Our Mayor's view of long term care
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
On February 2 2026 ,CBC posted an article highlighting the Oceanside Caregivers Society's petition with 2260 signatures presented to Qualicum Beach council. One of our readers brought the article to my attention, asking me to republish it to share the information locally. The article includes a quote from the Mayor with respect to Qualicum Beach having sufficient long term care facilities. Wanting to confirm the quote, I reached out to the Mayor by email.
Dear Mayor,
The CBC article below was forwarded to me to publish in Qualicum Beach Insights.
Before I do, I want to give you the opportunity to confirm that this is indeed what you said with respect to Qualicum Beach having sufficient long term care. ( You can click the audio version to listen to the article.)
Secondly, I would like to ask you, how you reconcile this viewpoint with the towns strategy to cover the funds taken from our reserves, to fund the Eaglecrest Golf Course purchase? Did the town not just rezone a large portion of the now town owned lands in Eaglecrest specifically for a multi storey long term care facility?
This is the Mayors response,
During a zoom meeting on December 19, Seniors Advocate Mr. Levitt shared information with Director Sales and me that indicates that Qualicum Beach has roughly the number of long-term care beds that provincial benchmarks would suggest we should have for its own 65+ population.
However, those beds are also serving residents from the broader Oceanside area. This means that the Town is effectively supporting regional needs and “pulling more than its weight “.
Best regards,
Teunis Westbroek.
Unfortunately the Mayor did not respond to the second part of my question specifically why did the town just rezone a large parcel of the Eaglecrest land to accommodate long term care, if he truly believes we have sufficient facilities already.
I am asking myself, why would we not want more long term care facilities even if we are making them available to residents outside the town boundaries. Firstly these operations are not funded by town resources. They are either funded by the provincial government or by for profit entrepreneurs who put their own capital at risk. These facilities pay property taxes and hence contribute to the cost of running our town. They provide employment opportunities and attract workers to our community. From a provincial perspective it is clear that subsidizing beds (in these for profit care homes) is more efficient for the province than the province trying to build sufficient facilities themselves.
I invite readers to listen to the CBC article below themselves and come to their own conclusions. I have also provided links to previous articles written by us including "Shortfall to Crisis" which specifically looks at our unique demographics and the long waiting lists.
Marie Noel
February 18 2026
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You can email us at QualicumBeachInsights@gmail.com
