June 15, 2012

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FRENCH PARENTS SEEK IMMERSION

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GREENHOUSE GAS GOALS GOODBYE

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FRIDAY

JUNE 15 2012

CAP’S OPENS BIKE page MUSEUM FOR A DAY

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Bill Ranford’s work helping the L.A. Kings win the Cup is done - now it’s family time. See Page A3

www.newwestnewsleader.com

Police clarify EFry stats Grant Granger

newwestnewsleader.com

MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER

BC Health Minister Mike de Jong chats with the Belle Purri and Adrienne Bakker of the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation following an announcement Tuesday that the government is committing to redeveloping the hospital to add hundreds of new beds, expand the emergency department and create new surgical suites.

RCH expansion plan moves forward To cost ‘upwards of $750 million’ says health minister Grant Granger ggranger@newwestnewsleader.com

The province has committed to redeveloping Royal Columbian Hospital, but isn’t ready to put a dollar ¿gure on its pledge. Health Minister Mike de Jong told health care of¿cials and the media at the hospital Tuesday that his government was formally committed to the project which was presented to We make great wines, affordable

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the ministry conceptually by Fraser Health more than two years ago. “We’re talking about a new hospital that will contain hundreds of more beds, a state-of-the-art facility” that will accommodate new technologies, said de Jong. “When we say we are going to build a new hospital, we build it and we’re going to build this one.” The minister said the total cost is still unknown but “we’re talking about something that could reach something upwards of three quarters of a billion dollars.”

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“Royal Columbian will, I think, eclipse all of the [previous hospital capital projects] in terms of what it represents—a billion-dollar plus project,” he said in May 2011 in response to questions from New Westminster MLA Dawn Black about the delay in making a commitment. On Tuesday, de Jong was reluctant to elaborate on the price tag saying that will emerge when the business case is done, which is expected to be in October. A new RCH’s future operating costs will also have to be factored in because they will be

“dramatically higher” than the current ones. “We don’t know the ¿nal cost, that’s why we do the detailed business cases, and it’s why one is reluctant to say any ¿gure because reporters are going to raise what you said in the past,” said de Jong in an interview following the announcement. De Jong said it will take several years to complete the project. “A new Royal Columbian Hospital won’t emerge overnight.” Please see FOUNDATION, A3

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New Westminster police have clari¿ed a discrepancy in statistics concerning the number of times its of¿cers have been called to the Elizabeth Fry Society in Sapperton. A report prepared by the department for city council in May said in the previous ¿ve years there were 217 calls for service to the society’s facility at 402 East Columbia St. At about the same time, area resident Trina Graydon received a reply from the department in answer to her freedom of information (FOI) request for the same statistics. Although she also asked for the previous ¿ve years, the information she received had stats that went back to April 2005, and it said there were 616 calls. Police say the FOI reply contained both the Computer Aided Dispatch (COI) information and the Police Records Information Management Environment (PRIME) which meant there was “a duplicate set of ¿les that effectively doubled the numbers of calls for service,” said Sgt. Diana McDaniel. see ELIZABETH, A8


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