This issue reminds me of the ad “______ is it a candy mint! ________ is a breath mint!”

Is this a government responsibility or is this a business opportunity.

Peter’s article, in my mind, points to the answer that the ad pointed to: “_______ is two, two, two mints in one.”

Government dropped out of the picture. Now business is battling over rights to the territory, offering diverse solutions, still at taxpayers’ expense, however since most people cannot afford to try non-guaranteed solutions to their addictive habits. So lots of approaches, lots of trials, little concerted efforts to determine the efficacy of the treatments.

So this group found a school. Hallelujah! An opportunity looking for a solution. The thing is, it is the community which has the opportunity left to them by the SD due to their abandonment of the school. They accepted turning the school into a single family residence. That then created the situation of an overbuilt improvement with an undervalued assessment. A sure magnet for development. But what kind? That was the City’s role, as well as the SD57’s role – to meet with the community, derive a community plan, and insert the plan into the OCP.

Instead, we have developers who noticed the vacuum left by those responsible, talked to the City, and hatched a plan which left the community high and dry in the process.

There is something going wrong in our social structure that is causing this lack of communication and lack of respect for “stakeholders”. Which reminds me, that seems to be a word we rarely hear anymore, not that too many ever gave the word the level of importance it should have in successful communities.

It appears there is a lot of unused real estate at Baldy Hughes….make it co-ed and utilize the facility to it’s full capacity.

In my opinion co-ed will not work, I believe the last thing a women that has been battered or abused mentally or physically by a male, being around males is probably the last thing she needs.

Maybe I misunderstood the recovery centre for women’s philosophy is trying to prepare the women to intergrade back into the community. But I’ve never heard of a community only full of women. Maybe the next bylaw from the city will be no men are permitted to walk on the street with their dog Close to a recovery center for women

Mr. Ewart has suggested a great plan for moving things ahead, the first step being to withdraw the Haldi Road Recovery Centre proposal. This of course will not be done by the owner of Haldi road school as they would again be stuck with a huge building, now stripped in preparation for the treatment centre so not even in a saleable condition. The owner and proponents were not interested in cooperating with Hudta Lake group….would not be profitable for them. They are not interested in a solution to find a suitable location for a treatment centre……they are only interested in the profit they can make from developing the old Haldi Road School and then flipping it over to the government when the operation cannot sustain itself financially. The owners of the property will then have made a profit on the property….their problem solved. Neighbourhood problems begin! Taxpayers are on the hook for a treatment centre allowed to go ahead without a proper business plan.

Why not do as Peter Ewart suggests. Start over again with all interested parties to arrive at a solution where the most suitable location is found, the most effective treatment is provided and as Peter Ewart puts it: “This should be done with the full consultation and involvement of the residents of whatever neighborhood or area of the region is being considered, and not through a bulldozer approach.

So City Council, don’t you think this is a much better approach…..wouldn’t have to change the OCP, continue to upset the neighborhood, possibly waste more taxpayers dollars on legal fees, and put a treatment centre into a location where zoning doesn’t permit. Makes a lot of sense to me!

So in that case, only women who have been abused ar going to be let into the program.

So,

1. must have gotten over the dependency to the extent that they are “dry”.

2. must have issues with men who overpower them mentally and/or physically.

3. must be able to pay or be eligible for funding to join.

And, we will put them into a community where men and women do not welcome them. So now they not only hate/fear men, but hate/fear rural suburbanites.

Sound great to me. The perfect solution!!

Anyone who thinks that the proponents of the Baldy Hughes Recovery Centre, or the Haldi Road Centre, came to Prince George just to locate here and open up these centres because there was a need, and they (being good loving citizens of BC) would come to PG and provide this need, are living in a dream world.

The amazing thing about Prince George is that most of the Citizens beleive whatever the hell they read, and make decisions based on that information, even if it is haywire. They never seem to take the time to actually look into a situation with a view of determining what is actually taking place.

I have mentioned on a number of occasions that the BC Government closed a co-ed treatment centre (Nechako Centre) a few years ago. This centre had a 28 day program, and operated in Prince George (attached to the Hospital) on Alward St. for over 30 years. The Goverment CLOSED this centre, and stated that they would provide alcohol and drug related treatment under a different model. (They didnt go into detail about the model).

We can safely assume that the Baldy Hughes centre, and the Haldi Road centre is a continuation of the Governments program to change the model. The problem is, is that those people who are implementing these programs, are, or have been closely associated with the Liberal Government, and seem to be in a position to benefit from the implementation of these centres.

Common sense rarely if ever prevails in these types of situations. Usually the decisions as to what will be done, where it will be done, and who will do it, have been made long before anyone in the City has a clue as to what the hell is going on.

Wake up Prince George and smell the roses. You are once again being taken to the cleaners by vested interests.

