Monday - July 14, 2025 - Hospital struggles continue

🌤 High 26C

Good morning!

Did last Wednesday seem to move a little quicker for you? If so, maybe you’re particularly sensitive to the spinning of the earth. For millions of years, our days have generally been getting longer because of the influence of the moon. In 200 million years, our days will be 25 hours long. But over the last five years, the earth has actually been spinning faster according to this fascinating article. That makes for shorter days and it turns out that last Wednesday was among the three quickest days this year. Now, it wasn’t so quick that I could feel an extra quarter-millisecond. But maybe you’re more sensitive.

– Tyler

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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

The pinks are coming

Twenty-nine million pink salmon could be swimming in the salt water off British Columbia’s coast, waiting for their chance to journey up the Fraser and spawn.

Canada’s Department of Fisheries is anticipating a record-breaking number of pink salmon to enter the Fraser River this August. The salmon typically return to spawn every other year, and this year is expected to be one of the best returns on record.

But as Murray Ned, executive director of the Lower Fraser Fisheries Alliance, notes, expectations don’t always turn into reality.

Ned’s organization helps confirm salmon numbers after the run begins and also advocates for First Nations to get designated fishing times during the salmon run. He’s hopeful that humpbacked, nutrient-rich salmon will return in huge numbers to the Fraser River and its tributaries—but warns people shouldn’t count their salmon before they spawn.

• Today, we have Grace’s interview with Ned about this year’s salmon returns—and the best way to cook a pink if you land one.

Related

Need to Know

👉 After half a year, an elevator that has been out of service in a Langley seniors home has finally been fixed [Global]

👉 The Abbotsford School District has hired a new superintendent [Abbotsford News]

👉 Police say three women worked together to steal a significant amount of perfume in Mission [Mission Record]

👉 Police will use genealogy records to try to identify a woman whose remains were found 30 years ago near Mission, and whose DNA was also found on Robert Pickton’s farm [Mission Record]

👉 Langley Township has passed a new amenity policy to replace the one recently rejected by a judge [Langley Advance Times]

👉 Plans to build a massive TV facility in Langley Township have been scrapped, the mayor recently said [Aldergrove Star]

👉 A 24-year-old Mission man still hasn’t been found a year after being declared missing [Mission Record]

👉 The RCMP has named a new superintendent for the Eastern Fraser Valley [Hope Standard]

👉 A wildfire near Hope is under control, but may smoulder all summer [Hope Standard]

👉 The Western Hockey League is still sifting through potential owners for its new Chilliwack franchise [The Province]

👉 A new controlled crosswalk will be built over 86 Avenue in Langley [Langley Advance Times]

👉 Hope council narrowly voted to allow the renovated station house to have less parking than otherwise would be required [Hope Standard]

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The Agenda

Fraser Health congestion issues only growing worse

The Fraser Valley’s long overcrowded hospitals have only grown more congested in the last year.

Recently released online data for the Fraser Health region shows that just 18 per cent of inpatients were admitted to a bed within 10 hours of arriving in hospital during the 2024/25 fiscal year. Fraser Health has a 65% target for the key measure of hospital congestion. Fraser Health’s hospitals have been making the opposite of progress toward that distant target over the last five years. In 2023/24, 20% of inpatients were admitted within 10 hours.

Across the Fraser Health region, which stretches from White Rock to Hope, Delta Hospital and Maple Ridge’s Eagle Ridge Hospital had the worst figures last year, with fewer than 7% of patients lingering for more than 10 hours waiting for a bed. At Langley Memorial Hospital, just 12% of patients were admitted in a timely fashion. Those figures were slightly higher in Chilliwack (16%) and Abbotsford (22%).

To see the latest Fraser Health hospital report cards, click here.

To read our story on hospital capacity issues across BC, click here.

In April, one Dr. Saad Ahmed, the medical director of homelessness, supported housing and complex care for Vancouver Coastal Health, suggested governments could use underutilized office space to increase health care capacity. You can read his piece here.

🗓 Things to do

Forest ‘bathing’: Chilliwack & Fraser Cascade Childcare Resource & Referral and the Fraser Valley Regional Library are hosting a peaceful, guided forest walk designed to reduce stress and boost well-being Tuesday at 10am in the Chilliwack Community Forest. Details online.

Park yoga: The Abbotsford Downtown Business Association hosts free yoga classes in Jubilee Park every Wednesday at 6pm. Details online.

Bozzini’s blues: Blues singer Crystal Shawanda performs at Bozzini's Restaurant on Thursday, July 17. Details and tickets online.

Time travel: Agassiz Harrison Museum hosts ‘Time Traveler Day’ to introduce children to the daily life of a child during Agassiz’s earliest years Friday at 1pm. Details online.

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Catch up

That’s it!

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