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- Wednesday - July 26, 2023 - Lytton waits for a healthcare centre
Wednesday - July 26, 2023 - Lytton waits for a healthcare centre
Tyler Olsen
July 26, 2023
Wednesday, July 26, 2023 | Today: 🌦️ High 21C
Good morning!
I didn’t know that it was possible to be underdressed to go see a movie in a theatre. But I went to see Barbie last weekend and, in my shorts and T-shirt, I felt goofy and out of place among the sparkly pink dresses and fancy heels. The real tragedy? I actually wanted to dress up for the movie but digging through my closet that afternoon, I realized that I don’t own a single stitch of pink.
Speaking of art, members can learn about Tyler’s newfound appreciation for it at the bottom of today’s newsletter.
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WORTH KNOWING
🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope
⚠️ Here’s the current smoke forecast / Check the BC Wildfire Dashboard here
🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.
NEWS
Lytton faces a three-year wait (or longer) for a permanent healthcare centre
A new temporary health centre is nearly complete just north of the village of Lytton. 📷 Interior Health
Former residents aren’t the only people thinking about building anew in Lytton.
Two years after the village burned, and despite the grinding delays in rebuilding, local officials say they are fielding calls from outsiders or former residents interested in buying property in the community.
Meanwhile, a plan to rebuild Lytton’s health centre could be completed this fall, but it still may take another five years for the facility to actually be built and open.
Related story
Need to know
🍲 Chawathil First Nation in Hope held a ceremony to thank and honour wildfire fighters working on the Davis Lake fire [Hope Standard]
🦉 BC doesn’t want the federal government to use extreme measures to save the spotted owl, citing economic impacts in the forestry sector [The Narwal]; The Current wrote about the effort to save the owls earlier this year [FVC]
👮 Police believe the abduction of Aurora and Joshua Bolton, subjects of an ongoing Amber Alert, was planned and that the group is now living off-grid [Vancouver Sun]
🛌 A 20-bed emergency shelter in downtown Abbotsford will be closed after neighbours complained and council declined an extension [Abbotsford News]
⚾️ The Abbotsford Outlaws, a women’s U-17 softball team, won the provincial championship [Abbotsford News]
🚗 A head-on collision in Chilliwack Tuesday afternoon may have been caused by a drunk driver [Chilliwack Progress]
🚘️ A competition to win the use of a Jeep in Langley will have contestants keep their hands on the prize until the last person standing wins [Langley Advance Times]
🚿 Lawn-watering despite restrictions is responsible for higher water usage in Metro Vancouver [Langley Advance Times]
👉️ One year after a shooting spree in Langley, a call grows for memorials commemorating the victims [Langley Advance Times]
🏓 A hunger strike protesting pickleball noise in Chilliwack ended with no resolution in sight [Chilliwack Progress]
🔌 An extension cord “was involved” in the start of a two-alarm house fire on Young Road in Chilliwack [Chilliwack Progress]
⚕️ What’s important for your health and community? Complete the BC SPEAK Survey by July 31 for a chance to win prizes. Full contest rules, regulations at FraserHealth.ca.*
*Sponsored Listing
The Agenda
Former fire chief Jamie Coutts was in Fort McMurray when it burned in 2016. 📷️ Roman Becker/Shutterstock
Slave Lake fire chief to speak in Harrison
Former Slave Lake fire chief Jamie Coutts will be in Harrison Hot Springs Wednesday evening speaking to residents there about how to better protect their community.
Coutts led the Slave Lake fire department between 2001 and 2019, and was present when a wildfire destroyed much of his town in 2011. He later also witnessed the devastating fire that ravaged Fort McMurray in 2016.
Coutts will speak in Harrison about how to better prepare for wildfires. He has also been asked to speak about the need for a secondary evacuation route. Residents of the area have only one year-round route out of town—south via Highway 9—that can be used in case of an emergency. For decades, the municipality has been eyeing the creation of a second evacuation corridor through Sasquatch Provincial Park, but plans for that have yet to come to fruition and receive the necessary approvals from the provincial government. (We wrote about ongoing debates about that route last month.)
The meeting takes place at Memorial Hall in Harrison Hot Springs at 7:15 PM .
🤝 Now hiring
• Victim assistance program coordinator for the District of Hope
• Employment resource advisor at WCG in Chilliwack
• Event assistant and receptionist at Fraser River Lodge in Agassiz
• Restorative classroom facilitator at Chilliwack Restorative Justice
• Events planner at Valley Personel in Abbotsford
Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!
📸 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.
Any guesses as to where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form with your best guess—or with a picture we can use in a future edition.
Things to do
🏳️🌈 Pride Festival: Celebrate pride at the 11th annual Fraser Valley Pride celebration festival and walk on Saturday, July 29 at Mission’s Fraser River Heritage Park. Details online.
🎸 Concert: Gift Shop, a Tragically Hip cover band, is playing a live show at Hope’s Mountainview Brewing Company on Saturday, July 29. Tickets online.
🎨 Portrait painting: Art in the Country in Langley hosts a one-day "summer intensive" model portraiture event Saturday, July 29. A model will hold a pose for artists for five hours. Email [email protected] or contact Susan at 604-856-0634 for more information.
Have an event to tell us about? Fill out this form to have it highlighted here.
Catch up
What did you think of today's newsletter? |
A sculpture by David Ruben Piqtoukun. 📷️ Davidruben.com
I am not, unfortunately, a big art guy. I sometimes would like to be but I have never really found the time for it. That’s on me, I guess. But a couple months back, I was in Toronto for the first time in 25 years, and I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The place has big, important paintings everywhere. But I enjoyed nothing so much as an exhibit showcasing the work of David Ruben Piqtoukun.
I had never heard of Piqtoukun. My interest in, and knowledge of, Inuit art was about the same as my awareness of all other forms of fine art: which is to say middling.
But there was something about Piqtoukun’s sculptures that got to me. It wasn’t just that they were interesting and skillfully carved. It wasn’t necessarily the message. It was the fact that many were all that and also, for a lack of a better word, amusing. Deliberately amusing. Also: downright interesting. His art was informed by modern art techniques, but his pieces seemed intended to bring the audience and viewer toward them, not repel them.
You can see some of them here and his website here.
But the works are best seen in person. It seems unlikely that he will have a show locally, but plenty of interesting artists display works regularly in facilities like The Reach Gallery in Abbotsford and salishan Place by the River in Langley. And right now, between Hope and Agassiz, carver George Price is completing a house post, in public. (I mentioned this in the weekend newsletter.)
I had never heard of Piqtoukun before his art delighted me. Once you start looking for great art, whether locally or internationally, you start to see it everywehere.
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