PRRD pushes for updates from Northern Health

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) has voted to continue advocating for accountability from Northern Health from Peace region residents. 

During the January 9th Regional Board meeting in Dawson Creek, the directors discussed ongoing closures of Northern Health-operated medical facilities in the region, and requests for increased communication from the health authority to ensure resident safety. 

Since a decision made at the July 18th, 2024, board meeting, the PRRD has been sending weekly letters to then Provincial Premier David Eby, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and the MLAs of North and South Peace requesting that Northern Health advertise service interruptions without Ministry interference in the Peace region. 

Staff confirmed two responses had been received, one in October and one in November. The response in October was one acknowledging the letter, and stating that no responses would be available from the Health Minister’s office due to the provincial general election. 

The topic returned to the board during the first meeting of 2025, to see if the directors wanted to continue sending the letters to the Premier, the new Minister of Health, and the new MLAs. 

Director Darryl Krakowka of Tumbler Ridge expressed a desire to continue the letters, as he believes that part of Northern Health’s increased social media posting regarding closures is due to the consistent letters. 

“I worry about the residents of the Peace Region. When you show up at a hospital and all of a sudden it’s on diversion, and it’s because there’s a letter on the front door, you may not have come in from that side of town, and you [would] have went the other way,” Krakowka said. 

“We [as Directors] may be getting the update as mayors, chairs, directors, regional districts, but it’s the residents we’re here to support that aren’t getting the advertisement until they show up to emergency.”

Director Bradley Sperling of Area C expressed that the first his residents hear of closures is if they are posted online. Sperling went on to recommend that the PRRD instead send letters to the Minister of Health asking if interference is going to continue with allowing health authorities across the province to give notice to communities of closures. 

“It’s great that Fort St. John gets [prior notice]; what about the rest of us?” Sperling said. 

Director Danielle Veach of Pouce Coupe recommended that the contents of the letter be changed, to avoid them being discarded before they are read

“Let’s keep the questions and the concerns and the comments coming, but keep sending those letters. This is not just one issue; this is not just one thing that’s creating these diversions, or the issues within Northern Health,” Veach said. 

Veach also brought up the strategic plan Northern Health had presented to the PRRD board in June 2024.

“Let’s start asking deeper questions around the strategies that they’ve already presented to us, because that’s really what the question is,” Veach explained. 

“This is not just a Northern Health problem. It is for us, but it’s a provincial problem. This is not just being fixed by Northern Health.” 

Following the discussion, the directors voted to stop sending the weekly letters. The board then voted to invite Northern Health CEO Ciro Panessa before the board for an update on the progress the health authority has made with their previously outlined strategic plan.