Thursday - Jan. 16, 2025 - Langley City emergency program succeeding after split

🌧 High 5C

Good morning!

I’ll admit it—it was me. The last time we had a broken link, it was the fault of computer gremlins who do unspeakable things in the intricate mazes of our circuit boards. Yesterday’s broken link, however, was just sheer human error. You can find our Perspectives story on how we all feel about the start of 2025 (in short, not great) here. As an apology, and a way to get the year off to a better start, here is a link to one of my favourite music videos.

– Grace

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 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

Can new signs kickstart tourism on ‘the road less travelled’?

The Fraser Canyon has many natural attractions—mountains, forests and a fast-moving river—but two man-made objects are showcasing the route for travellers and potential tourists not familiar with a road less travelled.

Two new highway signs were unveiled along Highway 1 in Lytton and Yale in August. They serve as waymarkers along the once-bustling corridor, highlighting the canyon’s Indigenous and settler history while pointing visitors to local stops of interest.

The signs marked the first milestone in a collaboration between local governments, the province and Indigenous peoples to revitalize tourism in a region hit hard by slow growth and several natural disasters in recent years.

“I can tell you when I drive by those signs, I have a sense of pride,” said Jackie Tegart, the former Fraser-Nicola MLA who began lobbying for the project in 2019.

The signs were the first priority outlined in the Fraser Canyon Tourism Master Plan, a document that was finalized in March 2021 and expected to guide all tourism-related projects in the corridor until 2030. And the plan’s goal is ambitious and daunting—the reversal of a travel trend that has been taking place for nearly 40 years.

• Today, Josh looks at how, if at all, large highway signs can draw tourists back to the Fraser Canyon.

Related

Need to Know

🔎 The BC Coroner’s Service is still investigating a 2022 shooting spree in Langley that ended when the man was killed by police [Langley Advance Times]

🚔 A man was stabbed on a pathway near Chilliwack’s Best Buy Tuesday night; police don’t yet have a suspect [Chilliwack Progress]

⚽ Langley-based Vancouver FC has sold a promising 16-year-old player to a Belgium soccer club for $350,000; it’s the second-largest deal ever for a CPL team [Transfermarkt]

⚠ An excavator struck a gas line in Agassiz Wednesday, causing a ‘significant’ gas leak [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

👉 The Fort Langley Community Association is looking for new board members [Fort Langley Community Association]

🎂 Former Hope mayor Bud Gardner celebrated his 90th birthday yesterday [Hope Standard]

🩸 The Abbotsford plasma centre is seeking new donors [Abbotsford News]

🚒 Two chicken barns were destroyed in a fire in Chilliwack’s Greendale neighbourhood early Wednesday morning [Fraser Valley Today]

💧 Some northern Abbotsford residents have discoloured and odd-tasting water because of maintenance at the Norrish Creek water treatment plant; city staff say the water is safe to drink [City of Abbotsford]

📰 CBC will be opening a small Fraser Valley bureau covering Abbotsford, Mission, and Chilliwack [CBC]

❌ BC could ban the export of some important minerals to the United States if the US goes ahead with Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, Premier David Eby said [CBC]

📸 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Dwayne Friesen for being the first person to correctly identify yesterday’s Current Cam as the Silverdale Creek Wetlands.

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The Agenda

Langley City emergency program sees success after township split

Nearly two years after the Township of Langley announced it would be withdrawing from Langley’s joint emergency program, the City of Langley is celebrating the “outstanding work” of its own emergency preparedness team.

A few months after the 2022 municipal election, Langley Township told the city it would be withdrawing from their joint emergency program. The program had been in place for almost 25 years, and offered emergency support services to residents across both municipalities.

After the dissolution of the joint program, the city launched its own Langley City Emergency Program in the spring of 2024. (It took over the joint program’s social media pages in March of 2024, and began recruiting volunteers in April.)

In 2024, the program assisted in seven different emergencies. The emergencies were all comparatively small, with only one potentially needing a reception centre for evacuees. One of the emergencies was the October fire in McBurney Plaza, which destroyed the Viva Mexico restaurant.

“I was on site while the fires were ablaze, and I know that it was a collective trauma in the area,” Coun. Delaney Mack said during Monday’s council meeting. “Volunteers did a really good job of connecting people to services.”

The program has 31 volunteer responders, five of which are “personal disaster assistants” responsible for helping on the scene of a disaster. Eight people are trained in radio communication who can help if phone lines and internet aren’t working, two people can provide emotional support during and after disasters, and four people help with public awareness.

(Langley Township’s own emergency program is also running and began recruiting volunteers in December; applications are now closed.)

In total 52 people were evacuated in 2024, with 42 requiring emergency supports—including hotel rooms, groceries, restaurant meals, and clothing—totalling $27,800.

According to Melanie LaPointe, Langley City’s emergency manager and program advisor, the city still needs an effective emergency response plan. Over the next year, she said they plan to recruit more volunteers, as well as review and update the city’s emergency response procedures. The Langley City Emergency Program will also begin looking into emergency notification systems—like the Alertable app used by the Mission, Chilliwack, and the FVRD—to ensure residents can get updates in real time.

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Classifieds

• The Fraser Valley trails need YOU! Get your 2025 membership. [LINK]

• Happy birthday Brett! Love from G and the little monkeys.

Annual FVC members can find a link to submit their annual classified in the weekly FVC Insiders Edition. Become a FVC member here.

🗓 Things to do

🎸 Concert: Canadian singer-songwriter Ryan McAllister performs at Chilliwack's Sidekick Brewing tonight at 7pm. Details online.

🎙 Podcast talk: Bigger Than Me host Aaron Pete shares his secrets to a successful podcast at Cowork Chilliwack tonight at 5pm. The event is free. Registration and details online.

🚙 Four-wheel drive: The Four Wheel Drive Association of BC hosts a Foundations of Four Wheeling class on Saturday at the Hayward Lake Rec Area parking lot. Tickets are $150 for current association members. Details and registration online.

Want even more? Insider members now get a curated selection of the best upcoming events each Saturday. 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.

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Catch up

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