MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 24, 2003

Save our Services: The People of BC Fight Back!

VANCOUVER - It’s a message that’s impossible to ignore. At a press conference at 10:30 am on Friday, October 24, the Council of Canadians will unveil a six-foot postcard addressed to Premier Gordon Campbell that reads “Don’t Privatize our Public Services!”

Maude Barlow, National Chairperson for the Council of Canadians, will join local activists from the BC Health Coalition, BC Citizens for Public Power, and the Vancouver chapter of the Council of Canadians to be the first to sign the postcard.

"This government is so preoccupied with its privatization and deregulation ideology that it has lost the ability to govern in a practical and responsible manner,” says Murray Dobbin, Chair of the local Council of Canadians chapter. "It’s privatizing health care on the backs of hospital workers, ruining one of the most efficient hydro companies in the world, and selling off BC Rail. This isn't a democratic government – it’s a liquidator of BC assets."

“Despite the lessons offered by the disastrous experiments with electricity restructuring and privatization in Alberta, Ontario, California and elsewhere, the Campbell Government is determined to head down a path that only leads to dramatically higher costs and environmental damage,” says John Young, Executive Director of BC Citizens for Public Power. “It’s time that this government listens to the vast majority of British Columbians from across the political spectrum who are solidly opposed to this misguided energy plan.”

“Health care services are in a state of crisis in BC,” says Terrie Hendrickson, Coordinator of the BC Health Coalition. "Emergency services have been cut. Seniors are being charged more for fewer long-term care beds, surgery waiting lists are growing and hospital waiting times are longer than ever. The public deserves some straight talk from the province on the real impacts of its cuts to health care, not more smoke and mirrors."

“While the cuts to public services have been particularly deep in BC, privatization and deregulation policies are affecting citizens across the country,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Our public services are a core Canadian value. Today, we’re letting Premier Campbell know that we will not sit back while they’re destroyed.”

The press conference will take place in the Port of Vancouver room, second floor of the Renaissance Hotel, 1133 West Hastings Street, Vancouver.

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