| Dear Members,
Have you voted yet in the Pacific Blue Cross Board of Directors Election? Are you enrolled in Extended Health Benefits with Pacific Blue Cross?
Right now, members enrolled with Pacific Blue Cross (PBC) can vote to elect new directors to the PBC Board. As plan members, the health and well-being of you and your family are directly impacted by the decisions made by the PBC Board of Directors and how our benefits are administered.
But this election, there is even more at stake, and we need your help to protect your benefit plan and public healthcare by voting now.
Dr. Brian Day is running to be a director of the PBC Board. Dr. Day has a long and well-documented history of trying to dismantle public health care. He wants to be on the Board so he can promote his own American-style healthcare system and advance his privatization agenda – not because he has the best interests of PBC members at heart.
CUPE Local 1816, which represents the people who work at Pacific Blue Cross, has endorsed three candidates for the Board (scroll to the bottom of this email for their candidate profiles):
- Jaime Matten
- Dr. Patricia Gerber
- Dr. Chuanyi (Johnny) Nie
These candidates are also endorsed by CUPE BC and the BC Federation of Labour. These three candidates want PBC to remain a strong, not-for-profit health insurance provider. Electing them is the best way to keep Dr. Day from joining the Board and pursuing his agenda to privatize the public healthcare you rely on and protect the benefits we have fought for.
Voting only takes a couple of minutes and goes a long way to defend our benefits and public healthcare.
Here is what you need to know:
- Vote online by clicking here –> https://pbc.simplyvoting.com/
- To vote, you will need your Policy Number and ID Number, which you can find on your PBC ID card.
- If you have trouble voting, you can contact PBC for help during business hours at 604-419-2098
- You only have until Monday, June 17, at 4:30 pm to cast your vote.
Let’s make sure that PBC’s Board of Directors remains committed to prioritizing helping people over making profits.
Vote now for Jaime Matten, Patricia Gerber, and Chuanyi (Johnny) Nie to help us protect public healthcare and the benefits we’ve fought for.
In Solidarity,
Donald Grant
President
Jaime Matten
Jaime Matten’s entire career has focused on supporting progressive organizations in British Columbia, from small volunteer coalitions to complex labour federations. She is dedicated to strengthening the programs and services that make our province better. As the Executive Director for the BC Federation of Labour, she works with unions in every corner of the province and every sector of the economy to advance the rights of working people to fair wages, safer workplaces, good benefits, and economic security. She knows that workers around the province rely on extended health benefits from Pacific Blue Cross every day. Jaime wants to see the provision of critical services through a non-profit model continue to be PBC’s focus. She looks forward to being on a Board of Directors that continues to put people front and centre in their decision making.
Dr. Chuanyi (Johnny) Nie
Johnny Nie is an Emergency Physician at the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. His professional interests include resuscitation simulation, teaching, and quality improvement, and he has research background in immunology and virology. At Royal Inland Hospital he is a Clinical Instructor for the Department of Emergency Medicine at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. Johnny speaks Japanese, Mandarin, and English. Johnny has thorough knowledge of good governance and a deep passion for making a healthier community through access to a broad array of health services. Working in the emergency room at one of the busiest hospitals in the province, he regularly sees the impact that good extended health benefits can have on the health and well-being of everybody. Johnny will strengthen Pacific Blue Cross to ensure that all members can continue to benefit from its services for many years to come.
Dr. Patricia Gerber
Dr. Gerber is currently the Director of Degree Programs for Pharmacists at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, where she co-led the design, development, and implementation of three key programs that have significantly impacted the pharmacy profession: the entry-to-practice Doctor of Pharmacy degree program that launched in 2015 and the Flexible PharmD degree program which launched in 2018. Most recently, she led the design and development of the Graduate Diploma in Pharmacy Leadership program that launched in 2024, the first of such programs in Canada. Dr. Gerber has published in several clinical and academic journals, has been an invited speaker in national and international conferences, and continues to serve in several national and international scholarly roles. Her excellence in teaching has seen her nominated for the Pharmacy Teacher of the Year Award every year between 2020 and 2023. She has been a member of the Pacific Blue Cross Board of Directors since 2019. She is committed to ensuring that Pacific Blue Cross continues to be a source of reliable, high quality benefits supporting workers and residents in British Columbia. |