Wednesday - Oct. 2, 2024 - Grease lightning: Cooking oil now fuels Fraser Valley Express

🌦 High 15C

Good morning!

Saturday was World News Day, a day “created” to recognize the importance of news to society. Like many special days on the calendar, World News Day is mostly an awareness and marketing ploy. But like many of those markers, the ploy has a necessary and good reason.

My friend recently asked me if I found it uncomfortable asking for money in the newsletter. I told him I had no problem doing so. For one, we aren’t asking for money to pad our bank accounts. The support we are seeking is to keep us going and, ideally, hire more people in the future. Plus, if money was my personal focus, I’d get a public relations job. I don’t because I get value out of this job’s meaningfulness: I think local news is important to unite communities, provide common facts, hold authorities responsible, and provide the foundations of a society built on mutual trust.

And because I’ve seen what happens to news organizations that don’t have enough money to keep them going, and because I know The Current only exists because of the financial support from our Insider Members (and from advertisers), I don’t feel bad about asking people to kick in a couple dollars each week to support it.

If you are already a member, thank you so much for your support. If you’re not, you can become a member here. If you want to advertise, you can do so here. And if all you can do is forward this newsletter to a friend and recommend us, that helps too and we greatly appreciate it.

– Tyler

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

NEWS

Abbotsford’s hospital is the most-crowded in BC—but Langley and Chilliwack aren’t far behind

The situation at BC’s most-overcrowded large hospital has grown considerably worse in the last five years.

Abbotsford Regional Hospital was already operating well over capacity in 2019, before the pandemic hit. Five years later, though, the facility’s decade-old congestion issues have hit yet another dismal peak, according to figures obtained by The Current.

Last year, the Fraser Valley’s largest hospital operated at 128% capacity over the entirety of the 2023/24 fiscal year. Essentially, for every four admitted patients for which the hospital had capacity, ARH’s staff also had to find space for—and time to treat—one additional person. That statistic is the worst of any major BC hospital in the last decade.

But it’s more than just a number; it reflects the very real state of ARH’s care wards. Last week, the challenges prompted a group of doctors to publicly decry the situation, noting that patient beds are sometimes placed in shower areas.

The situation at ARH is extreme, but hardly unique, according to the data obtained by The Current. Two dozen other health care facilities across BC also had occupancy rates above 110%. That group included hospitals in Langley and Chilliwack.

• Today, Tyler reveals reports on the province’s overcrowded hospitals, the challenges in Abbotsford, Chilliwack and Langley, and the tentative signs of progress amid ongoing struggle. You can also find a table with five years of capacity figures for every hospital in BC.

Related

Need to Know

🌲 The University of the Fraser Valley has published its annual list of employee pay for workers who make more than $75,000 [UFV]

💰 A central Abbotsford apartment building has been listed for sale for $20 million [Realtor.com]

🚛 Chilliwack residents can drop off scrap metal for free at the Bailey Landfill during October [City of Chilliwack]

🚙 The arrival of October means winter tires are now required on most highways [CBC]

🚔 A Hope Mountie who shot and killed a man in Fraser Canyon Hospital was justified to use his gun, BC’s police watchdog has ruled [Hope Standard]

🚑 The Coquihalla Highway was closed south of Merritt after a serious crash [Castanet]

🐶 Langley Township may ask to cut the city out of its contract with Langley Animal Protection Society [Langley Advance Times]

🗳 Election 2024

The BC Election campaign continues until election day on Saturday, Oct. 19. Advance voting begins Thursday, Oct. 10. Find everything you need to know by visiting one of our local election hubs:

Chilliwack, Hope, and the Eastern Valley | Abbotsford and Mission | Langley

The latest

👉 The Fraser Valley’s chambers of commerce have called for BC’s political parties to commit to modernizing farm agriculture rules, invest in universities, and plan for two decades of transportation upgrades [Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce]

👉 Here is a breakdown of the BC NDP and Conservatives’ promises on the housing crisis [Vancouver Sun]

👉 The BC Green Party released its platform for the upcoming election [CBC]

The Agenda

West Coast Express now fuelled by grease

The West Coast Express is now using old cooking oil, animal fats, and vegetable oil to power its trains.

The diesel locomotives that pull the commuter passenger train no longer use conventional diesel to power their engines. Instead, TransLink says they are now fuelled by renewable diesel made from waste products. The renewable diesel has lower carbon emissions than the petroleum-based fuel.

(Renewable diesel is similar to biodiesel, in that it uses waste products, but is produced by a different method. It is more chemically similar to petroleum diesel, so conventional engines can use it without needing to blend fuels.)

TransLink estimates that switching to renewable diesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions from the trains by 3,200-tonnes a year (the equivalent of 940 cars each year). The switch to renewable diesel is not the first environmentally-conscious change the fleet has made. In 2023, TransLink began upgrading its locomotives to reduce engine emissions and extend their lifespans. Last week we reported on the train’s funding, and warnings that its future could be in jeopardy.

Click here to read more about the West Coast Express, and other passenger trains in the Fraser Valley.

Share

You can share this newsletter by forwarding it or copy and pasting this link—https://fvcurrent.com/p/october-2-2024/—into a social media post.

📸 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

BCHL hockey: The Chilliwack Chiefs host the Coquitlam Express at the Chilliwack Coliseum Saturday, Oct. 5. Tickets online.

Mission songs: Four Mission artists will release their community-inspired songs at the Mission Record Release Party at the Clarke Theatre on Friday, Oct. 4. You can read our story about the project here. Patrick Anthony, Amy Van Bergen, Mackenzie Widdows, and Miss Shauna will all perform. A limited run of CDs will be available; admission is free. Details online.

Langley debate: Langley Seniors in Action hosts an all-candidates meeting for the Langley-Willowbrook riding on Friday, Oct. 4 from 2 to 4pm. The meeting will take place at the Langley Seniors Resource Centre (20605-51B Ave.).

Catch up

That’s it!

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