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It’s still possible to vote even without ID Jeremy Shepherd
newsroom@nsnews.com
ANY Canadian citizen 18 years or older can vote if they can prove who they are and where they live. Without a voter card, a citizen can go to their polling FEDERALL station and show two pieces of identification before voting. 20 11 Voters without a driver’s licence can show polling officials a health card and a utility bill or a student ID card or a bank statement in order to vote. “If you don’t have any of the ID, you can still vote if you have someone to vouch for you,” said Susan Friend at Elections Canada. An eligible voter from the same riding can accompany the voter to the polling station and take an oath to vouch for the citizen without ID. An eligible voter can only vouch for one citizen. All citizens must cast their votes at an assigned polling station. Voters can go to www.elections.ca to
EElection
Wedding breakfast
NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
RAJAH Letchumanapillai (left), Orech Rhema and Andrea Banni, postal workers at the West Vancouver post office at 14th Street and Bellevue Avenue, extend the celebration of the Royal wedding on Friday morning by wearing tiaras to work and serving tea and cookies to customers.
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LGH to get new mental health facility Jeremy Shepherd
newsroom@nsnews.com
VANCOUVER Coastal Health announced Friday its plans to add a $62-million mental health facility to Lions Gate Hospital. The province has pledged to pay $38.2 million for the project through Vancouver Coastal Health. The facility will be the Lower Mainland’s first for the integrated treatment of mental illness and addictions, according to the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation. For the foundation, construction can’t begin soon enough. The group, which has committed to raise $24 million for the
Province to pay $38M of the $62M cost; foundation to raise $24M
facility, cited the problem of addiction on the North Shore and the low quality of the current building, which was built in 1929, as top reasons for the new facility. The foundation noted that two floors of the current building are uninhabitable due to water damage and rodent infestations. The lack of space resulted in as many as five patients sharing a room and bathrooms, making infection-control very difficult. For Patrick Zierten, program director at Edgewood Vancouver Addiction Services, the announcement is great news.
“We’re understaffed for any substance abuse, whether (the facility) is public or private,” he said. Zierten said Edgewood has more than 100 clients, and they frequently have to wait for several weeks when being transferred for more critical care. The new, four-storey building will have 26 private rooms, as opposed to the current structure which only offers shared rooms, but Zierten isn’t sure privacy is always for the best. “From the patient’s perspective it’s probably ideal,” he said. “But most treatment centres always do double occupancy for therapeutic reasons.” Zierten said that because addicts tend to have difficulty building
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