B.C. cuts funding to defiant Delta hospice
Minister ends battle over refusal to allow medically assisted dying
VICTORIA Delta, B.C.’S 10-bed hospice facility is losing its provincial funding and may have its building claimed by the Fraser Health Authority, after refusing to allow medically assisted dying.
Health Minister Adrian Dix said Tuesday he’s instructed Fraser Health to stop paying $1.5 million annually to the Delta Hospice Society within the next year because it is violating federal law and B.C. government policy that requires medically assisted dying be made allowed at non-denominational facilities that receive more than half their funding from the province.
“What this means is that the Delta Hospice Society will have no role to play in publicly funded hospice care again after this 365-day period,” said Dix.
“We now have 365 days to determine how we can ensure hospice services can remain in Delta. We may take over the existing site. We may find another site.
“These beds will not move out of Delta.”
The government may at the end of the year take possession of the building, which is on Fraser Health Authority land rented for $1 a year to the hospice society, said Dix.
The decision caps a messy twoyear battle within the Delta Hospice Society, which has lurched through board members, terminations, packed annual general meetings and mass membership sign-ups over whether to allow medically assisted dying at the Irene Thomas Hospice.
The current board, which took power in December after a membership drive threw out some members of the board, refuses to allow medically assisted dying at the facility.
Dix said that’s in contravention of federal and provincial government policies that allow people in public care beds to choose to die with assistance if they wish, in certain circumstances.
The society did return requests for comment on Tuesday.
At least one person has been denied the service at Irene Thomas Hospice, said Dix.
“These are profound decisions and ultimately these are the decisions that are the right of the individual to make without being fettered, without being harassed, without being talked to in a way that takes away their individual right to make their decision,” said Dix.
“In many ways, this is the last decision someone makes in their lives. It provides individuals with agency when everything else in their lives has been stripped away.”
Randy Scott, a hospice board member who resigned in December 2019 over the refusal to allow medically assisted dying, said Fraser Health has been clear the funding would stop unless the board changed its position.
“For me being on the board, it wasn’t a matter of are you for MAID (medical assistance in dying) or against MAID, it was about how to make the hospice viable for the community.”
Ultimately, the current board’s opposition to medically assisted dying doesn’t match up with the community’s broader support of the service, said Scott, who operates a local vehicle repair shop.
“The majority of people in this community are for MAID.”
Hospice care, such as that provided at Irene Thomas, helps patients approach end of life with pain management and specialized support.
“During the 365 days’ notice period, patients currently at the hospice will continue to receive hospice care service as we do not wish to interrupt any care,” Fraser Health said in an unattributed statement,
The statement added that no one at the hospice was being forced to provide MAID services, as that would be done by outside medical professionals.
B.C.’S policy that mandates access to medically assisted dying in public facilities came into effect in 2016, under the previous Liberal government. The federal government also has legislation, which was challenged in court and then reintroduced by Ottawa this week, to broaden access to assisted dying.
Religion-based facilities are not required to allow medically assisted dying, but must refer patients who want to the service to another facility.
Dix praised the previous B.C. Liberal government’s policies on assisted dying, set by then health minister Terry Lake, as appropriate and studied.
However, the current Opposition B.C. Liberals attacked Dix and the NDP on Tuesday for the move.
Delta South MLA Ian Paton called it an “unfortunate day” for the volunteers at Delta hospice who have raised funds and built up the facility since 1991.
“Now what I see is government literally stealing the assets of the people of Delta that worked so hard for many years to raise $8.5 million for this facility,” he said.
However, Paton repeatedly refused to say whether he supports the current Delta hospice policy to forbid medically assisted dying that has led to the showdown with the government.
“It’s a very heated debate in our community whether people are for or against MAID,” he said. “And that’s not something I’m willing to go to.”