COQUITLAM (NEWS1130) – Coquitlam’s mayor is urging for better security at Colony Farm psychiatric hospital after a patient with a violent criminal past escaped from the facility a few days ago.

The institution has about 200 people in it and one of those patients — Matthew David Mikolajczyk — ran off and that wasn’t his first time, escaping in 2008. That is what really worries Mayor Richard Stewart.

“There is no reason why someone should be able to escape from a reasonably secure facility in my opinion,” believes Stewart. “So take the necessary steps to assure us that you won’t be phoning us next week that someone else got out.”

He says he will be putting more pressure on management than ever before.

“We just want to make sure that support for mental health service delivery doesn’t wane in our community because someone isn’t doing everything that needs to be done.”

The Provincial Health Services Authority says it’s doing an internal review to make sure another patient doesn’t escape. It adds there is a full complement of staff to deal with what it calls “a challenged population.”