Friday - June 6, 2025 - Harrison wants emergency room closure alerts

☀ High 25C

Good morning!

Despite the fact that I don’t drink beer, one of my favourite date night locations is Farmhouse Brewing in Chilliwack. The atmosphere is great. The cider is decent. The charcuterie board contains a honey mustard dip and Emmental cheese that go great together. And there is a $600 painting of cows in front of Mt. Cheam that I wish I could take home. What’s not to like?

– Grace

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Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope 

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🛣 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

Q&A: Sonny McHalsie on the past, present and future

After more than 40 years with the Stó:lō Research and Resource Management, historian Sonny McHalsie has retired, leaving a legacy as one of the most respected Stó:lō historians of this era.

But he’s not completely done.

Last week, we wrote about McHalsie’s decades-long career, his many accomplishments, and his impact on how people view the Fraser Valley’s history. (You can read that story at the link below.)

We spoke to McHalsie shortly after his last day of work, asking a scholar of the past about his own personal future.

• Today, Grace shares what McHalsie said about his plans, his books, and what he hopes for the future of Halq'eméylem place name studies.

Related

Need to Know

🚒 An RV caught fire near Silver Creek Elementary in Hope Thursday morning [Fraser Valley Today]

💰 BC’s Civil Forfeiture Grant program has awarded five Abbotsford organizations $180,000 to improve community safety [Abbotsford News]

🗨 Langley residents will get another chance to comment on a scaled-back plan for a new light industrial district in the community [Langley Advance Times]

🐻 Hope bear advocate Lydia Koot reminds residents to be bear aware as we head into mating season [Hope Standard] / The Current interviewed Koot about her time protecting bears back in 2022 [FVC]

🚛 Big rigs will no longer be driving through Mission’s downtown core, the city says [Fraser Valley Today]

🚑 One person was injured in a semi-truck fire near Spuzzum last week [Hope Standard]

🚲 Two Abbotsford cyclists are heading out on the South American leg of their years-long journey to raise money for charity [Abbotsford News]

🌈 The Langley Pride Society celebrates its first anniversary this month [Langley Advance Times]

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Get your Scot on

ScotFestBC roars back June 20 and 21, filling the park with pipes, Celtic riffs, caber tossing, and a refreshed whisky school. A great weekend of fun and music you won’t want to miss – in Coquitlam’s Town Centre Park. Find information and tickets here.

The Agenda

Alerts for ER closures to be discussed at UBCM this fall

Closures at emergency departments across BC should come with a notification for residents, Harrison Hot Springs has said. The request to create an emergency notification system for when emergency departments close will be discussed by all BC municipalities this fall.

At the Lower Mainland Local Government Association conference last month, Harrison Hot Springs proposed a resolution to push the province to create a standardized system of text alerts, app notifications, and media releases to tell the public when their local emergency room would be closed.

The resolution noted that the province does not have a “reliable and immediate” notification system to tell people about ER closures and where else they can go for care. Currently, Fraser Health publishes news releases about the closures on its website, and media outlets often (but not always) publish the news.

Emergency rooms and other hospital departments across the province have been closed due to staffing issues many times throughout the last several years. Between 2019 and 2022, maternity wards at several hospitals sent pregnant patients to other cities due to “temporary gaps in pediatric coverage.” (You can read The Current’s 2022 story on the diversions here.)

More recently, Mission’s hospital has seen a number of temporary closures of its ER. The emergency department has closed at least seven times since this time last year. (The closures were labelled “service adaptions” or “service interruptions” by Fraser Health.)

Representatives of municipalities from across the Lower Mainland endorsed Harrison’s resolution in late May. The idea will now be discussed at the Union of BC Municipalities conference this September. The conference will bring council members from local governments across BC to discuss a number of resolutions on wide-ranging topics relevant to local governments.

If UBCM delegates endorse Harrison’s closure alert resolution, the idea will be sent to the province. There is no guarantee the province will make any changes as a result.

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🗓 Things to do

Cancer fundraiser: Langley's Twins Cancer Foundation hosts a western-themed fundraiser at Jamestown Studios on Saturday starting at 5pm. The night will include local artists and actors, live music, and offerings from local restaurants, wineries, breweries, and distilleries. All proceeds go to the Langley Memorial Hospital for cancer treatment and care. Details and tickets online.

Bottle drive: Abbotsford's "Cat Daddy" is holding bottle drives to raise funds for local cats in need throughout the month of June. The first bottle drive takes place on Saturday at Abbotsford's Ellwood Park from 11am to 2pm. Details online.

Violin concert: The Fraser Valley Symphony presents Echoes Across Time with violin soloist Karl Stobbe at the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium on Sunday. Details online.

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

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