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Lend Me a Tenor onstage WEDNESDAY JUNE 3, 2015
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
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THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND SEE PAGE 13
N E W S P A P E R
City cop praises RCH plan
Turning up the heat in coal fight
New mental health facility part of hospital redevelopment plan By Cayley Dobie
By Theresa McManus
cdobie@newwestrecord.ca
tmcmanus@newwestrecord.ca
The New Westminster Police Department’s lone mental health officer hopes the redevelopment of Royal Columbian Hospital will reduce the need for police intervention in many situations. “I’m hoping this will have a ripple effect,” Const. Arthur Wlodyka told the Record. “If people can get better treatment while they’re in hospital, then hopefully when they come out, they’re better to readjust to the community, which then in turn causes less crisis and then less need for police resources. Everybody wins with improvements like these.” Wlodyka couldn’t be I’m hoping happier about this will have a last week’s anripple effect. nouncement of a new 75-bed mental health and substance use facility, part of the first phase of Royal Columbian Hospital’s redevelopment. In May, he had already taken on about 120 files referred by other police officers in the department, and this only accounts for the files referred directly to Wlodyka.The department is still working on creating a system to track all mental health files, including those that don’t get referred. It’s been two years sinceWlodyka became the department’s first-ever mental health officer, an initiative he spearheaded. One of the main reasons the position was created was to help reduce the amount of time police officers spent waiting with mental health patients at Royal Columbian Hospital. While Wlodyka is still unsure whether the new facility will help with this continued problem, he is optimistic it will have a positive impact on the never-ending cycle some
Environmentalists are sounding alarms about the health, climate and economic hazards of a proposed coal port on the Fraser River. On Saturday, volunteers with the Dogwood Initiative visited New Westminster and posted mock warning posters about the risks of Fraser Surrey Docks’ coal transfer facility. In addition to concerns about the new proposal that would allow coal to be loaded from trains onto ocean-going ships at the Surrey site, the group is concerned about the “flawed” public process. Fraser Surrey Docks has contacted Port Metro Vancouver about changing the direct transfer coal facility project permit that was approved last August.The amendment would allow Fraser Surrey Docks to load coal directly from the facility onto oceangoing vessels, rather than onto barges that would transport the U.S. coal to Texada Island before it’s shipped to Asia. Fraser Surrey Docks says the proposed amendment would have no impact on the volume of coal (four million metric tonnes per year) permitted to be shipped through the Surrey site annually. Because the coal could be loaded directly onto oceangoing vessels, the company says the proposal would eliminate or reduce the number of barges required at Fraser Surrey Docks. New Westminster city council recently approved a motion to continue to oppose the Fraser Surrey Docks coal export facility and to voice concerns about the lack of public health
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FACING THE FUTURE Fraser Mackay, patient care coordinator for psychiatry at Royal Columbian Hospital, and Const. Arthur Wlodyka, mental health officer for New Westminster police, outside the aging Sherbrooke Centre at Royal Columbian. The province just announced a new 75-bed mental health and substance abuse facility as part of the redevelopment of the hospital. PHOTO CORNELIA NAYLOR
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