The moment family meets Good Samaritans who helped save their loved one's life
When 87-year-old Sabato Borrelli went into cardiac arrest May 15, a group of strangers stepped in to help. After reading about Borrelli's recovery, one of them reached out to CBC.
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Globe and Mail
21 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
B.C. Housing Minister expresses concern after Vancouver abandons controversial supportive-housing project
British Columbia's housing minister says he is concerned about the future of supportive-housing projects in Vancouver after the city quashed construction plans in a west-side neighbourhood amid a legal battle with residents over the rezoning changes. The rezoning for the 129-unit, 13-storey project in Kitsilano was rescinded April 30, after a consent order between a local residents' group and the city essentially overturned a 2022 approval. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said he was surprised by the city's decision to abandon fighting a lawsuit the Kitsilano Coalition for Children and Family Safety Society had brought claiming the city's public-hearing process for the rezoning was flawed. 'If you don't want concentrations of supportive housing, but then you don't want them in Kits, where do you put people?' he said. Vancouver abandons controversial supportive-housing project in Kitsilano Earlier this week, Mayor Ken Sim told The Globe that the city is trying to work with the province on finding alternative sites, where two 40- to 60-unit projects could be built that fit in better with the neighbourhoods. Supportive housing provides units to low-income people the way social housing does, but also helps with drug addiction, mental-health counselling, medical visits, lifeskills training and more. Mr. Kahlon said the province is willing to work with the city but hasn't seen any 'credible' alternatives so far. 'It is frustrating but we're going back to the drawing board to find alternative sites,' he said, though he added that the province isn't about to buy out any private-rental development currently on offer as city officials have suggested. It's also unfair for some neighbourhoods to declare they're only interested in housing for seniors or other groups they have decided are less problematic, Mr. Kahlon said. The city's move has generated significant reaction, with many supporters saying the site was problematic because it was across the street from a private Catholic elementary school, too close to a women's rehab centre and would have resulted in too many troubled people in one place. Supporters have also criticized the province for trying to force disruptive new housing that they claim would be dominated by drug users into every community. 'This housing, in this location, was not appropriate and the community spoke,' said David Fine, a filmmaker who is a frequent commenter on Kitsilano housing issues on X. 'No one is against some form of social or supportive housing there, just not what was being proposed. In this case, Sim made the right decision.' However, several housing advocates, non-profit housing providers and city councillors are appalled by the move. 'It's a very scary, telling direction that this council is going. We definitely recognize this is going in the wrong direction,' said Donna-Lynn Rosa, CEO of Atira Women's Resources Society, which runs multiple supportive-housing buildings in the city. 'Less housing, less options is not the solution. We're just concerned about these motions that seem reckless.' BC Housing applied to the city four years ago for a rezoning for the building, saying it would provide accessible supportive housing for the many homeless people living in Kitsilano's parks, on its beaches, or near storefronts. But thousands of residents expressed concerns that it would draw new drug users and crime to the area and allow for open drug use right across from the school. OneCity Vancouver Councillor Lucy Maloney said she is going to do whatever she can to support work at city hall to approve supportive housing, after hearing during her recent election campaign that improving the situation for homeless people was one of voters' top three priorities. 'I have to assess the best way to address the problem that Vancouverites said was their top concern,' she said. Ms. Maloney said she was surprised that she learned the news through the Kitsilano residents' newsletter instead of from the city itself. The decision to abandon the legal fight was made during an in-camera vote earlier this year before new councillors Ms. Maloney and COPE's Sean Orr were sworn in. Prominent drug-policy advocate Guy Felicella, a former drug user who champions better treatment and harm reduction, called the move 'NIMBYism at is finest,' noting that city residents are constantly calling on the province for more resources to get people off the streets but then reject providing housing for them.
CBC
22 minutes ago
- CBC
Tender issued to remove banned building material from Montague hospital
Social Sharing Plans are in the works to start removing asbestos from Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague, P.E.I. The provincial health authority says a recent assessment found several areas of the facility had been built with asbestos-containing materials that need to be taken out before planned renovations can proceed. The province issued a tender for the work this week, and once it begins, officials estimate it will take about a month and a half to complete. Tara Roche, Health P.E.I.'s administrator of community hospitals east, said the work is unlikely to affect services offered at KCMH. "I don't anticipate it will impact patients much at all," said Roche. "Part of our priority was to ensure that." Once a popular and fire-resistant insulation material, asbestos is commonly found in old roofing, tiles and similar products. It's also carcinogenic. When asbestos is disturbed, it releases fine particles into the air, which have been associated with a variety of cancers when they are inhaled. The hospital in Montague was built in 1971, before the use of asbestos was banned in many parts of the world. Canada prohibited its use in 1990. More work to come This is only Phase 1 of a broader plan to remove the material from the hospital. This time around, the province is budgeting $400,000 for work in the laundry, physiotherapy, storage and central sterile reprocessing (CSR) areas. Those areas were prioritized because the CSR needed some upgrades and an assessment scored the other locations as being "high risk," Roche said. "It tells us there is some asbestos around pipe, and there is some asbestos in some of our compound within our drywall — and some areas are more risky than others." Roche said physiotherapy services will move elsewhere in the hospital, while some laundry and sterilization services will be shared by other Health P.E.I. facilities in the area. The areas of the hospital where the work will be happening are mostly used by staff, she said, but the public will notice some barricades and other measures to seal off the removal zones. Roche said she is hoping work can begin in July or August.
CBC
22 minutes ago
- CBC
One year in, the P.E.I. government says a change in how EMS works has helped lower ER visits
In May of 2025, the province introduced Community Paramedic Response Units to let paramedics treat low-urgency calls on site instead of taking the people involved directly to hospital emergency departments. As CBC's Stacey Janzer reports, the province says the unit has responded to more than 1,000 calls in the last year.
