The Cloverdale
Your Weekly Clover Valley Newspaper March 8, 2012 Y www.CloverdaleReporter.com Y 604-575-2405
Gotta know when to hold ’em
Fraser Downs bets on success: new poker room now open
By Jennifer Lang some personnel have come from as It’s been three years in the making, far away as Great Canadian Gaming and last Friday morning Fraser Downs Corporation’s other casinos back east, opened its new poker room, an im- Stratton said. Last Thursday morning, about twoportant asset for the ‘baby sister’ of the dozen dealers were learning the ropes Great Canadian casino chain. The licensed, 12-table facility – which on the room’s Bravo waiting system by Genesis Gaming, which is the first of its features food and beverage kind in B.C. options, plus a full service The grand opening was bar – will be open 24 hours the culmination of three a day. “Poker is a popular years’ effort to transform Fraser Downs is planning daily poker tourna- game ... it’s become the former gaming floor at Fraser Downs into a poker ments and live cash games, a sport.” room, an expansion that Ken Stratton, general required regulatory apmanager of Fraser Downs - Sonja Mandic proval from B.C. Lottery Racetrack and Casino, Corp. said during a tour of the “Everyone’s pretty exnew room the day before cited,” said Sonja Mandic, its March 2 grand opening. “We’re hoping there will be a game manager of media and responsible going 24 hours a day, seven days a gambling for Great Canadian. “Poker is a popular game out there. week,” he said. It’s on TV – it’s become a sport. People There’s even a separate entrance, so patrons will be able to come and go want to try it. It’s definitely a big component of the casino business.” when the rest of the casino is closed. Fraser Downs now joins other casiSeventy new employees have been hired to work the room as dealers and nos in the Lower Mainland and nearby supervisors. Many are new faces, but See POKER / Page 5
EVAN SEAL/THE LEADER
Poker dealer Anna Korolczuk deals out cards for Fraser Downs Casino general manager Ken Stratton (left) and poker room manager Matt Parker during an event to promote the official opening of the Fraser Downs Poker Room last week. The dedicated poker room officially opened March 2.
Healthy food too costly for the poor: report
By Jeff Nagel A family on welfare would have to spend as much as 47 per cent of their household income to put healthy food on the table, according to a new report on the cost of nutritious food. The B.C. chapter of the Dieticians of Canada pegs the cost of providing a family of four with a nationally defined basket of nutritious food – basic staples and produce but no prepackaged meals – at an average of $868 per month in B.C. That monthly cost rises to $944 in the Vancouver Coastal health region, while it’s slightly lower at $851 in the Fraser Health region, according to the report Cost of Eating in British Columbia 2011. It would eat up 15 per cent of the $67,200 median income for a typical B.C. family of
CLOVERDALE REPORTER PHOTO
Eating healthy foods can cost too much for some.
four and a much higher proportion for those in or near poverty. Single people on income assistance and even a family of four on a lower earned in-
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come would pay at least a third of their income, the report found. That doesn’t leave enough to pay the typical cost of housing, it found, estimating many welfare families would face a $100 to $300 gap each month if they tried to buy what’s nutritious. “People end up using food banks and a lot of free food services,” said Kristen Yarker, executive director of the B.C. dieticians group. “They end up spending a lot of their time accessing those and lining up, which isn’t a great solution.” Others go without, she said, or opt for cheaper, less healthy food options. The report found the nutritious food basket price hasn’t changed since 2009, but is up nearly 40 per cent since 2001, when it stood at $626.
Meanwhile, Yarker noted, housing, gasoline, utilities and other competing costs have steadily climbed, leaving less in household budgets to devote to good food. “The problem is getting worse,” she said. “Income assistance and disability assistance rates have not kept up.” Poor nutrition can spell trouble for children in school, harm pregnancies for expectant mothers and hurt productivity of adult workers. Over the long term, the report said, poor food increases rates of diabetes and heart disease, ultimately shortening lives and costing the health care system more money. Dieticians, nutritionists and volunteers surveyed prices in grocery stores across B.C. See FOOD / Page 5
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