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Saturday, May 25, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Physiotherapy program to be launched at UNBC Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Starting in 16 months time, physiotherapy students will be able to learn their craft at the University of Northern British Columbia. With the help of $2.2 million from the provincial government, UNBC will welcome its first intake of 20 masters of physiotherapy students in September 2020. And by September 2022, a 16-student masters of occupational therapy program will be launched at UNBC – $1.1 million is being provided towards that goal. B.C. Advanced Education, Skills and Training Minister Melanie Mark announced the long-awaited moves on Friday. University of British Columbia in Vancouver is currently home to both progams while a 20-student “northern cohort” of physiotherapy students spends four weeks working at clinics in the northern B.C. region midway through their 26-month program. No northern cohort exists for occupational therapy students, who also go through a 26-month program. A further 20 physiotherapy seats are to be established in the Fraser Valley by September 2022 and eight seats will be added to the occupational therapy program at UBC. Currently, there are 80 first-year physiotherapy seats at UBC and the number available across the province will rise to 120 by September 2022. On the occupational therapy side, there are 48 seats at UBC. This will increase to 72 first-year seats with the additions at UNBC and UBC. “Adding more occupational and physical therapy seats has been a call to action for years,” Mark said. “Our government listened and is investing in opportunities to bring education closer to home, because we know that when students live and train in

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Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training, announced on Friday afternoon at UNBC that the province is increasing occupational and physical therapy training seats in Northern B.C. the north, they are more likely to stay and work in the north.”

Over the next decade, 1,920 job openings in physiotherapy and 1,160 job openings in

Options for public washrooms downtown to go to council

Library seeing rising use of public washrooms Citizen staff

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff Complete with cost estimates, four options for bringing public washrooms to the downtown will be presented to city council on Monday night. They range from opening the washrooms at Canada Games Plaza to encouraging downtown businesses to provide the service through a grant program similar to one up and running in Yellowknife. Staff will be seeking council’s direction to pursue one or a combination of the suggestions. Here’s a closer look: • Open the washrooms at the Canada Games Plaza from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily with an attendant onsite during that time. Staff is suggesting it operate as a pilot from June 15 to Oct. 1 at a cost of $77,250. Of that, $52,900 would go towards paying for two onsite attendants with one working a morning shift and the other an evening shift. Given the urgency of getting the program going this summer, the bill is based on the cost of hiring contract security personnel. But ideally, attendants hired by a nonprofit agency with experience working with street-involved people would take over the work. The remaining $23,350 would go towards custodial and maintenance costs carried out by City staff. In a survey of downtown service pro-

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The public washrooms at Canada Games Plaza. On Monday city council will hear a number of options to provide public washrooms downtown. viders, the Civic Centre was raised as one of the most preferred sites. • Fund three downtown service agencies to provide monitored facilities. Saint Vincent de Paul, Positive Living North (Firepit)and Association Advocating for Women and Children are among the recommended agencies. While washrooms are available at their spots, using them can depend on whether staff is available to monitor.

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Cost is estimated at $36,000 with $12,000 going to each of the agencies in the form of a one-time grant to pay for both increased monitoring on a “client/ peer employment model” and to train clients to work as attendants at other locations. • Hire a full-time, year-round attendant to monitor the washrooms at the Prince George Public Library. — see PARTNERSHIP, page 3

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occupational therapy are expected, according to the provincial government.

The Prince George Public Library has seen a rise in the use of its washrooms over the years. According to a recent tally, 21 to 43 people used the main branch’s washrooms each hour on a “slow day,” staff says in a report to city council, with 14 per cent going into the library for that sole purpose. And in 2018, there were 144 incidents related to those facilities, up from 59 in 2015. In response, the library moved from contract to staff security personnel, doubled security detail during social assistance weeks, and overlapped security staffing at busy times of the day. In 2015, actual security costs were $55,476. In 2019, security costs are budgeted at $155,520. Elsewhere, since 2017 public washrooms at city hall have been limited to the first floor and a Service Centre representative who presses a buzzer to open the door. Washrooms in city parks are generally locked and unavailable to the public unless city staff are working onsite. Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park and Duchess Park washrooms are opened and closed daily by security personnel, and cleaned twice daily by city custodial staff. And washrooms at Masich place are now open during operating hours while those at Memorial Park Cemetery is open and closed by city staff during business hours and by a security company on the weekends. Cleaning is done three times per week by city custodians. The city has also increased security presence at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, Four Seasons Pool, and the Via Rail Building to address a range of incidents, including inappropriate use of public washrooms. — Mark Nielsen

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