Committees - Social Concerns

 

 

Representatives

 

 

For the 2011/12 year the social concerns committee’s objectives are :

1. To communicate with members re: ongoing and emerging issues

2. To keep our members current re: these issues

3. To provide information and relevancy re: these issues for members

For the 2011/12 year the social concerns committee’s priority is :

Seniors driving and transportation issues

 

 

From the Summary of Reports 2010

Committee members: Ron Awai, Patricia Clough, Diane Gorton, Reg Miller, June Striegler, Annette O’Connor, Cameron Cascon, Cliff Boldt, Chair

The major issue coming out of the Social Concerns committee was its recommendation of a Review Commission that would review the organization and governance structure and make recommendations to an AGM. This commission is now at work and will be present at Delegate’s Day and AGM in September 2010.

The HST has dominated much our minds since the fall of 2009. The committee asked the BCRTA to seek exemption from the provincial and federal governments on the Teacher Pension Plan management and administrative services from the HST. This has been brought forward to the TPP trustees.

The committee addressed a number of issue over the year: the Inflation adjustment account, college of teachers and criminal record checks, BCTF Task Force on Teachers on Call, support for pension reform, possible surveys of the membership, exemptions from the HST for seniors, contact of non-BCRTA members for help, ethical investment of pension funds, improvements to the benefits plans of the TPP

The committee contributed to the budget deficit discussion by proposing ways to cut committee costs and supporting the Finance committee recommendation for a fee increase in 2011-12.

Respectfully submitted,
Cliff Boldt, Chair

 

 

BC Motor Vehicles Assess Fitness to Drive

BC Motor Vehicles has a program to assess fitness to drive which has come the attention of the BCRTA Social Concerns Committee. The driver's licence of a member's spouse was taken away after being given a video game-like computer test run by a private company, DriveAble Inc. Letters to Motor Vehicles pointing out that the test result was obviously an error were ignored.

Social Concerns is investigating this issue but members should be aware of the risks to their driving privileges resulting from this program. Don't volunteer to go through this assessment.

A Vancouver senior is criticizing the B.C. government for taking away his driver's licence despite assessments by doctors who said he is fit to drive.

"Driving has been my bread and butter my whole life, that's how I made my living," Robert Dent, 74, told the CBC's Go Public. "I miss my job. I miss taking care of my family."

"If you are confused and or have dementia, of course you shouldn’t be driving,” said his wife, Joanne Ogilvie. “But in his case there is nothing wrong. There never was."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/07/bc-licenselost.html

The BCRTA Social Concern Committee is building a file on people who have bad experiences with the Fitness To Drive program (DriveABLE). We recommend that you write or email the decision makers on this file. Please copy Diane Gorton, Social Concerns BCRTA (email) webster@alphacubed.ca.

For more information, click here

 

 

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