NO REPLY: Merritt mayor gets no answer from Ottawa as ER closures pile up amid wildfires

PENTICTON — Mayor Mike Goetz has received no substantive reply from federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel after writing her last week to request Ottawa intervene in Interior Health’s chronic emergency-room closures..Goetz told the Western Standard in an interview Tuesday that he went over the province after four years of contacting successive health ministers, Interior Health executives, the premier and local MLAs produced only generic assurances.“I approached every single person I could, and nothing to me felt like it was getting done,” he said. “So I figured, well, maybe I should go to the next level and see if the next level can help the provincial government out with some ideas.”The Nicola Valley Hospital ER has already closed 10 times in 2026. Goetz said the shutdowns create a cascading problem that hits seniors, first responders and taxpayers hardest..When the ER goes down, Merritt’s three ambulances quickly become a “taxi service” ferrying patients to Kamloops or Kelowna. Within one to two hours, no paramedics remain in town. The fire department then absorbs medical calls.Goetz described one case in which a man collapsed near the closed hospital. Crews made him comfortable, then waited for an ambulance from Princeton — an hour away — before another hour-plus trip to Kamloops.“If you have a stroke, they talk about the golden hour,” he said. “If your first hour is laying on the ground waiting for an ambulance to show up, it’s not very effective.”The problem is not unique to Merritt. Goetz listed repeated closures in 100 Mile House, Lillooet, Williams Lake, New Denver and Nakusp. Lillooet Mayor Laurie Hopfl has led a group of rural mayors that met then-health minister Josie Osborne for two hours at last year’s UBCM convention. They hope to meet new Health Minister Ravi Kahlon at this September’s convention..Goetz chose to write Ottawa on his own. Some mayors, he said, view a direct appeal as confrontational.He has already sent the province two invoices for downloaded costs. The first, covering 19 closure days plus 497 fire-department medical responses, totalled $103,831.87. A second bill for 15 later closures came to roughly $28,500. A third is coming for this year’s 10 shutdowns.The city is not primarily seeking a cash cheque. Merritt pays the Thompson Regional Hospital District about $721,000 a year for 365-day coverage. Goetz wants a credit for days already paid for but not delivered.He handed the invoices to Osborne again at a recent meeting and asked for a yes or no. He has heard nothing.A provincial announcement earlier this year that hundreds of American health-care workers had been recruited produced no visible improvement in the Interior, he added..Goetz is “hopeful” Kahlon, a former housing minister, will bring a change. He is less optimistic about a quick federal reply. Michel’s office is busy, he noted, and The Globe and Mail has also asked whether she will respond.He wrote Ottawa in part because the federal minister may know of a staffing or hiring model that worked in another province.The idea of requesting Canadian Forces medical support has been discussed internally, Goetz said, especially with hundreds of firefighters now based in Merritt. Several have been working while the ER was closed on weekends. Any injury would mean a long transfer to Kamloops or Kelowna.If Ottawa declines to act, he said his next step is simply to keep the issue public. His larger fear is that repeated closures will be accepted as the new normal until rural hospitals are quietly shuttered and patients are told to drive to a regional centre.Winter travel over the Coquihalla or through the Fraser Canyon in a snowstorm would make that even more dangerous.Goetz confirmed he will seek re-election in October. No challengers have announced.

NO REPLY: Merritt mayor gets no answer from Ottawa as ER closures pile up amid wildfires

Related Stories

Calgary trucker fined more than $1,400 after speeding through BC construction zone; semi deemed unsafe

Merritt mayor calls on Ottawa to intervene in recurring ER closures amid wildfires

‘ENOUGH is ENOUGH’: Vancouver mayor pleads for Eby's help as downtown chaos and street disorder intensifies

Who is Mike Bernier, the new leader of CentreBC?