Friday - March 7, 2025 - What’s with that Chilliwack lot full of white cars?

⛅ High 10C

Good morning!

I blame Ferris Bueller for our current tariff predicament. If he had only gone to school, instead of taking his elaborate skip day, he would have learned about the impact of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act. And even though Ferris is a fictional character, that maybe would have changed the course of history today.

(You can learn what Ferris did not here.)

If you appreciate our efforts to keep you informed via 1980s pop culture references and also real, legitimate journalism, please consider becoming a member. You can do so online here. (Members are currently watching another of my favourite scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.)

– Grace

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

‘We can’t just wait for nature’

A farmworker knocked on James Krahn’s door in late October last year. The turkeys were sick. They didn’t know what it was for sure, but in the fall, one disease is the most likely culprit: avian influenza.

Krahn called BC’s sick bird hotline, which connects callers directly to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s rapid response team.

“It was hard to make that call,” Krahn said. “It’s something no farmer wants to do, but [we know] we’ve got to get ahead of it.”

Within a few hours, officials from the CFIA were at the farm, taking samples to analyze at the nearby Animal Health Centre laboratory in Abbotsford. By that evening, Krahn had the results. It was bird flu. His entire flock would have to be euthanized.

It was hard to hear—and the situation was made even more devastating by another one of his flocks falling victim to the virus a week later. It also wasn’t the first time Krahn and his brothers, who own multiple poultry barns in Abbotsford, had faced avian influenza.

• Today, Grace shares how Fraser Valley poultry farms and researchers are managing avian influenza and preparing for future outbreaks of the virus.

Related

Need to Know

🚨 Depending on circumstances outside of our control, we may post an exclusive story relevant to provincial politics on our website Friday afternoon; we will also include a link in our Insider members’ newsletter on Saturday - Tyler

🌲 The United States is pausing tariffs only on goods covered by the existing Canada-US-Mexico trade agreement until April 2; Canada will not be lifting any of its retaliatory tariffs in response [CBC] / Premier David Eby said BC’s tariff response will include tolls on American trucks travelling to Alaska [CTV]

🏫 Chilliwack MLA Á’a:líya Warbus said the BC Conservatives need to get on the same page after a Conservative colleague railed against her in a row over residential school denialism [Global]

🌡 Langley’s Salvation Army Gateway of Hope has opened its extreme weather shelter due to freezing overnight temperatures [Langley Advance Times]

🚧 Work has begun on a 56-bed supporting housing project in Hope [Hope Standard]

🏘 BC’s housing legislation is bringing ‘significant opportunity’ to Mission’s waterfront, the head of the city's economic development corporation says [Mission Record]

⚖ The murder trial for Trina Hunt’s husband has been delayed another month [Global]

👉 Lumber barons, the KKK, and faith punctuate a telling of the history of Abbotsford’s historic Gur Sikh Gurdwara [The Tyee] / We wrote about a drive to document the history of the temple back in 2022 [FVC]

🦠 Another Lower Mainland resident has been infected with measles after travelling; people who visited Royal Columbian Hospital’s emergency room on Tuesday may have been exposed [Fraser Health]

📚 Langley library visits have increased by 20% in one year [Langley Advance Times]

🗳 Peter Wall, one of Vancouver's most-prominent developers, has died [Daily Hive] / Wall was raised in Abbotsford; you can read a 2012 profile of him here [Vancouver Magazine]

📷 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Mason Zynomirski for correctly identifying this week’s Current Cam as Aldergrove Regional Park.

MEMBERS ONLY

This week’s FVC Insiders’ Edition

In tomorrow’s members-only newsletter, Tyler reveals which Fraser Valley mayors we think rely on vibes and passion, and which focus on details and process. He’ll also share what Insiders have to say about their mayor’s approach.

Get this weekend’s edition in your inbox tomorrow at 7am—and support our daily journalism—by becoming a member here. If you are a municipality looking for a group membership for your staff or council members, send us an email.

The Agenda

What’s with that lot full of white cars in Chilliwack?

Earlier this week, we had a reader ask about a fenced-in lot off Caen Avenue next to UFV in Chilliwack. He was wondering why there were so many RCMP vehicles stored there, and what the plans were for the cars.

According to the Chilliwack RCMP, the vehicles are all new police cars and trucks, waiting to be distributed to Mounties across BC and Yukon. The lot has been in use since 2019. The RCMP didn’t have an estimate on how many vehicles are typically stored there, but a recent Google satellite image showed around 200 cars in the lot.

Clearbrook water doesn’t win tasting competition

Previously award-winning water from Abbotsford has not made the podium of an international tasting competition this year.

The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting Festival took place last month in West Virginia. The competition is the longest-running water tasting in the world, according to its website, and judges municipal water, bottled water, and various kinds of sparkling water.

This year, Abbotsford was one of four Canadian cities to enter the municipal category (the other three were all from Ontario). Its Clearbrook Waterworks District, which provides drinking water to residents in Abbotsford’s Clearbrook neighbourhood, has won the title of best municipal water in the world seven times since 2008. (It also won silver and bronze medals in the category.)

This year, however, Clearbrook’s water did not place. The title instead went to Emporia, in Kansas. You can see photos of the festival, including the many, many glasses of water, here.

Clearbrook Waterworks has had a tough year. In November, a rare boil water advisory was in place for five days after a "breach" at its reservoir.

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🗓 Things to do

Women’s panel: UFV hosts a panel between four local leaders for International Women’s Day today at 2:30pm in Abbotsford. The panelists include aviation leader Cathy Press (who we interviewed here) and Indigenous educator Christine Seymour (who we interviewed here). Details and registration online.

Swelling workshop: The BC Lymphademia Association hosts a workshop about chronic swelling for patients and health care workers in Chilliwack on Saturday. Registration is $10. Details online.

Survivor rally: Abbotsford Drug War Survivors host a rally in front of Abbotsford's City Hall on Saturday at noon. The group has put together a petition and letter to politicians asking for space for a structured camp and more services to help tackle the toxic drug crisis. Details online.

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Catch up

That’s it!

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