Vancouver, not explain new downtown casino dice

Vancouver City Council voted unanimously to dismiss a provincial proposal to build the largest casino in the West in the city.

The city hotel rooms were filled to overflowing Tuesday that the source of discord led debate the vote and Mayor Gregor Robertson ruled against the casino.

Finally, the Council agreed that the negative impacts of increased gambling addiction and crime simply outweigh the potential benefits of more jobs and income.

Robertson said for the entertainment of 74,000 square metres complex "does not match with the world mark of Vancouver as the most livable city in the world, as the green capital of the world, as a fertile ground for innovation in the clean and digital technologies", in resource management.

"I personally do not believe that the expansion of gambling is the right direction for Vancouver," he said to cheers from the gallery.

"We will take a new look at the options to develop this property."-Minister of the British Columbia Colombia jobs, tourism and Innovation Pat Bell

Paragon Gaming Co., of Las Vegas, said that the casino can be closed at its present False Creek location, and if the extension has not been approved, hundreds of casino jobs could be on the line.

The city already held eight days and nights of public hearings on the issue and must now vote on the amendment of the zoning necessary to move the casino at the former site of the Plaza of Nations to a new location between the stadium and the exit to the Cambie bridge ramp.

The expansion, which would have included approximately 1,500 machines slots and two new hotels, had the support of the provincial government, the Lottery Corporation of British Columbia Colombia, several trade unions and the BC Pavilion Corporation which owns the site and operates BC Place for the province.

The promoters, said the expansion of casino create jobs, attract money from the wealthy gamblers offshore and inject millions of individuals in the economy of taxes and revenue.

But a coalition of residents, social agencies responsible for health and a former senior police officers mounted a vocal battle to stop the project, saying that the costs to society are not worth the financial benefits.

"We will work hard and stay committed to find that casino destination in the Lower Mainland."-Spokesman for paragon games Co. Scott Menke

Minister of employment, tourism and the Innovation Pat Bell professed to make the decision to Vancouver in the wake.

"The provincial government respects the process and the decision of the Council of city of Vancouver", Bell said in a statement after the vote on Tuesday.

"We will take a new look at the options to develop this property." I realized PavCo to work with the Council of Vancouver and the community to ensure that all future decisions in alignment with what the community wants. ?

Bell stated that the decision would not affect the time limits for the revitalization of BC Place.

"On Friday, September 30, the BC Lions will host the Edmonton Eskimos under the new retractable roof - before thousands of spectators in the stadium and a national audience watching on television."

Paragon Gaming spokesman Scott Menke said that the decision of the Council does not change the company's expansion plans

"We will work hard and stay committed to find that casino destination in the Lower Mainland," Menke said. "We believe that was the vision of the BCLC and province when we bought and we will remain committed to that."

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Become the electoral issue Vancouver injection site

Vancouver controversial safe injection site became an election issue Monday after yet another published study that he saved lives, by encouraging the author of the study said conservative policy on the site has no basis in fact.

Critics demanded drop of Prime Minister Stephen Harper opposition of his Government to the clinic and abandon their efforts to make it close.

Harper was in Yellowknife Monday where he regarded its strategy anti-drug, saying: it is based on the prevention and treatment.

But the Conservative Government has said in the past that he is not close our eyes to the site of safe injection and claims that it encourages addiction.

The latest study was published this week in the influential medical journal The Lancet. It was written by Dr. Thomas Kerr, with his colleagues of the urban Initiative in health research at the Hospital of Saint Paul in Vancouver.

"Canadians should be concerned with how the Federal Government approached problems such as drug addiction - that they are really not base their decision on science, they based on ideology,"Kerr said."".

The clinic, Insite, opened in 2003 as the first of its kind in North America. It allows addicts to inject their own medications in a healthy environment under the supervision of a nurse, but it requires an exemption from federal legislation of Health Act to operate.

The study concluded the site has helped reduce the number of fatal overdoses in the notorious Downtown Eastside of Vancouver by more than a third.

"It is evidence showing that Insite achieves its objectives [and] it is very important because it shows it prevents death," said Kerr.

Researchers followed fatal overdoses in the immediate vicinity of the clinic over a period of 33 months before the facility opened in September 2003 and 27 months after its opening. The rate of fatal overdose plunged 35 per cent after the opening of the site, the study concluded, while the number of fatal overdoses in the rest of the city fell by all nine percent during the same period.

But the Conservative Government has indicated that he wants to put an end to the exemption and see the supervised injection site closed.

Supporters of the clinic successfully challenged the Federal Government, winning a decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia Colombia later confirmed by the Court of appeal Colombia-British in January 2010 which found Insite is a health care facility and therefore falls within the provincial jurisdictionFederal steps.

Federal lawyers appealed appeal, however, arguing that Insite makes it easier for people to break the law.

This drew the criticism of the then-Minister of health of British Columbia Colombia Kevin Falcon, which emphasized the large body of independent research supporting the clinical.

The Supreme Court of the Canada should hear the arguments on the issue next month.

Kerr, said Monday that the position with the Conservatives on the issue is unlit.

"We really let one not back by trying to use a war on drug United States style, which is a well documented political failure," he said.

"Insite has also been shown very profitable." If you are concerned with the economy, it is clearly something that you need to support. ?

Janice Buchanan, Vice President of the BC Nurses' Union, called the Harper Government to abandon its appeal on the Lancet study, saying that the study shows contributes to Insite drug addicts in detox and retrieve.

"Instead of wasting the taxpayers money on lawyers and the courts to try to stop this service legitimate health care, the Conservatives - and all other political parties - should use this moment as an opportunity to ensure that their health care policies are based on evidence"buchanan""said in a press release.

The Government of the spent approximately 3 million per year on Insite, a pillar of the harm reduction strategy battle.

Studies of more than two dozen in various medical journals welcomed the installation as a success, suggesting that it reduced deaths by overdose, HIV and hepatitis rate and crime in the poor Downtown Eastside 10-block radiuswhere drug users are concentrated by the intravenous route of the city. The Centre of British Colombia for Excellence in HIV / AIDS said that since the opening of Insite, it has been an increase of 30 per cent of the number of drug abusers in detoxification.

Other Canadian cities, such as Victoria and Toronto, have said they want to open their own clinics safe-injection, modelled on Insite.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry, a physician whose electoral district of Vancouver Centre includes the Downtown Eastside, said that Harper must act on evidence.

"If you recognize that addiction is a disease and it is a medical problem, and you must deal with medical solutions, one of the most important things is the prevention of death," said Fry. "[Insite is] this goal in a remarkable manner.".

FRY said that the site is an effective tool for public health.

"Stephen Harper lives in the flat earth society." The evidence, this is what you watch. It works? Good. ?

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