ROBSONS' REHAB DREAM BURNED TO THE GROUND

Ex-Mayor Upset At Mission's Move.

Former Maple Ridge Mayor Gord Robson's dream of an alcohol and drug
treatment centre at Boulder Bay has literally been burned to the ground.

Robson was involved in forming a non-profit organization called the
LifeLine Society, which planned to renovate the former youth detention
facility between Maple Ridge and Mission and act as a landlord to an
organization that would run a treatment centre there.

However, this month the District of Mission, which now owns the
property, allowed district and provincial firefighters to burn the
buildings down in training exercises. All that's left is the gymnasium
and that's expected to be demolished in the next month as well.

"I think it's criminal," said Robson. "They probably could've saved a
hundred people a year."

Robson said more alcohol and drug treatment facilities are
"critical."

"We all know no one can get into treatment and here's one (property)
that's way out of the way, ideally designed," he said. "To burn it
down it just shows the incompetence of government."

Dennis Clark, director of corporate administration for the District of
Mission, said the district decided destroying the buildings was the
best course of action after the proposal to turn Boulder Bay into a
treatment centre was withdrawn in January.

Robson said it was withdrawn because the district wanted to control
who was on the board of directors of the non-profit organization.
However, he said he had still hoped they could work something out.

Clark said Mission council supported the concept of a treatment centre
but when the proposal was withdrawn they had few options because the
buildings were deteriorating and it would cost more than $2 million to
upgrade them. Leaving them without an upgrade would be a liability.

"We didn't want to spend any more money on security services to
protect the site and we didn't want to spend in excess of $2 million
to upgrade," he said. "There was a lot of soul searching that went on
about whether or not the building should be demolished...but in the
end that was the only practical alternative."

In the proposal for the drug treatment centre, the non-profit
organization proposed a run-of-river hydro project to provide
electricity as well as geothermal to heat it. Robson said they were
hoping to negotiate an agreement with the Hope For Freedom Society out
of Port Coquitlam to run the drug and alcohol treatment centre.

"The buildings were solid. We had a run-of-river project going on with
it so it was going to be environmentally clean," said Robson.

Rob Thiessen, managing director of the Hope For Freedom Society, which
runs two alcohol and drug treatment centres, said he's "very
disappointed" to hear the buildings were burned down.

"To me it was a waste of a good asset. We had checked it out.
Structurally both buildings were sound. They needed some work but I
think it's a shame," he said.