THEVOICE | 2 TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 2018 | EDITOR DANICA WALKER Locals raising a stink Compost processing plant, Harvest Power has been blamed for most odour complaints made in Richmond. cio£ LoGaN PHOTO Richmond councillors intend to solve odour complaints ™ By CLOE LOGAN years-long battle over a smelly composting facil- ity has prompted Rich- mond council to ask the province for bad-odour regulations. Harvest Power has received criti- cism from the community for more than five years now because of its smelly emissions. Peter Russell, Richmond’s senior manager of sus- tainability and district energy, said the city is pushing senior levels of government to introduce regula- tions that will entirely eliminate bad odours in Richmond. “Alberta, Quebec, Ontario have regulated odours directly and they’ve implemented the right per- formance and measurement crite- ria,” Russell said. “There’s Canadian precedence, there’s international precedence. We are looking for the province of B.C. to take action.” Harvest Power’s spokesperson, Stephen Bruyneel, said the com- pany has put in measures to reduce the odour emissions from the plant such as decreasing the volume of waste and investing in new tech- nologies. “We started to see some signifi- cant benefits to what we’ve been doing. I think odours are down to one or two [complaints per day] on average since January,” Bruyneel said. “We've invested a lot of time, money and resources into reducing odour.” “There are other odours in Rich- mond that sometimes people may think are ours,” he said. Last year, the city received almost 1,400 complaints regarding Har- vest Power, which was down from almost 2,700 the previous year. While city officials hope they can entirely eliminate odours, Antho- ny Lau, a UBC expert on organic waste recycling, said some com- posting smells are inevitable. “If it’s done well, you won't emit too much odour, but all the emis- sions from composting is unavoid- able,” said Lau, associate professor of chemical and biological engi- neering. He said that strong odours aren't an immediate concern for public safety but can cause discomfort to a community. “It is not directly a health haz- ard, but indirectly because this odour can activate stress mecha- nisms,” Lau said. “Sleep disrup- tion, and responses that eventually cause health problems, but it’s not a health hazard per se.” ODOUR COMPLAINTS ACROSS METRO VANCOUVER 201 7 3,725 odour complaints 201 6 3,800 odour complaints 2011-2015 Average of 1,700 odour complaints. SOURCE: METROVANCOUVER.ORG Surrey h Light-rail could increase Surrey's desirability = By NICK VALKA eal-estate values along the Ress ; approved Surrey ight-rail transit lines could rise substantially and drive out low- ome prices coul income households, according to a Surrey real-estate investment spe- cialist. Ryan Dhaliwal, a real-estate agent with Edge Realty Group, said that the values of homes in the Surrey neighbourhoods that will be close to the new lines, which are generally considered low- to medium-income areas, could increase from three to 40 per cent. “The improved access between Gateway Scott Road 140 St 144 St Surrey City Hall, King George e000 Surrey Central 96 Ave 88 Ave King George Blvd 80 Ave 76 Ave 72 Ave Newton Exchange 64 Ave (0) x a 148 St 104 Ave 152 St Guildford Exchange @ == Expo Line ©) == Phase 1: Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT OH Phase 2: Surrey—Langley Rapid Transit ©) Connection Station urban centres and residential neigh- bourhoods, through transit, greatly improves the value of properties,” Dhaliwal said. “Accessibility [to the city centre] is a critical determinant of residential land values.” New rapid-transit lines in some other Canadian cities have raised similar fears about price escalation. Ottawa’s newest LRT route, the Confederation Line, is currently under construction and advocates are also worried that property pric- ran S| Canad, ay, Langley Centre The proposed light-rail route through Surrey and Langley will have two lines and approximately 19 stops. CITY OF SURREY SUBMITTED MAP d spike es along the route will cause some reisdents to move further away. “We're seeing prices rise along transit routes,” Trevor Haché, vice- president of the Healthy Transpor- tation Coalition, said. “It’s sought- after land.” Haché said that there is currently an eight-year waitlist for affordable housing in Ottawa. However, local councillors say they hope households of all kinds will benefit from the line. Surrey Coun, Tom Gill said that there is a lot of development inter- est in the Newton area, a low-in- come area that will be home to the first LRT phase, and one that is in need of a facelift. “There’s going to be great op- portunity in that area for investors and future residents,” Gill said. “It should be a win-win, with some af- fordable housing options along the route.” With an expected 300,000 new residents to Surrey in the next 30 years, Gill said that the city is al- ready working with developers in the area. Construction on the Surrey LRT line is expected to begin in late 2019, with a target date of opera- tion in 2024. There are six cities in Canada with light rapid-transit lines. Be- sides Ottawa, they are Calgary, Ed- monton, Mississauga, Toronto and Waterloo. Atlarge Rehab advice lacking Doctors default to 12- step programs when advising on recovery options = By DANICA WALKER midst the worst overdose crisis in B.C. history, pub- ic healthcare profession- als should be better equipped to offer addiction recovery options beyond conventional 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, says the executive director of the B.C. Humanist Association. The public healthcare system currently outsources most addic- tion recovery services to the pri- vate sector, which Ian Bushfield believes is restricting evidence- based care for recovering addicts. In a 2017 survey by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Ad- diction, it was found that almost 92 per cent of people surveyed had participated in 12-step programs, the most prevalent of recovery op- tions. Bushfield said that although there are various options avail- able, many people are unaware of recovery programs that may better accommodate them. He suggested that giving people more control of their options will benefit their re- covery. “We've heard from doctors and other healthcare workers that the default is to recommend some- one in recovery attend a 12-step program, often because it's the only one they know of,” Bushfield said. “Instead of doing the actual work in supporting people with substance-use issues in a holistic manner in our healthcare system, we've allowed the private sector service provider do a lot of the heavy lifting.” Bushfield suggested other pro- grams such as SMART Recov- ery, which devel- oped its recovery methods using evidence based on scientific research and not 12-step He programs. ‘© ~ lan Bushfield said recovery is EXECUTIVE DIREC- more attainable TOR, 8.C. HUMANIST ASSOCIATION when individuals are offered more choice in their recovery. Bushfield’s view is supported by others familiar with addiction is- sues. Annie McCullough, co-founder of Faces and Voices of Recovery Canada, said there was no uniform guidance for professionals recom- mending recovery options. She said patients can receive varied advice depending on who they ap- proach. “There's no standardized as- sessment tool and there's no standardized answer to what you should do,” McCullough | said. “You can get just any number of answers ... as for what's available. “There’s a good amount of op- tions for people, but people don’t know about what those options are,” McCullough said. Vancouver Coastal Health de- clined to respond to The Voice about whether current practices might change.