My favourite time of the year

Friends, November is one of my favourite months of the year. Don’t get me wrong… I’m not fond of the days getting shorter as temperatures drop lower. But November is when we hold our annual Labour Relations Conferences, and Annual General Membership Meetings are well underway. It’s our chance to come together, even if it must still be online or with social distancing. Members from across the province gather for two days and learn to find their voices. We talk about everything that is going on and how we can best communicate with members. And let’s face it… it has been an incredibly difficult 20 months. We are not where we should be by now. 

Knowing so many of you are eager to learn more about helping and engaging each other is incredible to see. Hearing all the discussions about what can be done to keep us moving forward together is inspirational. It’s not the praise that brought any of us into these professions. We chose these jobs because we genuinely want to help. Every time I speak with one of you, it becomes abundantly clear that you want the best outcomes for the people that you are in contact with every day. But when you are constantly working short, when there are endless asks for you to pick up overtime or to work just a little bit longer – often for free – these “favours” become the norm. And you become just a little more exhausted and a little more resentful when you head off to your shift. 

That’s why we’re asking for more resources to be allocated to public health care. Because when they say we need to do more with even less, the implication is that we’re just not working hard enough. And I know – and you know – that just isn’t true. We’re all going flat out. But we need some help. I worry that this UCP government is looking at balance sheets, not talking to patients who have been told that once again their important surgery is being cancelled because all the beds are filled with COVID patients. I worry that by underfunding the public system they will be able to make a case for a parallel private system that we know is both more expensive and restricts access for vulnerable people who need care. 

I hope all of you will take advantage of the opportunity to engage with your fellow professionals when your Local Unit holds its annual meeting. I hope you all get to one day be part of a Labour Relations Conference or annual Convention. And here’s the crash course… engage with each other, talk to each other, check in on each other… look out for each other. You will be the difference in protecting our member’s lives and livelihoods. You will be the difference in caring for your patients. You will be the difference – just like you are every day. 

In Solidarity, 

Mike