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- Thursday - Feb. 20, 2025 - salishan Place lobby, library now open
Thursday - Feb. 20, 2025 - salishan Place lobby, library now open
Grace Kennedy
February 20, 2025
In partnership with
🌧 High 7C
Good morning!
Here in Canada, we tend not to think about the federal government as much as perhaps residents in some other countries do. The structures of our lives are typically more closely governed by our provincial and municipal governments. But recent international events have changed that, and I think we are all spending a little more time thinking about tariffs, trade, defence, and diplomacy than we did before.
With a federal election right around the corner (some politicos anticipate it could happen not long after the Liberals choose their new leader on March 9), we figured now would be the right time to get answers to questions you might have about the feds. How is Canada’s government structured? Can the Prime Minister pass an executive order? Why doesn’t the party with the popular vote always win?
You can submit your question here. Submissions will close next Monday; after that, we’ll start finding some experts who can help us answer them for you. (If you are an expert in Canada’s government, parliamentary history, international relations, or anything else federal, let us know! You could be the key to answering someone’s burning question.)
– Grace
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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
Border crossings plunge after tariff, annexation talk
At the Sumas/Huntingdon border crossing, southbound border crossings have plunged since Donald Trump took office. 📷️ Ian Dewar Photography/Tyler Olsen
Canadians are staying home.
Cross-border traffic between British Columbia and Washington State has plunged in February amid calls for boycotts of American products, according to data released by Whatcom County and analyzed by the Fraser Valley Current.
Related
Need to Know
🚔 Chilliwack RCMP are investigating after two pedestrians were killed by drivers less than 24 hours apart [CityNews]
🚒 Langley firefighters have triple the workload of other fire departments in Metro Vancouver [Langley Advance Times]
🐴 Agriculture advocates say Chilliwack’s Heritage Park is not accessible for rentals, blaming bureaucratic hurdles and high costs [Chilliwack Progress]
🏉 Two Abbotsford athletes will represent Team Canada at an upcoming rugby tournament in Vancouver [Abbotsford News]
❄ The Fort Langley half marathon was cancelled due to snow last weekend [Langley Advance Times]
📦 Mission is considering allowing residents to use shipping containers for storage [Mission Record]
💪 The Abbotsford artist who created Captain Canada will be at Fan Expo this weekend, selling a comic showing the hero going toe-to-toe with Donald Trump [Abbotsford News]
🎓 Langley’s Trinity Western University has a new president [Langley Advance Times]
🚓 An Abbotsford driver was caught going nearly 80 km/h in a school zone Tuesday [Abbotsford News]
💉 Canada bought half a million bird flu vaccines for people; the vaccines will be available for people at increased risk of infection [Global News]
🦠 Another case of measles has been identified in the Lower Mainland; the case comes after someone from the Fraser Health region caught the disease overseas [CTV]
📷 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Dwayne Friesen and Mason Zynomirski for correctly identifying yesterday’s Current Cam as the east shore of Stave Lake.
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The Agenda
Langley Township council members visited salishan Place by the River earlier this month to officially open the building’s lobby and Fort Langley’s library. 📷 Salishan Place by the River/Facebook
salishan Place by the River partially opens
Visitors can finally enter Langley’s new museum and cultural centre, although they won’t be able to get farther than the lobby.
Fort Langley’s salishan Place by the River had been under construction since 2021, with unspecified delays pushing the opening date later and later. The Current reported on the building’s progress in January, when heritage stakeholders were given a first look at the interior of the museum and township staff said the building would open in early February.
That prediction, unlike earlier estimates, was accurate. On Feb. 8, the library and lobby officially opened to the public, with a ceremony featuring Langley Township councillors, Kwantlen First Nation members, and the Fraser Valley Regional Library representatives. (The Fort Langley Library had moved out of its old space in the Fort Langley Community Hall more than a year ago, and had been temporarily operating out of the Centennial Museum.)
The library is now open Tuesday to Sunday, typically opening at 10am and closing at 5pm.
The township says the rest of the museum will open in phases over the coming months. The township’s website says programming and rental spaces will be ready for use “soon,” although it does not have a timeline for when the rest of the museum will open. Currently the public only has access to the lobby. (The library has a door to the museum lobby as well as to the exterior.) The lobby is open 9am to 5pm on weekdays. A list of FAQs is available on the township’s website.
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🗓 Things to do
Rock out: The Fort Langley Community Hall hosts a classic rock dance with Inglewood on Friday. Details and tickets online.
Canine reading: St. John's Ambulance brings its therapy dogs to the Mission library on the third Thursday of the month so kids can read aloud to them. This month, the canine-book session happens today at 3pm. Registration is required. Details online.
Coldest night: Langley's Brookswood Baptist Church hosts its Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser on Saturday. Participants will walk either a 2.5k or a 5k route starting at the church. People who raise more than $150 will get a free toque. Details and registration online.
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