Dear Editor:
Last week I rode my bike to McGill library in North Burnaby and met a group of neighbours who want to recall our MLA, Richard T. Lee. I was already curious about the campaign, but that evening it hit home on a personal level.
The reason was a message I received on my cellphone from my uncle. My great-aunt had collapsed in her home and been rushed to Burnaby Hospital. Like most families in the area, it's our go-to ER. The staff are dedicated and professional. They stitched me up when I had a bad pocket knife accident as a kid, and they replaced my grandmother's hip in October 2012. (We're still grateful to Dr. Tim Kostamo for the great job he did.) But the hospital is struggling.
In the lead-up to the last election, Richard Lee realized that promising funding for Burnaby Hospital would be a sure vote-winner. He made a big show of his concern, announcing the short-lived "Burnaby Hospital Community Consultation Committee."
Turns out the group was a propaganda stunt, created by Brian Bonney and Mark Robertson - the same B.C. Liberal party operatives now facing charges over their role in the "quick wins" scandal.
My aunt is doing better now, and my grandmother has recovered fully from her broken hip. But two years after Lee won re-election, Burnaby Hospital still has the longest wait-lists in the Lower Mainland. Outbreaks of drug-resistant C. difficile are a constant worry, and Burnaby surgeons perform as many procedures as Surrey Memorial, with half the funding. As Richard Lee told The Vancouver Sun last month, "you can't solve everything."
Well, we can solve our problem of poor democratic representation in Burnaby North. British Columbia's recall legislation allows citizens to fire their MLA and trigger a byelection, with the support of 40 per cent of voters in the riding. In Lee's case that would amount to 16,491 signatures.
For me it comes down to the representation we expect for the taxes we pay. My family has lived here since the early 1960s. Lee has been the voice of Burnaby North in the legislature since 2001. He receives a publicly paid salary of $117,000 and qualified for his gold-plated MLA pension eight years ago. What has he done to earn it?
Pressed for a list of accomplishments by a National Post columnist, Mr. Lee replied "there are too many to mention." In other words, "none I can think of." Ask shoppers in the Heights or commuters getting off the train at Brentwood, and you discover a depressing fact: after 14 years, half the people in Burnaby North have never heard of him.
It's time for Richard Lee to step up - or step down.
Kai Nagata, Burnaby
