Health Minister Terry Lake has issued the following statement on the Office of the Seniors Advocate's report entitled "Seniors Housing: Affordability, Accessibility, Availability":

Today marked the official opening of the newly redeveloped Kinghaven Treatment Centre, providing 62 men at-risk of homelessness due to problematic substance use with treatment and support services in Abbotsford.

The Province is providing $150,000 to support a neighbourhood kitchen that will provide nutritious meals and be a forum for seniors to showcase their wealth of knowledge in preparing food.

More than 50 Aboriginal workers will train for careers as heavy equipment operators through a Community and Employer Partnership between the B.C. government and the Southern Interior Construction Association, worth nearly $1.4 million.

The Province is providing $175,000 to ACT - Autism Community Training - to develop an online training program that will help qualified health professionals to better recognize the mental-health challenges that often accompany Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

PharmaCare has informed a number of Lower Mainland pharmacies that it no longer intends to do business with them, as the result of a new regulation that allows the Ministry of Health to better enforce the rules around billing PharmaCare.