Home heating oil spills - protecting homeowners and our environment

Here is an excellent update on this issue from my colleague MLA Rob Fleming, 

June 30th, 2015

Earlier this year, my colleague Lana Popham (MLA Saanich South) and I organized a well-attended public forum on home heating oil spills. Recent media reports confirm that this is a huge problem for greater Victoria homeowners. In many cases, the risk is posed by the unknown presence of backyard underground home heating oil tanks that were improperly decommissioned.

Victoria still has a large number of homes heated by oil - natural gas service was only introduced to the island in 1992. The number of home heating oil leaks is likely increasing as the tanks (both buried and above-ground) age. 

Clean-up costs for homeowners can be massive, in several cases they have exceeded $100,000. I have constituents who suffered through exhausting and expensive legal proceedings for remediation and recovery of costs.

Are teeth part of the body?

Suzy B.

Dear Saanich South,

My community office is regularly contacted by people who have a serious medical issue requiring surgery but because of the part of the body in crisis -- the teeth -- there is no coverage under MSP. It doesn't make any sense because teeth are obviously part of the body. We do our best to help people in this situation but it is very challenging as the government is rarely prepared to help if it isn't an emergency.

Here is a case in point. A constituent of mine named Suzy B. is a 20 year old young woman who urgently needs extensive dental surgery. (Her teeth were compromised when she was four years old because of chemotherapy that she had for Lymphoblastic Leukemia. To complicate matters, the experience of the surgery was very traumatic for her as a little girl and this has created a lot of anxiety for Suzy when she goes to the dentist.)

The surgery will cost about sixteen thousand dollars. Suzy B is unable to afford this on her own. She has support from her family but the cost is too much for them to bear. They have tried everything they can to secure the funds without success.

I am working hard to find resources for her. My office has confirmed the facts with her dental office directly. If you are able to consider a donation you can visit her gofundme page. 

My constituency office has made a small contribution in order to help raise awareness of this issue. If you are aware of other people in a similar situation please contact me.

Warm regards, Lana