Wednesday - Sept. 25, 2024 - Another massive fish kill

🌧 High 15C

Good morning!

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m headed to Prince Edward Island next month. Fortunately someone else is picking up the tab for the flight, but they still consulted me on when and how I’d like to fly. Normally, I would have no preference about the airline. But these days, I only hear very bad things about WestJet. It’s weird. Everyone used to like that airline, but its reputation is in the dumpster now. And it doesn’t seem to be aware of it. Recently WestJet was in the news for losing a fight over a refund to passengers it dropped off in Victoria, rather than Vancouver. It wanted to compensate them with just $16 since, it argued, it had got its customers most of the way to Vancouver.

WestJet is perhaps Abbotsford International Airport’s biggest partner, so hopefully it starts to learn that stories like that will make passengers seek out another airline to get from Point A to Point B. I’m flying Porter Airlines to Charlottetown. I just hope I’m not overconfident that they won’t leave me stranded in Moncton.

– 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.

🛣 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

End of the line for the West Coast Express?

Mission Mayor Paul Horn said he doesn’t think funding for the West Coast Express is actually in danger, despite the warnings from TransLink and Metro Vancouver’s mayors.

Earlier this year, the Metro Vancouver mayors that run TransLink commissioned a study into the organization’s fiscal future and what a lack of funding might mean for services. That report suggested TransLink was facing a $600 million budget shortfall that could lead to hard choices. The study suggested that cuts could lead the West Coast Express to either be scaled back or yanked from the tracks entirely.

The train’s eastern terminus is in Mission and any cuts could disrupt the lives of residents there who depend on the service to get to and from Vancouver, and other stops along the line.

But Horn said he thinks most of the dire prognoses are driven by politics. While his neighbours to the west are pleading for more provincial money for TransLink, Horn says funding for BC Transit and the services it provides is just as needed.

• Today, Tyler writes about the competition for more transit funding in BC.

• Tomorrow, we’ll feature an interview with Chilliwack MLA, and BC’s Minister of State for Transportation and Infrastructure, about funding shortfalls for the West Coast Express and in Chilliwack, where the city has been denied money to improve its bus service.

Related

Need to Know

👉 Nearly half of all commercial vehicles inspected during a safety blitz in Langley were pulled from service [Langley Advance Times]

🚧 Construction has begun on a massive expansion at an Abbotsford private school [Abbotsford News]

💰 A three-acre piece of land in southern Chilliwack is up for sale for $10.25 million [Fraser Valley Today]

💻 Online threats to Langley schools are expected to continue but aren’t considered ‘viable threats’ [Langley Advance Times]

🛣 Yale and Lickman roads are among the Chilliwack routes set for repaving this year [Chilliwack Progress]

🔥 A mattress fire at a Chilliwack house forced the occupants out of their home early Tuesday morning [Fraser Valley Today]

🗳 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

🔎 Three of Abbotsford’s BC Conservative candidates say they won’t attend all-candidates meeting; they used almost identical language to that proffered by their Langley colleagues [Abbotsford News]

🚑 A breakdown of health care promises from BC’s provincial parties [Global/CP]

🟢 The BC Greens say they’d expand the distribution of ‘safer supply opioids’ [Global]

🙏 The NDP promised more doctors while the Conservatives promised a rebate tied to housing costs [Vancouver Sun]

The Agenda

Toxic chemicals killed thousands of fish, First Nations say

Two Chilliwack-area First Nations say a chemical spill has killed thousands of young salmon.

In a press release issued Wednesday, Cheam First Nation said that a visit to Hope Slough to conduct routine water testing led to the “heartbreaking” discovery of thousands of dead fish in the waterway, which runs through northern Chilliwack.

Cheam First Nation said that an investigation into the contamination source hadn’t yet been found, but that the pollutants may have come from farming activities.

It said a lack of oxygen have killed “all of the fish,” including juvenile coho, trout, and endangered Salish sucker.

“We believe that the dumped toxic waste caused a sudden drop in oxygen spanning kilometres,” the release said. “A year of juveniles are gone.”

The release said that development has led the waterway to deteriorate over the course of years.

“We are disappointed at provincial government agencies for continuing to let this devastation take place,” Sqwá Councillor Eddie Garder was quoted as saying. “Enough is enough.”

Enrolment swells again in Abbotsford’s schools

Enrolment in Abbotsford’s public schools increased by more than 250 students this September, a preliminary count from mid-September suggests.

Although the enrolment increase isn’t completely unexpected—the district had expected an extra 218 students to show up in September—the new students will add to capacity and staffing challenges across the schools. Staffing shortages have forced the district to hire uncertified substitute teachers, and a report by superintendent Sean Novak said 20 such educators are expected to be hired, with 17 returning from last year.

Eight-classroom additions at Margaret Stenersen and Auguston Traditional Elementary Schools have been underway. The school district is preparing for the construction of an eight-classroom addition at Abbotsford Middle School.

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📸 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.

Classifieds

• Gladwin Fall Fair Sept. 28 9am-1 pm FREE ADMISSION

Annual FVC members can find a link to submit their annual classified in the weekly FVC Insiders Edition. Become a FVC member here.

🗓 Things to do

Fraser film: Bring a flashlight and chair to an outdoor screening of Soul of the Fraser, a film about the Fraser Estuary, Thursday, Sept. 27, at Derby Reach Regional Park. RSVP to [email protected]. Free popcorn. Details online.

Novel night: The Chilliwack Learning Society hosts its annual fundraiser, A Novel Night to Remember, on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Coast Hotel. The dinner will feature a silent auction, live jazz, and the opportunity to dress up as your favourite book character. Tickets are on sale until Sept. 27. Details online.

Free quilting show (for guys): The Hope Quilters' hosts its annual Falling into Quilts show on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 10am to 4pm, and Sunday, Sept. 29, from 10am to 3pm at the Hope Legion (344 Fort St.). Enjoy a quilt raffle and a large display of quilts. Entry is $5; children under 12 and men are free.

Catch up

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