Monday, May 15, 2023 - Increasing calls for better 9-1-1 responses

Monday, May 15, 2023 | 🥵 High 34C | Forecast

Good morning!

Despite living in BC (the land of rivers and mountains) my entire life, I only recently learned the word freshet. It’s an annual high-water event caused by snowmelt on a river. Freshet season, when all the snow is melting into rivers and rushing towards the ocean, is a fancy way of saying spring flood season—like the one we’re in right now.

The real trick, now that I know the word, is making sure I learn how it’s pronounced before I use it in a conversation. I still have a college friend who makes fun of me for pronouncing scintillating as “skintillating” once because I learned it from a book. Now I always double-check.

Thanks to new members Corrinne and Joe. You can join them and support our work here. Help us reach our next milestone of 700 members.

NEWS

Calls grow to improve 9-1-1 service

Fraser Valley politicians will consider this week whether to push the provincial government to do more to improve responses to 9-1-1 calls.

In April, The Current wrote about how the agency that answers most 9-1-1 calls was struggling to promptly connect those in need with emergency responders.

• Today, Tyler writes about the increasing demands for timelier help for those in need.

Need to know

👮 Langley Township won't receive provincial approval for its separate RCMP detachment until it can show a plan for the transition [Langley Advance Times]

🍻 The Chilliwack Museum is hosting its annual ‘Hops and Heritage’ fundraiser; tickets go on sale today [Chilliwack Museum/Twitter]

🚗 A new online group is arranging car pool trips around Chilliwack during the transit strike [Chilliwack Progress]

⚡️ BC Hydro is hoping to charge customers less for electricity during off-peak hours and more during busiest hours [Global News]

🚲️ A Chilliwack woman took a long trip via bike and train to a Vancouver school on Earth Day [Chilliwack Progress]

➡️ A crash involving a group of motorcycles outside Hope caused delays on the Coquihalla on Sunday [Hope Standard]

🎙️ May at the Bez Arts Hub in Langley includes live music and open mic nights [Langley Advance Times]

 ⚖️ Charges were laid in a hit-and-run that killed a 47-year-old woman in Abbotsford last year [Abbotsford News]

👉️ A Chilliwack judge denied an inmate series’ of unusual requests, including one for legal assistance from a Wiccan priestess [Chilliwack Progress]

➡️ An MLA for Chilliwack is working with Project AIM to put on period education sessions [Chilliwack Progress]; The Current wrote about Project Aim last year, read that story here [FVC]

💵 Arts and culture organizations in Agassiz and Chilliwack will receive government funding to help them recover from the pandemic [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🔥 The Chilliwack Fire Department responded to several structural fires early Saturday morning [Chilliwack Progress]

🌳 New plans for Brookswood neighbourhood include more density and more trees [Langley Advance Times]

🎥 Documentary-making YouTubers from Utah were chasing the legend of Sasquatch in Harrison Hot Springs [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

🚧 A second sinkhole near the Trans Mountain pipeline construction site in Langley restricted 240 Street to one-lane traffic on Sunday [Langley Advance Times]

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The Agenda

Mission considers highway townhouse complex proposal

Mission council will consider Monday whether an apartment building and townhome complex should be built along Lougheed Highway in Hatzic.

A developer has applied to build 60 townhomes and a six-storey 44-unit apartment building on a four-acre lot near Hatzic. The property had previously been designated for tourist-oriented commercial uses, but staff are recommending sending the proposal to a public hearing, pointing to the need for housing, particularly in existing neighbourhoods near schools.

Hatzic Middle School is a short distance to the north, though Lougheed Highway does not currently have a sidewalk, and a site plan for the complex does not suggest any paths that would allow children to use other neighbouring roads to get to school.

NEWS

Spotted owls found dead

Two spotted owls released to the wild in the Fraser Canyon last year have been found dead.

Spuzzum First Nation Chief James Hobart and the provincial government made the announcement Friday afternoon.

The Current wrote in January about the decades-long effort to return the endangered owls to the wild, and the early success of the release.

In a press release, Hobart said that the remains of the two owls were discovered in early May.

"While we hoped this day would not come so soon, we also knew from the start that we were taking on a project that had many variables,” he said. “In the coming months, I promise that we will honour our relatives not only by retracing their last days, but also by retracing every step we took up until the owls' release and after to better ascertain what we could have done differently to ensure their survival.”

Hobart had told The Current that the various organizations participating in the program were aware of the risks and had mutually promised that they would work together, and not blame one another, if difficulties arose. He reiterated that in his statement Friday.

“I promise that it's with new resolve and determination that we will increase our efforts, doing whatever it takes to avoid ever having to experience this space in time again,” Hobart said in his statement. “As the host Nation, we extend our deepest sympathy to Jasmine McCulligh and the entire breeding centre staff, as we're aware that you have put your trust in our hands..”

You can click here to read the rest of Hobart’s statement, along with comments from the co-ordinator of the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program and BC’s Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. 

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