch on the federal government when it comes to tackling the biggest consumer of tax dollars within all their own budgets.

We don’t want to be told our physical pain or mental distress is “all in our mind.” When distraught with symptoms of an illness or dealing with crushing chronic pain, it’s understandably the worst thing someone can be told.

A majority of people who live in qathet Regional District are adults. BC Ministry of Health, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and the Office of the Provincial Health Officer are treating them all like children.

It took six months for the NDP government to release the economic recovery part of B.C.’s ongoing COVID-19 response. That’s a long time, given that the government committed about $5 billion in no time flat on various emergency relief measures.

While we have been anticipating and preparing for it, it was still a shock when COVID-19 finally arrived so dramatically in our small part of the world.

It’s been a difficult week in B.C., even by 2020 standards.

The near-yawn that greeted Finance Minister Carole James’ announcement last week that B.C. will run a $12.8-billion deficit is a reminder of how much our political world has been turned on its head.

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With current confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tla’amin Nation , the false sense of security that may have enveloped some people who live between Lund and Saltery Bay has been dashed.

At one of her first ever media briefings on the COVID-19 virus, Dr. Bonnie Henry offered a note of caution that has stayed with me through the pandemic: advice from public health would shift, evolve and change as we learned more about the virus.