Vancouver Neighbourhoods
Last night Vancouver City Council chose not to endorse development of two big box retailers, Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire. One of the reasons for the decision was in order to protect the city’s commitment to strong neighbourhoods; where people can live, work and shop.
On May 19th I sent an email to each individual councillor and Mayor Larry Campbell asking them what their position was on keeping St. Paul’s Hospital open at its current location in the West End, a neighbourhood of over 60,000 residents.
So far Councillor Tim Louis has written back saying that he strongly supports keeping St. Paul’s where it is. Councillor Tim Stevenson wrote saying he intends to keep his commitment to present a motion to council preventing zoning for a new hospital at another location in the city. Mr. Stevenson wouldn’t commit to when he will do this saying that timing was everything (?) Councillor Peter Ladner said he believes there needs to be a hospital serving downtown but wouldn’t take a position because he needs to know more about alternatives.
No response from anyone else. I understand the Mayor’s wife is somehow involved at a senior level with Providence Health Care, the owners of St. Paul’s Hospital, so he may not publically take a position.
I am quite surprised that some councillor’s have fought for many years to prevent Wal-Mart from opening a store on Marine Dr in Vancouver, but have nothing to say when it comes to keeping a hospital open in one the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Canada.
Maybe they’ve just been busy?