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Red flags in review of Fraser Health By Jeff Nagel BLACK PRESS
The use of emergency departments at Fraser Health hospitals has been growing more than three times faster than the region’s population. That’s one of the findings contained in the results of the provincially ordered review released Wednesday. ER use has run at 6.4%, compared to Fraser’s population growth of 1.7%, the review found, mainly due to frequent users who tend to be older, poor and lacking regular care. M o s t p at i e n t s at Abbotsford, Burnaby, Royal Columbian and Surrey Memorial hospitals could get their care through community clinics or family doctors, it suggests. The region’s acute care hospitalization rate has been highest of all B.C. health regions since 2008.
A review of Fraser Health will result in a push for more patients to use community clinics and family doctors rather than going to a hospital emergency room.
SD43 laments cost pressures in letter By Diane Strandberg THE TRI-CITY NEWS
The Tri-Cities’ board of education is giving Education Minister Peter Fassbender some food for thought as he works his way through the public school teachers’ dispute. As a summer calm descends on the oncefeverish negotiations between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the government’s bargaining arm, the BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA), a feisty letter laying out School District 43’s funding concerns has been sent out to the minster and a who’s who of government and education officials, including local politicians and MLAs. “The public needs to know,” said Coquitlam Trustee Brian Robinson. see $16.3M IN COST PRESSURES, page A4
BLACK PRESS FILE PHOTO
see 57% GOES, page A9
Boom! goes building Record pace for construction in Coquitlam, PoCo By Gary McKenna THE TRI-CITY NEWS
The building boom in the Tri-Cities does not appear to be showing any signs of slowing down, according to the latest numbers from BC Stats. Coquitlam is on pace to break 2013’s record $482 million in total value of building permits filed with the municipality and so far is
up 47.1% from the same period last year. Most of the increase is coming in residential development, which has seen a 45.5% increase over 2013’s numbers. Much of the development is being spurred by the construction of the Evergreen Line, according to Jim McIntyre, the city’s general manager of planning and development. “We are moving at a record-breaking pace,” he said. “Obviously, the Evergreen Line is stimulating a lot of that.” McIntyre cautioned
IN QUOTES
“We are moving at a record-breaking pace. Obviously, the Evergreen Line is stimulating a lot of that.” Jim McIntyre, Coquitlam planning GM that some of the numbers can be skewed by one or two massive projects, pointing to the condo developments in Burquitlam as a major driver of 2014’s early increase in building permit applications. But there is little doubt that planning staff have
been busy, with townhouse and single-family projects on Burke Mountain plus highrise condo towers in Town Centre, he added. B C S t at s f i gu r e s shows the total value of building permits filed with the city has been steadily increasing
since the 2008 economic downturn, rising from $199 million in 2009 to last year’s $482 million record. But while residential numbers in Coquitlam are booming, McIntyre said industrial and commercial are also showing signs of improvement. The total value of industrial building permits pulled so far this year is $760,000 — up from $471,000 from this point last year — and vacancy rates in the sector are down. see COMMERCIAL, page A14