Letters to the Sun: Perfusionists are vital to transplant operations

Re: B.C. man’s lung transplant cancelled last-minute due to specialist shortage at VGH

It was incredibly sad to read about Don Chamberlain’s double lung transplant having to be cancelled because there wasn’t a perfusionist available to attend the surgery. Donor organs for transplants are hard to come as it is but for this to happen because staff was available is unforgivable. I wonder if VGH could have borrowed a perfusionist from Royal Columbian Hospital or St. Paul’s? Maybe they weren’t available either.

The province has to start paying perfusionists a lot more money to entice them to stay in that profession and not have the stress that comes with not having enough of them. If they don’t, then in the future there may be more cancelled transplant surgeries.

If anybody watched the Knowledge Networks’s recent series on transplants then you will know how vital perfusionists are to the transplant team.

I wish Mr. Chamberlain the best and hope he gets his transplant soon.

Anne Clayton, Coquitlam

Re: Canada needs to protect supply management and regain more control of our food supply

I was puzzled by the assertion that supply management achieves food security at “no cost to the taxpayer.” Who, exactly, does the author think are all the people are who are paying inflated prices for groceries? I can assure him that I am both a taxpayer and a purchaser of extremely expensive foodstuffs.

The direct subsidies he complains about are at least both transparent and progressive.

If subsidies are needed at all; I suspect that, like New Zealand, if you can’t farm without subsidies in Canada, you can’t do it anywhere.

If it’s food security we’re worried about, then genuine food security comes from diversity of supply. If Canada has a bad year it is unlikely that New Zealand, Australia, the EU, or elsewhere will also have one. Putting all our eggs in a Canadian basket seems unwise, unless demand management is not actually about security of supply.

James Norman, North Vancouver

Columnist Douglas Todd draws attention to the huge property tax breaks that have been given to a number of development companies by having their vacant properties reclassified as dog parks and community gardens that resulted in substantial property tax savings.

In contrast, B.C. allows homeowners, especially seniors, to defer property taxes as a lien on the future sale of their property if they are in a cash flow squeeze. Why aren’t the property tycoons under the same obligation to have deferred taxes repaid from the profit from the future redevelopment?