Friday - Dec. 7, 2023 - The new chaplains

☀️ High 6C

Good morning!

I’m getting a little bit worried about winter. But not in the way I’ve worried about winter in the past. Previously, I’ve been nervous about ice storms and snowy roads and cancelled flights. This year, I’m a little worried there won’t be enough snow. I spent every weekend I could on a ski hill last year and I had plans to do the same this year, but a lot of the mountains nearby are hurting for snow. If it keeps up like this I’ll have to take up painting or baking something. It might not be that bad a thing: my knees would probably benefit from a winter hobby that doesn’t involve falling down mountains.

– Grace

Support local journalism by supporting The Current. Become a Current Insider member today and help bring local stories to life.

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 new chaplains and the ER

Emmanuel Ayedzi has seen emergency departments erupt into feverish action around him.

Ayedzi had previously worked in acute care as a spiritual care practitioner with Fraser Health. He had the experience to handle an ED, and thought he knew what he was getting into. The reality was something different.

“I thought, ‘Wow. This is something else,’” he said. “It was a different category altogether,” 

Emergency rooms can be scary places. Patients with serious injuries and illnesses arrive for help. Pain and worry punctuate long waits. Ambulances and helicopters bring victims of car accidents, prison violence, and unforeseen calamities. 

And sometimes, people die. Another layer of fear permeates the department, invisible but tangible nonetheless. It settles in the hearts of patients, their family, and the staff looking after them. 

That’s why Ayedzi is there. 

Ayedzi is part of a pilot program putting trained spiritual care practitioners in emergency rooms in the Fraser Valley. Looking after spirits in a secular institution is a delicate dance—and one that can be transformed by the intensity and pace of an emergency department.

• Today, Grace writes about recent spiritual additions to Fraser Health emergency rooms.

Related

Need to Know

📄 Concerns are growing over an extortion scheme focused on businesses in the Fraser Valley [Global News]

🌲 Three local First Nations are leading the restoration of Hope Slough [Chilliwack Progress]

⛴️ BC Ferries asks passengers planning holiday travel to book in advance [Vancouver Sun]

🗳️ Cheam First Nation elected a new chief in a close vote [Fraser Valley Today]

➡️ One man was injured after a shooting in Mission’s Superstore parking lot [Global News]

🙋 Abbotsford-Mission MLA Pam Alexis announces her intentions to seek re-election [Mission Record]

🏥 BC argues that systemic discrimination against Indigenous people in healthcare is the responsibility of individual hospitals, not the province [North Shore News]

👉️ A Langley man was sentenced to six years in jail for stabbing his brother [Langley Advance Times]

🏍️ A woman who crashed into and killed a Chilliwack motorcyclist appeared in court [Chilliwack Progress]

🚒 The Popkum Fire Department set a new record with their annual Christmas food drive [Fraser Valley Today]

🐶 Langley’s animal shelter wants to give dogs homes for Christmas [Langley Advance Times]

☺️ TODAY’S SMILE: A mysterious song playing in the background of an X-Files episode led fans on an internet-wide hunt for the track [ScreenCrush]

Enjoying our newsletter? Help us make it even better!

Become an Insider member and help keep local journalism and storytelling alive in the Fraser Valley.

The Agenda

Abbotsford passes 5% tax hike

Abbotsford residents will face an average tax hike of around 5 per cent. (Individual tax bills depend on the increase or decrease in a property’s assessed value in comparison with average change across the city.)

Council adopted its new budget Monday, hiking its anticipated revenue by $9 million. 

Through most of the last year, Abbotsford had tried to peg its tax increases to inflation. This year, Abbotsford calculated the inflation impact on its budget to be about 3.82%, about a percentage point below the city’s tax hike. That hike now includes a 0.5% “infrastructure levy.” The city says capital costs and labour contracts are responsible for the extra costs.

Of that money, about 40% will go to pay for increasing police costs. The city expects to spend about $90 million on new capital projects this year

Police spending will amount to about $70 million next year. The city will spend around $25 million on fire and rescue services, $38 million on parks, recreation and culture, and $33 million on engineering.

Correction

Yesterday’s newsletter errantly listed a holiday market in Heritage Park in Mission. The market will actually take place at Heritage Park in Chilliwack.

Community journalism needs the entire community for it to succeed.

Become a Current member today and join 1,200+ other local supporters who help keep our lights on.

As part of a membership, you get our special weekend roundup of all the things you might’ve missed each week!

💾 Flashback Friday

Langley elementary students in 1960 spent time learning to read, write, and do math—but they also often got the opportunity to learn music. In the above photograph, a teacher sits at the piano to instruct her pupils in a song. Clustered behind her, the children hold a variety of simple instruments including tambourines, shakers, triangles, and a xylophone. Luckily for their parents, it doesn’t look like anyone has been given a recorder and told to learn “hot cross buns” at home just yet.

🗓 Things to do

⛷️ Adventure film: All Time, a Warner Miller film about skiing and snowboarding, will be shown at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on Friday, Dec. 8. Details online.

🏒 Hockey: The Vancouver Giants will play at the Langley Events Centre on Saturday, Dec. 9. The game will include a teddy bear toss. Tickets online.

🎄 Festive hay rides: Langley’s Academy Farms is offering festive farm tours in covered hay wagons on Saturday, Dec. 9. Details online.

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

Catch up

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

If you found something useful, consider forwarding this newsletter to another local.

And before you go, please let us know:

Help share The Current

Wouldn’t the Fraser Valley be better if more people had access to local, quality news – and didn’t have to rely on social media? Share The Current with your friends and help us build better communities.