Vancouver Island 4-wheel-drive owners step up to get Island Health staff to work
After a heavy dump of snow left treacherous road conditions up and down Vancouver Island, owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles answered the call to get essential health-care workers to work Thursday.
More than 100 volunteer drivers from the Vancouver Island Toyota 4X4 club have been ferrying staff to facilities on Vancouver Island for more than a week. On Thursday, the club provided rides to more than 50 health-care workers in Greater Victoria before 7 a.m.
“We’re doing this because we know it’s super important for health-care workers to get to work,” said club member Veronique Moquin. “This morning, I gave a ride to someone who said she was going to be the only one in her department today at the hospital and I was really happy to be the one to give her a ride.”
Moquin says the club for four-wheel-drive enthusiasts has more than 5,000 members on Vancouver Island. She says in the two years she has been a member of the club, it has been the first group to come to the aid of people who need of help getting around during extreme weather events.
“The second people started to feel unsafe on the road, even if its just black-ice, we are ready to go,” said Moquin. “It gives us a chance to help them get to work and save other people at the hospital.”
The Victoria Harbour Cats baseball club is among those bringing essential staff to their jobs in Greater Victoria. Harbour Cats managing partner Jim Swanson says he has given more than 35 rides in the club’s four-wheel-drive Hummer since the first flakes of snow fell on Boxing Day.
“We’ve helped people get to their jobs and helping health-care workers has been a really important part,” said Swanson. “I think it is something we need to do within our communities and when you have the ability to help people, you should do that.”
Swanson says piloting the massive vehicle through the snowy, slippery streets and highways of Greater Victoria so health-care workers can arrive at work safely gives him confidence the people who are in a health-care facility will receive the care they need.
“There have been a couple of situations where people provide specialized care for residents of a home,” said Swanson. “To know that care is being provided, it warms my heart.”
For healthcare workers on the Island needing a ride to work, The Vancouver Island Toyota 4X4 club can be contacted at the club’s Facebook page.
Swanson says he can be contacted for a ride on the baseball club’s Twitter account.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.