B.C.’s Health Minister says we didn’t need a pandemic to realize the importance of the work done by health care professionals in the province.

Adrian Dix says there are lessons to be learnt, noting that government has been working with employers and unions to ensure that healthcare workers are kept safe.

“I can’t imagine more important work in society. It’s something that we’ve worked on together for a long time, and we’re going to have to continue to do more work on to ensure that workers are safe, and that the quality of care is high,” he said on Saturday.

“And if anything we’ve learned from this pandemic it’s that we have to continue to do that work together in the coming days and weeks and months and years.”

There are 12 care homes in the Lower Mainland that have at least one confirmed case of COVID-19 so far. As well, at least 55 health care staff in care homes have tested positive for the virus.

Dix was asked if the province is committed to changing how labour is organized after the pandemic subsides.

“Lessons are going to be learned,” he said. “This is some of the work that we have been doing in the last number of years with employers and unions alike.”

“For example, the work we did to get rid of Bills 29 and 94 is part of that, but its work that we all have to do together to make sure that our workers are safe, that the work is not precarious and that it is valued as it should be in our society.”

Bill 29 aimed to make it cheaper for health employers and social service agencies to deliver services to the public, mainly by making it easier to contract out services to companies. Bill 94 meanwhile hoped to facilitate the development and implementation of public-private partnerships in the health sector.

In the meanwhile, to try and prevent the spread of COVID-19 between care homes, health care workers are only being allowed to work at one care home for the foreseeable future, an order put into place by Dr. Bonnie Henry.

“Part of the issues were subcontracting out and private contractors who had people working at multiple places,” she said. “We get rid of some of those issues that have been plaguing that sector.”