Thursday - Sept. 12, 2024 - What’s next for Agassiz’s Aberdeen Building?

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Good morning!

You may recall that during the 2024 (and previous) Olympics, Petro Canada has run an advertising campaign featuring the chant "Eh Oh Let's Go." It is a cheesy piece of marketing, but it's one that has left such an enduring mark on my kids that they chant the slogan every time we pass a PetroCan.

Yes, it is annoying. But there is a bright spot: it has led me to introduce the kids' to the song the chant is based on. An advertisement for an oil and gas company is a bitterly ironic way to get into the Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop but my kids don't care. They are happy enough with any song that prominently features the line: "The kids are losing their minds."

– Tyler

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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

The complexities of vasectomies

For Ryan Sereduik, getting a vasectomy just made sense.

“My wife and I are 35, and kids are out of the way,” he explains over the phone, as his wife drives him home from the procedure. “Kids are expensive. We don’t want an oopsie for a third one, so time to get it done.”

But while vasectomies are covered in British Columbia by the Medical Services Plan (MSP), Sereduik—like thousands of other men in the province—opted to visit a private facility for the convenience it gave him.

But that convenience comes at a cost. Those private centres can opt out of the MSP, allowing them to charge patients $1,745 per vasectomy to skip the line in public health care.

• Today, we share a story from our colleagues at the Georgia Straight about vasectomies, urology, and the public-private dilemma plaguing one of the most effective forms of birth control.

Related

Need to Know

🎒 Langley’s first pre-fabricated school addition opened its doors to students this month [Langley Advance Times] / In January, we wrote about BC's hopes to speedily build modular school additions [FVC]

🏆 A music teacher and an international wrestler were recognized by Abbotsford for their community achievements [Abbotsford News]

🧓 A 300-bed long-term care home will be built in Langley over the next six years [Langley Advance Times]

💧 Mission has budgeted $2.7 million for a new spray park [Mission Record]

🔎 A missing Chilliwack woman may be heading to Abbotsford, police say; they are asking for help finding her [Chilliwack Progress]

💔 Family have identified the Langley man who drowned at Cultus Lake last weekend; he was celebrating his daughter’s birthday [TriCity News]

✈ Thousands of passengers could be stranded if Air Canada doesn’t reach a deal with its pilots union by Sunday [CTV]

🩺 The Chilliwack Youth Health Centre has reopened now that the Ch'íyáqtel (Tzeachten) administration building has been rebuilt [Chilliwack Progress]

📢 The BC election is starting to resemble American politics with partisan attacks, and that’s bad news for voters, a BC Green MLA says [CBC]

🏥 Recent attacks in Vancouver have some people calling on the province to reopen Riverview Psychiatric Hospital; CTV reporter Penny Daflos explains why bringing back Riverview won’t solve BC’s mental health issues [CTV]

📸 CURRENT CAM: Congratulations to Ian, who was the first person to identify this week’s Current Cam as the mid-town plaza clock in Hope. The Sasquatch carving threw a number of you off, as a very similar carving also exists in Harrison.

The Agenda

What’s next for Agassiz’s Aberdeen Building?

The Agassiz Harrison Observer is no longer publishing out of Kent’s Aberdeen Building, and now the district is figuring out what it wants to do with the space.

Aberdeen Building was built as a replica of the Aberdeen Hotel in 1995 on Pioneer Avenue, as part of a centennial project in the District of Kent. The building originally housed the area’s visitor centre, and also includes public washrooms which are open during the summer months. When the visitor centre moved to the Agassiz Harrison Museum, located at the other end of the street, the Agassiz Harrison Observer moved in. For many years, the local newspaper operated out of the Aberdeen Building, paying $650 a month in rent for the office space. However, after Black Press filed for creditor protection, the Observer left the building in March, leaving the main office space vacant. (The washrooms and the upstairs storage space remained in use.)

The District of Kent is now looking at future uses for the municipally-owned space. The Agassiz Harrison Museum temporarily moved into the building for a few weeks in August to organize museum artifacts and sell surplus items. Now, the Agassiz Library will be a temporary resident starting Sept. 24, as it hosts a pop up library in the space while flooring is replaced in the main library building.

There is still no permanent tenant in place for the Aberdeen Building. District staff have been responding to enquiries, but have yet to receive a formal proposal to lease the space.

Correction

The link for yesterday's classified for FV Climate Action was broken. Our apologies. You can find the proper link here.

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🗓 Things to do this week/end

👟 Terry Fox: The Terry Fox Run takes place in locations across the Fraser Valley on Sunday, Sept. 15. Details are online for runs in Abbotsford, Mission, Harrison Hot Springs, and Langley City.

🧡 Powwow: The third annual Stɑl̓əw̓ Powwow comes to the Langley Events Centre from Friday, Sept. 13 to Sunday, Sept. 15. The powwow opens at 5pm on Friday and ends with a closing of colours at 5:30pm on Sunday. Details and tickets online.

🙌 Recovery day: Fraser Valley Recovery Day celebrates the resilience of people who have overcome addiction on Saturday, Sept. 14. The event will take place at Mill Lake Park and feature music, games, and free hot dogs. 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.

Catch up

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