City of North Vancouver staff who offer up an organ for donation will be made whole by the municipality.
Council voted Monday on a motion from Coun. Tony Valente to join the Living Donor Circle of Excellence, meaning the city will provide wage support to employees while they recover after donating an organ.
There are close to 50,000 Canadians with kidney disease who rely in dialysis to survive, yet in 2023, there were only 511 transplants from living donors – the treatment that provides the greatest likelihood of recovery and quality of life for patients, Valente’s motion states.
“I just want to recognize what a big deal it is to be a living donor and I think it’s actually something that as a city, we can take this step now to become a leader among municipalities and possibly public sector organizations,” he said. “I think it’s helpful to our staff knowing that we, as an organization, stand by them when they make choices that benefit others.”
Before the vote, council heard pleas from those in the organ donation community to pass the motion.
Dr. John Gill, a kidney transplant surgeon at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, told council he considers organ donors to be “living heroes,” but he added many people cannot afford to go without wages during the four-week recovery period.
“These are people who literally give of themselves to save the lives of another. We believe that there could be many more living kidney donors, except there are significant financial disincentives to donation,” he said.
Megan Owen-Evans, president of Neptune Terminals and a board member for the Kidney Foundation of Canada, spoke from her own experience, having donated two thirds of her liver in 2022 and a kidney in 2013.
“To know that you’re supported in that way by your employer just makes a world of difference. You’re more likely to have a recipient in your organization, and by employers stepping up and doing this, you’re hopefully helping those people as well,” she said.
The vote to adopt the motion was unanimous.
Coun. Holly Back held back tears while reflecting on the selflessness of Owen-Evens and other donors.
“I think this is actually a small ask of the city,” she said. “I support this 100 per cent.”
Mayor Linda Buchanan, who worked as a nurse on the liver transplant ward at Vancouver General Hospital at an earlier stage of her career, agreed.
“I think if that makes a difference, even in just one person’s life, then from my perspective, it’s worth it,” she said.
