PRRD to request meeting with B.C. ministry about youth mental health, interprovincial barriers and more

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The regional district has made several requests for meetings with provincial ministers to discuss major concerns its residents are facing. 

On January 8th, the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) board of directors had a lengthy discussion about meetings the board had with various ministers during the 2025 Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) convention in September, and what their next steps would be.

The first meeting on the agenda was with Josie Osborne, B.C.’s minister of health.

While the directors discussed a variety of health-related concerns for the region last year, Dan Rose, the director of Electoral Area E, recommended a more streamlined approach of just two or three topics for discussion as well as a specific ask for the ministers in follow-up meetings. 

“[Don’t] go down there and bleat about the same things that everybody else in the province is unhappy about, [it] is not going to change anything.

“We can go down there and continue to say [the state of healthcare is] unacceptable, [but] is it going to change? They know it’s unacceptable… if they could change it tomorrow, they would,” Rose said. 

“I just think that more specific, more to the point. Don’t give them a big workload, they [have] got plenty to do here.”

Ultimately, the directors voted to request a meeting with the minister of health regarding:

• The Maskwa Medical Centre
• Child and youth addiction and mental health, and
• The interprovincial barriers between British Columbia and Alberta, and emergency room closures

Following the board’s vote, staff will reach out to the ministry to request and arrange the meeting.