Thursday - Aug. 22, 2024 - Three-way race for Harrison mayor’s seat

⛅ High 26C

Good morning!

Today I am going to give a quick shout out to Moulay Anwar Sounny-Slitine, who nine years ago recorded a video showing how to convert latitude and longitude from DMS to decimal degrees in Excel and posted it on YouTube. You are the MVP of my behind-the-scenes work for an upcoming story.

I am also going to give the side eye to Transport Canada, who led me to believe they had extremely accurate coordinates for a dataset, but only had more general locations. Your location details are still useful, but not exactly what I had been hoping for. (I’m not sure why I expected more from a government spreadsheet.)

– Grace Kennedy

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

The Fraser Valley’s top spenders

The chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District and a Langley Township councillor had the highest job-related expenses of the Fraser Valley’s 73 municipal politicians in 2023.

Jason Lum, a Chilliwack councillor and the chair of the Fraser Valley Regional District, filed for a little more than $16,000 in expenses last year. Langley Township councillor Steve Ferguson had the second highest total, with about $14,000 in job expenses.

• Today, we compare the expenses of every mayor, councillor, and electoral area director in the Fraser Valley.

• You can find the expenses for every Fraser Valley mayor, councillor, electoral area director and park board commissioner at the bottom of the story.

Related

Need to Know

🚂 The Canadian rail dispute shut down all train traffic as of midnight last night, including the West Coast Express; TransLink is providing extra bus service to get passengers from Mission to the SkyTrain [City of Mission] / The work stoppage is the first time both CN and CPKC have been shut down at the same time [CityNews]

👀 Mission Memorial Hospital closed its ER overnight Tuesday in yet another ‘service adaption’ [Mission Record]

⚠ A two-car crash on the Sumas Canal bridge briefly closed Highway 1 eastbound Wednesday [Abbotsford News]

🎣 The Cheam First Nation has bought the Fraser River Lodge near Agassiz for $18.1 million [Cheam First Nation]

🧯 Harrison’s short-lived State of Local Emergency has created contractual complications, the village’s CAO says [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

🚑 A Langley man was dropped off at a Kootenay hospital with gunshot wounds over the weekend; he was in critical condition but is expected to survive [Trail Times]

🎌 More than 100 people visited Sunshine Valley last weekend to remember Japanese-Canadians interned at Tashme [Hope Standard]

🗳 BC Conservatives are facing controversy over their candidate nomination processes in the Okanagan and parts of the Fraser Valley [Vancouver Sun]

🎒 Chilliwack’s A.D. Rundle Middle School will be the latest to receive a modular expansion; the new rooms will make space for 300 more students [Province of BC]

🎉 Several west Abbotsford roads will be closed next Sunday (Sept. 1) for Nagar Kirtan, a Sikh procession celebrating the holy scripture [City of Abbotsford]

👉 Electoral area director Patti MacAhonic is no longer the executive director of the Ann Davis Transition Society [Chilliwack Progress]

🍋 Young Aldergrove entrepreneurs are partnering with local businesses to learn how to run a better lemonade stand and win a competitive taste-test [Aldergrove Star]

🔎 Housing inspections for migrant workers are often triggered by employee complaints, but employers usually get warned about the upcoming inspections [National Observer]

📷 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Candice C., who was the first person to correctly identify yesterday’s Current Cam as the Langley Airport.

SPONSORED BY TOURISM KELOWNA

Don't miss out on an Okanagan summer

Sun-drenched days are here and there's still plenty of time to experience an Okanagan summer. Make the most of the season by paddleboarding or kayaking on Okanagan Lake, biking along rail trails and urban surroundings, or hiking the surrounding hillsides and forests, where you can encounter the brilliance of nature just steps from the city. 

Continue the adventure exploring the region's local flavours by visiting farms and orchards, dining at farm-to-table restaurants, and savouring craft sips at wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries. 

Plan your visit now!

The Agenda

Three-way race for Harrison mayor’s seat

Harrison voters now have three choices for the mayor’s seat in the upcoming by-election.

With the candidates officially confirmed, Harrison has the choice between former councillor John Allen, retired Northwest Territories negotiator Fred Talen, and former RCMP member Greg Dykstra. Dykstra, a former Chilliwack police officer, was the last candidate to enter his name in the race. He was endorsed by ex-councillor John Buckley in his nomination papers.

Four candidates are vying for the council seat vacated by Allen. They are retired nurse Teresa Omelus, local chocolatier Mark Schweinbenz, block watch leader Gary Webster, and former mayor Ed Wood.

The Harrison Agassiz Chamber of Commerce is hosting an all-candidates meeting on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7pm in Harrison Memorial Hall. The public can submit questions online in advance of the meeting. Residents can either watch in person or stream the meeting via the chamber’s Facebook page.

The by-election itself will take place on Saturday, Sept. 21.

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🗓 Things to do this week/end

🥧 Blackberry baking: The Langley Demonstration Garden hosts its Blackberry Bake-Off today at noon. The event combines education about invasive species and a competitive baking showdown. Bring your blackberry creations, vote on the best blackberry treats, and enjoy a community gathering. Details online.

🌄 Twilight market: Mission's Twilight Treasures Artisan Market is at Griner Park each Thursday evening. Details online.

🎉 Cedarbrook celebration: Cedarbrook Park near Chilliwack celebrates Cedarbrook Day on Sunday, Aug. 25 starting at 11am. Come for two outdoor concerts, a hypnotist, a beer garden, construction touch-a-truck, and more. Details online.

Correction: The correct date for Abbotsford’s Taste Around the World is Saturday, Aug. 24. Event details online.

Want even more? Insider members get a comprehensive events listing every Thursday, plus a weekly Saturday round-up edition with behind-the-scenes content. Becoming a member costs less than $2 a week and helps support the ongoing production of The Current’s newsletters and in-depth journalism. Become a member here.

Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.

Catch up

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