Thursday - Oct. 3, 2024 - Meals on Wheels now owns Aldergrove building

⛅ High 17C | Local forecast

Good morning!

I am a big fan of what I call the “Martha Stewart approach” to holidays. This involves elaborate decorations that take over the home with seasonal splendour, leaving a sparkle of wonder for each visitor who enters. It is a fantasy—and one that is almost impossible to replicate in real life. (I only know of one woman, my childhood friend’s mum Verona, who was able to successfully achieve it.) But, that does not mean I do not occasionally take baby steps towards a Martha Stewart home. This year, that meant purchasing an overpriced white pumpkin for the front steps of our home. It is the only fall decoration we have.

– Grace

NEWS

BC’s health authorities can’t stop overspending

As BC’s health system struggles to treat patients, its health authorities have spent billions more than expected, leaving a massive hole in the provincial budget that gets larger by the year.

British Columbia’s six health authorities collectively spent $3 billion more last year than they had budgeted, according to an analysis of dozens of financial statements by The Current. The unforeseen spending—which are operating costs, not capital expenditures like the construction of new hospitals—was largely covered by the provincial government, which quietly provided $2 billion in unplanned funding. But as it did so, the size of the provincial deficit ballooned.

Last month, when the province announced it had ended the year with a $5 billion deficit, Finance Minister Katrine Conroy blamed lower corporate tax revenues and higher wildfire costs on the shortfall. But unforeseen spending by health authorities had twice the impact of those two factors combined, accounting for about 40% of the deficit. (By comparison, corporate taxes and resource revenues were a combined $1 billion less than expected while wildfire costs were just $236 million more than budgeted.)

Among BC’s fiscally challenged health authorities, none has failed quite so badly at sticking to its budget as Fraser Health. In each of the last three years, it planned to cut expenditures only to spend vastly more. Last year, it sought to cut costs by about $200 million. Instead, it spent $900 more than budgeted. And according to one expert, one potential reason for the rapidly escalating costs is the province’s increasingly congested hospitals, which The Current reported on yesterday.

• Today, Tyler looks at BC’s skyrocketing health care costs, the budgetary implications, and how congestion in hospitals may play a key factor.

Need to Know

🌳 Three contentious trees on Harrison’s Lillooet Avenue will be coming down [Agassiz Harrison Observer]

👉 FVRD chair Jason Lum is relinquishing his role atop the public body after eight years [Chilliwack Progress]

🚝 Langley’s new SkyTrain stations won’t have park-and-rides, although the stations will feature a police office, washrooms, and retail space [Langley Advance Times]

🌊 One of Chilliwack’s pools will be closed for several days after broken glass fell into the pool from above [Chilliwack Progress]

🐟 Illegal dumping near a Mission trout farm is muddying the water and damaging the business [Mission Record]

📸 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Lynda Clarke, who was the first person to correctly identify yesterday’s Current Cam as the Harris family salmon drying racks next to the Fraser River near Yale. And our apologies to John Belec, who was the first to identify last week’s Current Cam as the Clarke Theatre in Mission. (We forgot to announce your correct guess last week.)

🗳 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 NDP and Conservative leaders were both in Chilliwack over the weekend to support their local candidates [Chilliwack Progress]

👉 BC’s three party leaders sat down for a live radio debate with CKNW Wednesday morning to discuss housing affordability, education, and crime [Global]

SPONSORED BY BCEGG

Local farmers, local eggs

Did you know that virtually all the eggs in the grocery store come from Fraser Valley famers? Approximately 80% of the egg farms in BC are located in Abbotsford and Chilliwack so the eggs you buy at your favourite grocery store come from a local farm family. BC’s egg farmers are proud to produce fresh, nutritious and tasty eggs for people living in the Fraser Valley and across BC. No matter what type of egg you want – from Omega 3 to organic – a local farmer is producing them in local barns on local farms.

Get egg-ucated today.

The Agenda

Langley Meals on Wheels takes ownership of Aldergrove community hub

Langley Meals on Wheels is now buying the building it has been using for the past three years.

The Aldergrove Community Station House, built in 1959 as a firehall, was put to use as a community hub in the fall of 2021. At that time, the 272 Street building was being renovated to house Langley Meals on Wheels, a non-profit organization focused on getting hot meals to people’s doors. The hub included a kitchen for the organization, as well as a cafe space which is host to a number of community groups and events, including language learning and hospice support groups.

The building was owned by the Township of Langley—which had originally purchased the property with the intention of demolishing the building. The society has taken on a $1.5 million mortgage from the Township, and will pay it off over the next 25 years. At the end of the term, the Township says any remaining principal will be forgiven if the building is still used as a charitable space and renovations have been undertaken.

The Township is giving the society a $375,000 grant to undertake renovations to let it expand its operations and install an elevator to the second floor.

The building includes a coffee shop, gift shop, and more. Activities this month include free sustainable cooking classes, a Hospice adult bereavement coffee support group, and a language school.

Share

You can share this newsletter by forwarding it or copy and pasting this link—https://fvcurrent.com/p/october-3-2024—into a social media post.

SPONSORED BY THE CITY OF ABBOTSFORD

Your council in the community

Check out some of the important work being done by Abbotsford City Council over the past few weeks in the latest spread. You can sign up here to stay informed.

🗓 Things to do this week/end

🎤 Candidate meeting: The Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce hosts an all-candidates meeting for the Abbotsford-Mission electoral district on Thursday, Oct. 3 at the Clarke Theatre. The event starts with an hour-long meet-and-greet, and continues with a panel discussion with the candidates at 6pm. Details and registration online.

🧘‍♀️ Warm yoga: Purple Lights Nights Fraser Valley hosts a free warm yoga class on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 5pm in Mission. Limited spots are available; register in advance. Details online.

Want even more? Insider members get a comprehensive events listing every Thursday, plus a weekly Saturday round-up edition with behind-the-scenes content. Becoming a member costs less than $2 a week and helps support the ongoing production of The Current’s newsletters and in-depth journalism. Become a member here.

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

That’s it!

Thanks for reading Fraser Valley Current today ♥️ 

If you found something useful, consider forwarding this newsletter to another local.