On this edition of One Foot Off Center the panel discusses the performance of the BC NDP party and the recent challenges with Interior Health, in particular, the closure of Kelowna General Hospital's pediatric department.

The CEO of Simply Benefits, Jeff Cox says he was not impressed by the premier's decision not to attend the recent premiers meeting with new Prime Minister Mark Carney.

"Every premier in Canada in a room with a new prime minister to talk about how we're going to move this country forward, and you didn't show up? It doesn't make sense. I don't get it.

"I just feel he's very disconnected to what's going on," says Cox.

Former Kelowna city manager Ron Mattiussi agreed with Cox.

"I think you got to be in the room. I think this is a pretty critical time. He wasn't there so they voted to have a pipeline through B.C. Call me crazy, but this is a pretty significant moment in our national history," says Mattiussi.

Lead pastor at Trinity Church, Scott Lanigan didn't like the move either.

"You have a seat at the table and you don't take it. To me it's obnoxious. Everybody knows it's the meeting after the meeting and you didn't show up," Lanigan says.

From there the group pivoted to talk about healthcare in the province and Mattiussi pointed out that politicians across the country have been well aware that people born between 1946 and 1964, boomers, the largest Canadian generation were going to be a challenge for the healthcare industry.

"It's also at a critical time, demographically, to try to deal with this problem. I mean, they knew in 1995 that this crunch was coming," Mattiussi says.

Regarding the recent challenges at KGH Cox says, "I just think you get to a stage where there has to be change."

Since the podcast was recorded Susan Brown the CEO of Interior Health has announced that she is stepping down.

Cox brought up the size of the geographical area covered by IH as a challenge for any administrator but also noted that in his opinion there are three administrators for every frontline worker.

"This is not frontline workers. We have three administrators to every one frontline worker," Cox says.

"Is it a function of the size of the organization that the left hand really doesn't know what the right hand is doing," Mattiussi says.

Maddison worries that the province is resting on its laurels, "we're beautiful, we have mountains... we're more expensive, and houses cost way more, and our food is more expensive.

"But we're starting to see that, that reverse migration, where people from Alberta, and Ontario especially, were coming here in droves, and now it just feels like the reverse is true, where people are like, 'I want to enjoy more of life, and I don't want to just work for my house.' I think house poor is a real thing," says Maddison.

Mattiussi expressed concerns that Kelowna in particular could become like Costa Rica, "rich people can always afford to live here."

But at the other end of the strata, says Mattiussi, what if there are only service provider jobs available in the Okanagan.

"I worry about that discrepancy," says Mattiussi.

One Foot Off Center is hosted by Rick Maddison and Jeff Cox, featuring Scott Lanigan, lead pastor of Trinity Church and Ron Mattiussi, former Kelowna city manager.

One Foot Off Center will be published monthly by Castanet, on YouTube and in an audio-only version on Spotify.