On Saturday April 1st a rally was held to bring awareness for the Skeena Valley Seniors Society mission in keeping the older Seven Sisters mental health facility standing. 44 people came out despite the weather being less than ideal to support the cause. The society's President, Diana Penner gave her own thoughts on how the rally went.
“Aside from the weather, I thought the rally was great. We had all kinds of people responding from the perspective of the public. They were very enthusiastic and they certainly expressed and confirmed the need for this building in our community”. – Dianna Penner
Penner also further emphasized just how important she believes to keep the building intact as well as operational.
“From the perspective of resources available to our community. This building is a valuable resource that we can't afford to lose and to be able to tie it to the hospital and enable the hospital to gain more by having it there creates a joy for all of us. And so that's what we're trying to do. Our goal is to maintain that building in a way that complements that hospital”. – Dianna Penner
A statement from Northern Health as well as a letter from Adrian Dix that was addressed directly to Penner stating that the demolishing of the building will proceed despite their efforts since, according to both parties the building's retention was not feasible, to which Penner had a response.
“It didn't surprise me to have that type of a reiteration. It does not speak at all to any of the issues that we've identified. So it didn't speak to the questions. It didn't speak to our concerns. It didn't speak to our conversation with them”. – Dianna Penner
