The Mayor of Sooke hopes to make the need for a small hospital or health-care facility an election issue. Maja Tait notes Sooke is the only major community in the Greater Victoria area without a health care centre.
Tait, who heads the Sooke Region Primary Health Care Services Working Group, says the community has been looking at getting a health facility since 2005 , and has grown significantly since then.
The mayor says there's no question a health care facility is overdue - but the barriere is the Province:
" The provincial response continually is that due to our proximity to Langford or to Victoria General that the status quo will prevail. Well when we're servicing Sooke, areas of East Sooke, and unicporporated areas out to Port Renfrew, that's an unacceptable answer for me."
Tait says such a facility is needed to serve Sooke and surrounding towns, as well as the growing adventure tourism industry and much more.