Delta hospice loses grant over assisted dying
Facility’s board refuses to allow medical procedure, at odds with Fraser Health
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix has cut government funding for a Delta hospice that refuses to allow medical assistance in dying at its facility.
Dix said that Fraser Health had given the Delta Hospice Society the required termination notice and its $1.5 million annual grant would expire on Feb. 25, 2021.
Dix said the grant covers almost all of the society’s annual needs to operate the 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice. Dix noted the hospice operates on land owned by Fraser Health and that the beds would be replaced.
Last December, newly appointed hospice society president Angelina Ireland told staff and volunteers at the hospice that the board had repealed a recent decision by the old board to allow assisted dying at the facility.
Assisted dying has been controversial at the hospice, with former executive director Nancy Macey opposed and Fraser Health wanting all non-denominational hospices to permit the service, which has been available since Sept. 2016.
Last September, Macey — the hospice founder — was terminated and on Nov. 20 the board voted in favour of assisted dying. At the Nov. 28 annual general meeting a new board was elected, and Ireland (People’s Party of Canada candidate for Delta in the October federal election) was appointed president. The new board then overturned the assisted dying decision and was immediately at odds with Fraser Health.
Irene Thomas Hospice is not religion-based and is the only of its kind that doesn’t allow assisted dying. Religion-based hospices can refuse to provide assisted dying.
Ireland said a special meeting by phone and mail-in-ballot would be held June 15 for members to vote on an amendment to its constitution stating “God is the giver and taker of life.”
Dix said that he had heard concerns from the community about the “internal governance of the society.”
“Anyone concerned about governance issues of the society may have remedies available to them under the Societies Act and should consult a lawyer for advice on options available to them,” he said.