Hopefully the citizens of Haldi Road will be successful in stopping this centre from going forward until we can at the very least look at and implement some of the suggestions made by Peter Ewart.

The people of the Haldi area have made two requests to meet with the city publicly and City will not have anything to do with them. Instead, if you have a question – talk to planning. Since when does the planning department make all the decisions? If anyone is waiting for the city or the owners of the property getting communication going will not happen… The residents have tried that one and have been shut down. The neighborhoods backs are up even more because the city still shows the people they have no say…..

To advertise the OCP this time around and not inform all the people of this, city is back handed bullying. A few people requested another venue more centrally located and city will not even consider.

As for the City Council doing due diligence – not going to happen. Last go around people heard publicly from various Councillors their personal reasons – They are not paid for their personal reasons. They should be behaving like a tribunal would and listen to facts only…LOL like that would happen.

The school district broke their promise to the neighborhood to revert the playground etc back to the neighborhood.The school district, city and neighborhood should have been grouped together. Do we not have an ex School District person on our council?

If people just sit back and do nothing about this major change of the OCP you have lost all rights to complain..how this city will look in the future as you will have set a precedence for city council…..

Palopu

You are right they Nechako did offer a 28 day co-ed treatment centre. In addition to this they also had a Woman’s program. The councillors were all (qualified woman therapists) and there was very little interaction with males. The male councillors would be working on upcoming programs in another part of the building. Most of the clients came in well prepared as they went through a process (assessments) and most were ready to make changes in their lives. When they left here was a continuum of care in place. Yes the Government did cancel the program. The Government still uses the harm reduction model. Techniques come and go but harm reduction is still predominantly the path to abstinence.

In the last news release by the Recovery Centre, they compared their proposed facility to Cedars. They didn’t mention though that Cedars is a co-ed program. The Haldiroad residents were told by the project manager, the first time around, that co-ed programs do not work. Confusing eh

The point that I was trying to make was that once the men went to the Baldy Hughes Centre, what was stopping the Government from using the Nechako Treatment Centre, to provide a full service treatment facility for women???

Thats the question that needs to be answered. Why close a facility that was attached to the hospital, and would meet all the needs of the womens centre, and try and relocate this facility in a rural area, against the wishes of the people that lived in that area???

Even now, we could if we so wished, locate this Centre at the hospital. Is it the cost of running the facility at the hospital??? Is it because the Government prefers to run these facilities through charitable societys, because it is a cheaper model??

Whats the real reason for changing the model????

Of course it’s about the money. It’s just another way to confuse people with motion instead of action. My belief is the Haldi Lake situation is more about housing than recovery. Not once have I ever heard the proponents mention someone from the Mental health and Addictions that was supporting them. Northern Healths mandate is harm reduction. I will give you an example. If you are in treatment at a facility that involves Northern Health they will not let you smoke but they will supply smoking aids. At Baldy Hughes they dispense tobacco because nicotine is not viewed as a drug ( I don’t know what cosmic bunny hole they crawled out of) even though it has killed millions of more people then alcohol and drugs combined. So much for the abstinence model.

The proposed center may be operated by a non profit society, but the society is leasing the building from the owners. How can this be cheaper than the government owning the building. IMO, this is the plan of the owners. Build up the facility, like Baldy Hughes, and then sell to the government for profit. If it is not successful, what does this leave for future development for the Haldiroad neighbourhood .

it seems to me that the overriding issue now is that the city has screwed up at every turn on this issue. They did not expect push back from the neighborhood, they did not expect to loose in court and they are not prepared to respect those that elected them. I for one am good and sick of the blatant backroom dealings that are cleary running this project. Hopefully the voters get out and fix this mess in the next election…not sure if we cant wait that long though. I really hope the Haldi group continue to fight for what they know is right even when they are cleary fighting big bucks and big bullies

Well said sicklygreen…..hopefully the Haldi group gets the city straightened out and justice prevails. Too bad Haldi residents have to spend so much money fighting a city that is supposed to protect their rights, especially when they have already won round 1 on the Haldi issue. Taxpayers are getting fed up with this waste too….and they criticize Brian Skakun for wasting money….he is only trying to find out where the money went and is doing exactly what he should be doing. One really wonders who is running the city, councillors who are supposed to represent the citizens, or big business who is looking to make big profits. So far, it looks like our mayor is only interested in protecting businesses at the expense of everyone else.

I suppose since this is between the city and the land owners – Fehr and Woods, they feel they can hold it where ever they wish. This does not surprise me, the city has screwed up at every turn on this issue. At least the city will have housing with the 2015 winter games coming up.

To advertise the OCP this time around and not inform all the people of
this, city is back handed bullying. A few people requested another venue
more centrally located and city would not even consider.For the city it is better to look like the whole thing just involves one area. You know how it is about the truth, the closest your going to get from our local politicians is either half the truth or lies…..