Wednesday - July 17, 2024 - The corny truth

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Good morning!

We’ve had a great month here at The Current in terms of growth. We have added something like 800 new free subscribers, which is important for our long-term future. But believe it or not, we’re still not actually, uh, making money. We exist partly because of the incredible support of our FVC Insider Members, and partly because that support and our ongoing growth has convinced our parent company that maybe, one day, we won’t lose money. So we still need to make progress. If you haven’t become a member and value this newsletter, please consider paying for news. It works out to about $2 a month, gets you our weekend Insider newsletter, and helps ensure we’ll be around for years to come. If you can’t afford to contribute, or if you’re already a member, please consider forwarding this newsletter to your friends and family and telling them to subscribe via the box down there 👇.

– 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

After decades of inaction, Chilliwack is running out of time to save a historic neighbourhood

The City of Chilliwack's own lacklustre heritage protection rules may limit its ability to stop redevelopment of a historic downtown neighbourhood.

New provincial housing rules recently came into effect that overruled municipal density limits near transit exchanges. These rules are meant to stimulate home-building in areas where residents won’t need cars, or places to park them.

But Chilliwack’s downtown bus exchange is just a block away from a historic neighbourhood the city has long eyed for its heritage value. A ‘Heritage Walk’ has been in the works for more than a decade—and eager developers could now undermine the city’s plans if it doesn’t move fast.

• Today, Grace looks at the rules around redeveloping heritage properties near transit hubs, and explains why Chilliwack’s heritage policies aren't currently strong enough to protect the historic homes it wants to showcase.

Related

Need to Know

🌲 The re-opening of two Othello Tunnels now won’t take place until September [Hope Standard]

⚖ The husband of Naomi Onotera was sentenced to 16 years in prison for her killing [CTV]

🔎 The court previously heard details of how an undercover police operation tricked the killer into confessing [Langley Advance Times]

👉 A lack of communication between child welfare agencies contributed to the death of an 11-year-old child at the hands of his approved caregivers, BC’s Children’s Representative said in a report [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

✅ Parole officials in Abbotsford have granted full parole to an infamous killer; the man has been living at a Vancouver halfway house [CityNews]

🎬 The operators of the Hope Cinema say they are ending their ties with the theatre in the fall, leaving the facility’s future in doubt [Fraser Valley Today]

🏉 Willoughby Stadium in Langley will host a series of Women’s World Championship rugby matches this fall; tickets go on sale July 25 [Langley Events Centre]

👉 A serious crash involving a logging truck closed Highway 7 between Mission and Maple Ridge [CityNews]

💰 BC’s Ministry of Children and Family Development spent nearly $300k on a program for youth that many can’t access [IndigiNews]

⚠ The Clearbrook Road highway junction was Abbotsford’s most-frequent crash location last year [Abbotsford News]

🛶 A kayaker tumbled from her vessel into Cultus Lake, but was rescued without injuries thanks to the lifejacket she wore [Chilliwack Progress]

👉 A man who beat his victim to death with a baseball bat died in an Abbotsford prison [Abbotsford News]

🐶 Wow this has been a more-depressing-than-usual list of links. Here’s a photo of an adorable puppy.

🪕 Find Your Folk at the Mission Folk Music Festival, July 26-28 at Fraser River Heritage Park. Brilliant music, dance, Wee Folks fun, on-site camping and more!*

*Sponsored Listing

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The Agenda

The Fraser Valley corn king is… Abbotsford?

It’s summer and across British Columbia, people are chowing down on Chilliwack corn. Or, at least, corn they imagine to be from Chilliwack.

The valley’s little secret is that while Chilliwack is famous for its sweet-tasting corn, Canada’s last Census of Agriculture suggests that more cobs are actually grown in Abbotsford.

The 2021 farm census (we wrote that year about how and why it’s conducted) counted 18 farms in Chilliwack growing 708 acres of sweet corn. In Abbotsford, 28 farms grew an estimated 931 acres. Much of that corn was grown on Sumas Prairie, a previous city report on agriculture found.

That doesn’t necessarily mean your local corn stand is lying to you. Distribution methods and marketing strategies may mean that Chilliwack’s corn-growers focus on road-side distribution methods while Abbotsford’s send their corn to markets where it is labelled as “BC grown.” We don’t know, though. If you’re a corn marketing expert, please get in touch!

No water woes yet for Abbotsford and Mission

A relatively wet spring has left Abbotsford and Mission’s water supply in good shape to weather a dry July. The two lakes that provide most of the drinking water for the two communities remained at capacity into late June. Last year, drawdown of the lakes began weeks earlier, and though 2023 was one of the driest on record, the cities’ water system withstood the drought without significant problems.

This year, the summer has started with the system in even better shape, according to data provided to the joint committee that oversees water issues in Abbotsford and Mission. That’s good news given that the region’s summers are now, on average, twice as dry as they were just 30 years ago. You can read our 2023 story on those trends here.

Through mid-June, demand for water has been lower than last year as well.

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SPONSORED BY FORT LANGLEY JAZZ & ARTS FESTIVAL

Fort Langley Jazz Festival returns with stellar lineup

Get ready to groove because the countdown is on!

The Fort Langley Jazz & Arts Festival, one of the summer’s most highly anticipated music and arts festivals in the Fraser Valley, takes place from July 25-28.

Known for its vibrant atmosphere and diverse musical lineup, the four-day Festival was named one of Vancouver Sun’s “Top Ten BC Music Festivals” for the summer of 2024. 

📸 Current Cam

Each week we showcase a different photo from across the valley and invite readers to share their best guesses about where it was taken.

Think you know where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form.

🗓 Things to do

Mission invasive plants talk: The Fraser Valley Conservancy hosts a free invasive plants workshop today from 6 to 8:30pm at All Saints Hall in Mission. Details online.

Cider bingo: Taves Estate Cidery in Abbotsford hosts music bingo with an ’80s and ’90s theme on Wednesday. Bingo starts at 6:30pm and includes nostalgic music and cider sips. Details online.

Shakespeare in the park: Bard in the Valley is moving its performance of A Winter's Tale to its second Langley venue. The play moves to Douglas Park on July 18, where general seating is free, and reserved seats are $16. Details and performance dates online.

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

Catch up

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