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Salvation Army
Big leap for Caring Place leaders
Despite their love of Maple Ridge, Kathie and Ed Chiu are willing to take on the biggest challenge of their careers.
Comments sought on Albion plan An exclusion application to pull out farmland from the flats might be drafted before the municipal election.
by Maria Rantanen
mrantanen@mrtimes.com
They came to Maple Ridge as a family of five, but when Kathie and Ed Chiu move to Ontario in a couple months time they will leave behind 13 family members. The Chius have been given “farewell orders” from the Salvation Army after serving in Maple Ridge for 17 years and overseeing the expansion of programs and services to the town’s down-andout population. The Chius will be moving to London, Ont. with their two youngest children, leaving behind their adult son, adult twin daughters, two sons-inlaw, and eight grandchildren. But they have been presented with what they describe as a huge challenge – overseeing the Centre of Hope in London, which includes in one agency almost the same number of major social agencies that exist in Maple Ridge. The Centre of Hope includes a 267-bed shelter, a medical detox centre with 18 beds, 100 transitional beds, a family health team with doctors and nurses, and a food bank. Kathie said she and Ed are “overwhelmed” by the task ahead. “We’re quite shocked the Army would entrust [such a] huge responsibility on us,” she said. Kathie said she and her family love Maple Ridge
Land commission
by Maria Rantanen
mrantanen@mrtimes.com
Maria Rantanen/TIMES
Caring Place leaders Ed and Kathie Chiu have been stationed in town since 1996, and are credited with creating Maple Ridge’s first homeless shelter. and when she and Ed retire, they plan to return. “I’m totally going to miss the community network,” Kathie said, adding that there is a willingness among the local social agencies to co-operate and not be territorial. Ed added there’s is a “mutual encouragement” among service providers that makes their work easier. But as ordained pastors of the Salvation Army, they have committed to go where they are asked to – with some negotiation, Kathie explained. “The Army has treated us very well,” Kathie said. “There’s no reason for us to say ‘you can’t move us’.” The Chius moved to the Lower Mainland in 1990 after being stationed in Saskatchewan for two years, and they have been stationed in Maple Ridge since 1996.
When they arrived, year-round shelter, a cold, the Salvation Army was wet weather shelter, and located on 119th Avenue 15 long-term beds. They by the Bingoplex. also serve up to 9,000 In 2000, Kathie and Ed meals per month and hold started noticing a sharp a monthly health clinic. increase in demand for Creating what is now their services – more known as the Caring Place homelessness, more marhas been a big accomplishginalized people, and a ment for this couple. crystal meth epidemic. But Kathie said the bigThere were couples livger accomplishment has ing in cars, people getting been seeing people who evicted, use their more services get “The Army has people livback on treated us very well. their feet. ing risky There’s no reason for lifestyles Over – they even recent us to say ‘you can’t found a years, move us’.” woman Kathie said Kathie Chiu living in a the Army boat with has realher two ized it has children after leaving an to offer more than “three abusive relationship. hots and a cot;” rather, The Caring Place opened they have to help people in its current buildmentally, physically, and ing at 222nd Street and spiritually. Lougheed Highway in Recently Kathie said April 2003. she was praying with The centre has a 25-bed two young women at the
Caring Place who were enmeshed in a life of drugs and prostitution, and she knew she was planting a seed in their lives that would help get them back on their feet. “What a greater privilege can there be than speaking words of life into their reality,” she said. Both Kathie and Ed are from Toronto, and the return allows them to be near Ed’s aging parents. Moving back east will also mean a cultural adjustment, Kathie said. On the West Coast, people work to live, while in the Torontoarea, people live to work. She said their family has adjusted to the more laid back lifestyle and wonders how people will react when she and Ed aren’t always in their Army uniforms – a cultural shift she hopes to lead out east.
Maple Ridge council is looking to meet with the Agricultural Land Commission to discuss the Albion Flats. Council is ready to send a draft Albion concept plan, and all background information, to the ALC with hopes of meeting within the next couple months and resolving the issue of the property in the Agricultural Land Reserve before a fall election. Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin said council wants to find out “what they like about [the plan], what they think might work and what won’t.” He hopes that during the meeting the land commission will give some direction to council so they know how to move forward. That way, if they do submit an exclusion application, it will be a “strong proposal.” “That face-to-face dialogue, that’s where you can get some meaningful discussion,” Daykin said. Depending on when the commission can meet, Maple Ridge council hopes to consider their comments sometime between July and September. If so, a public hearing will most likely be held in September with an exclusion application coming before council in early fall.
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