It’s one business that’s not going to get the welcome mat in Burnaby, at least not by local politicians.
Earlier this month, the province’s health minister Terry Lake said he would consider a pay-for-plasma clinic to operate in B.C.
On Monday, several councillors offered their opposition to the idea, and any plan for a clinic to set up shop in the municipality.
Coun. Nick Volkow said he would like to see the city come up with a bylaw or zoning that would ban them from the city.
He suggested allowing people to get paid for donating blood would be a slippery slope and could lead to organ donation for money, as an example.
“I equate them to all kinds of other businesses I’d rather not see in our city, like payday loan companies, massage parlours and all that kind of thing,” he told the NOW. “It just doesn’t ring right with me.”
Coun. Paul McDonell noted the tainted blood scandal from years ago and argued people donating for money may not be truthful about the conditions they have.
“If they need the money they’ll do it,” he said.
But ultimately, there may be little the city can do to stop a clinic from opening in Burnaby.
Mayor Derek Corrigan was quick to remind council the city can’t prohibit a legal industry.
Instead, he said there’s ample room for citizens for to discuss whether they agree with the idea or not.
While Corrigan said the system is under greater pressure, he encouraged people to go out and donate blood.
“Anybody who is young and not donating blood, they are not doing everything they can to be a good citizen,” he said, adding he was proud to be a blood donor when he was younger.
In an op-ed, Lake said British Columbia already gets about 80 per cent of its supply from the United States, where donors are paid for blood products.
“In fact, the majority of the world’s supply of plasma product comes from paid donors,” the op-ed reads. “Without this system, there would be severe shortages of products for patients who need them.”
Canadian Plasma Resources recently opened a facility in Saskatoon and is considering expanding out West.
But NDP health critic Judy Darcy is calling it a “bad idea,” arguing it goes against the Krever Inquiry, which examined the tainted blood scandal of the 1980s.
