Frankly Speaking

Global News image The tent city on 135A Street in Whalley has been dispersed, as modular housing units have been set up to accommodate people who had been living there. Another step in the plan is to create more supportive housing units across the City of Surrey. The meteoric rise and fall of a proposal for 60 units of supportive housing in downtown Cloverdale is an instructive lesson on how elections play a huge role in influencing decisions. However, the most important lesson for residents might be this – pay close attention to development plans, both by the private sector and government agencies, in this case BC Housing. The movement to place one of several planned Surrey supportive housing sites in Cloverdale was proceeding mostly behind closed doors until BC Housing announced Sept. 4 that the proposal would move forward to public consultation. The proposed site was just off the main street, and would have utilized several city-owned properties. It is very close to...

Fraser Health Authority is closing 80 hospital beds. In a health region whose population is growing faster than any other in the province, where waits at emergency rooms are by far the longest, and waits for surgery are often longer than in any other region, this makes absolutely no sense. FHA says it wants to move some care into the community, either at community care facilities or at home. More than 400 residential beds are being opened in the Fraser Valley, with 75 of those at Elim Village in Fleetwood and 92 at Evergreen Campus in White Rock. It also plans to open 10 new hospice beds. The fact that many more community care beds, hospice beds and facilities are opening is good news. People are living longer, and many have advanced care needs. They need regular care, and clearly an acute care hospital isn’t the best place to provide that type of service. However, simultaneously cutting hospital beds makes no sense at all. Most hospitals in the FHA, particularly in fast-g...

Changes to the ambulance service, announced on Feb. 5 by the B.C. Emergency Health Services, should prove beneficial to residents in Surrey and Delta. A total of eight new ambulances are being added, and 34 paramedics are being hired. Three of the eight new ambulances will be based in Surrey, and none of them will be based in Vancouver. The city of Vancouver, with its high concentration of health institutions, has long been well-served by the ambulance service. The BCEHS has recognized that it is the fast-growing regions around the city that need help the most. Thus Langley and Abbotsford will also get two new ambulances each, while the North Shore will get the eighth one. Meanwhile, in the Tri-City area, new paramedics will be hired. This is a significant recognition that, in fast-growing areas (mostly within Fraser Health Authority), thee level of service provided isn’t up to the highest standards. BCEHS is targeting that in 75 per cent of calls for service, an ambulance w...

The sense of community in large cities like Surrey and Vancouver is sometimes difficult to fathom. While it exists in many ways, in organizations and neighbourhoods, a city-wide sense of community is usually absent. Certainly in Surrey, it’s been a long time since the vast majority of residents have been deeply committed or moved by any single event. In White Rock, it still exists. The strong sense of community is one reason there has been a lot of attention paid to the takeover of the White Rock water utility by the city (for a yet-undisclosed figure) and more recent plans to add chloramine to the water supply. That has prompted a furious reaction that landed at city hall. City council passed a motion unanimously to halt chloramination, but to some degree it will be out of their hands. Dr. Michelle Murti, medical health officer at Fraser Health Authority, said that total coliform counts over the summer indicated “we have a problem with the distribution system,” requiring secondar...