By James Peters

Potential retirement home sale raises questions

Nov 30, 2016 | 10:27 AM

KAMLOOPS — The Hospital Employees Union says the reported sale of Retirement Concepts to a massive Chinese insurance company raises a ton of questions.

Retirement Concepts owns two dozen seniors facilities in Canada, including Kamloops Seniors Village, where about 200 HEU members are employed.

The Globe and Mail reported this week the company will be taken over by Anbang in a deal worth more than $1 billion.

The deal is still subject to federal approval.

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HEU Secretary-Business Manager Jennifer Whiteside says the question of why a Chinese giant would want to own Retirement Concepts is a tough one to answer.

“What is their interest in providing health care services to seniors? What is it about this sector that appears to make it such a lucrative business investment, and is that what we want for the delivery of health care to seniors?” asked Whiteside.

Whiteside says it’s tough to imagine accountability and responsiveness would improve under offshore management.

“Retirement Concepts operates about 10 per cent of the private beds, the non-health authority-operated beds in the province. That is a very sizable piece of the health care system that will be owned by a Chinese insurance company.”

“We think it is very important that in the provision of that care we have the highest standards of accountability and transparency with respect to how those services are delivered. A business deal of this scale raises many questions about how accountability is going to be achieved.”