Dix and Eby 'need to be accountable' for COVID-19 vaccine mandate amid staff shortages: MP

Dan Albas has said Adrian Dix and David Eby “need to be accountable” for their decision to maintain a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the BC health system.

The Conservative MP’s riding, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, includes Merritt, one of several communities in the Interior to suffer from temporary hospital closures in recent months.

Health officials have blamed the closures on staff shortages, prompting some, including the opposition BC United party, to call on the health minister and Premier Eby to reinstate the thousands of workers that were fired for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

BC is the only jurisdiction in Canada to maintain a ban on health workers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The provincial government has repeatedly stated that it will not drop the mandate, that it has had no effect on staff levels and that it protects vulnerable people.

Albas, speaking in an interview with NowMedia video host Jim Csek, said he does not agree with the BC NDP.

BC is an “outlier,” he explained, pointing to Ontario and Quebec as provinces that “put their ideology aside” and decided “it’s better to have more nurses who can help alleviate our health care challenges.”

“They [Ontario and Quebec] said there is more risk in maintaining these divisive mandates because these longer wait times are actually hurting patients,” he said.

He added: “We've already called for [BC] to hire them back. That is a decision that Minister Dix and the premier need to be accountable for, to those communities. For example, Merritt is a community that is very hard-hit by this and is in my riding.”

The MP said the federal government can use its “soapbox” to call for the provincial government to hire back the fired workers.

“You can't have it where these smaller communities – if someone cuts their arm logging, how are they… heck, they're supposed to get to Kamloops in time to save an arm,” he said.

The federal government should also push for interprovincial standards in health so workers can freely move around the country, Albas said.

“If you're in Ontario, and you try to come through to BC, suddenly you couldn't work in BC because of this mandate,” he said. “And so that doesn't make any sense. So they could be perfectly certified, everything could be checked off, but because they didn't meet the NDP's ideological test, we are now putting policies in front of people.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Albas discussed his “summer listening tour” (Parliament is now recess), the Toronto-St. Paul’s by-election, affordability, inflation, the Canadian military and the problems associated with Bill C-18.

He also said he thinks the names of all the MPs accused of “witting” and “semi-witting” relationships with foreign agents should be revealed.

The scandal has cast “a shadow over all Parliamentarians,” he said, insisting that it is “important” that the “allegations are made public.”

He added: “This is as serious as it gets.”