Tuesday, June 20, 2023 - Inside Fraser Health's secret meetings

Tuesday, June 20, 2023 | 🌧 High 16C

Good morning!

Maybe once a year our family starts a puzzle. It then sits on a table for a month or so before an adult (usually me) does a bunch of work to try to inspire my kids to return to it. It rarely works. So last night I was up until 1am finishing off our map-of-the-world puzzle so we can finally put it away. It was immensely satisfying but I woke up immediately thinking about ocean trenches and fracture zones. Our next puzzle can wait a bit, I think.

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WORTH KNOWING

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🛰 Here’s what yesterday’s weather looked like from space.

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

NEWS

Inside Fraser Health’s secret meetings

Fraser Health’s board of directors will hold two meetings today.

One will be in public, with the board taking questions from residents and hearing a presentation about the overdose crisis. The other meeting—the one in which votes will be taken and all important decisions about health care in the Fraser Valley are made—will be held in secret.

By law, the public is supposed to be allowed to be present when Fraser Health makes critical decisions about the future of health care in their communities.

In reality, that’s not how things work in BC.

Despite a 2003 ruling that required health authorities to open their board meetings to the public unless there’s a good reason to keep them private, documents obtained by The Current show the sprawling nature of Fraser Health’s secret board meetings, where even discussions about attempts to improve transparency are made behind closed doors and away from the public eye.

• Today, as Fraser Health faces a spiraling capacity crisis in its hospitals, Tyler reports on how the health authority keeps the public from seeing how it makes local health care decisions.

Need to know

🌲 Abbotsford residents will have another chance to ask questions about Sumas Prairie flood-protection plans (including the creation of a floodway) at meetings today and Thursday; the plans requires funding from senior levels of government to proceed [City of Abbotsford]

🤔 Old Yale Brewing has been told to remove its kid-friendly area after a complaint [Daily Hive]

👎 A Langley student with disabilities was told she can’t attend the waterslides with her classmates because a lack of staff to help her [Tamara Taggart/Twitter]

🕳 Yet another sinkhole has appeared on a Langley councillor’s property near the site of recent pipeline construction [Global]

⚖ A man whose driving led to the death of a passenger and severely injured another near Agassiz has been fined $2,000 and banned from driving for 7 months [Agassiz-Harrison Observer]

💰 More than 100,000 households in BC spend more than half their income on rent [Vancouver Sun]

🎓 Abbotsford’s Dr. Judith Soon was honoured for her contributions to groundbreaking pharmacy work in BC [UFV]

👉 A Chilliwack non-profit has appointed Jackie Kingma as its new executive director [Fraser Valley Today]

🏎 Dangerous driving charges are being sought against two drivers caught after weaving in and out of traffic at double the speed limit in Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

👏 Chilliwack search and rescue volunteer Adam Laurie will receive a medal for heroism on Canada Day [Chilliwack Progress] / The Current profiled Adam in May; yesterday, we shared his tips for how not to end up lost or dead in the wilderness [FVC]

🎥 Video shows a motorhome driver causing chaos on the Coquihalla before crashing [bad-language alert] [Facebook]

☀️ Summer kicks off this weekend at the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat festival. Soak in the sun and enjoy the continent’s biggest dragon boat races, plus Dear Rouge and SABAI on the TD Main Stage!*

*Sponsored Listing

The Agenda

No Canada Day fireworks in Chilliwack

Canada day will be significantly less sparkly in Chilliwack this year.

The city plans to cancel the fireworks that usually accompany the July 1st celebration due to the current fire ban in southwest British Columbia. While previous years have had similar fire bans, most have started in mid-July—well after Canada Day celebrations.

The fireworks, which the city already purchased, would be repurposed for an event celebrating Chilliwack’s 150th anniversary later in the year after the fire ban is lifted. That might not come soon, though. The province says the fireworks ban will be in place until Oct. 31 if it doesn’t otherwise rescind it..

Other cities are also moving away from the traditional fiery celebration. Harrison Hot Springs cancelled its fireworks. Abbotsford is running a laser light show.

The final decision on this cancellation will come at the Chilliwack council meeting this afternoon.

Mission Pub hopes to add patio

Mission’s 14th Avenue Pub is looking to add a patio.

The longstanding pub is looking for permission to create a 55-seat patio along the southwest corner of the restaurant in an area currently used for parking. The pub needs the sign-off from the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch.

Mission council will first choose whether to lend its support or opposition at a future meeting. City staff have suggested the patio be closed by 10pm from Sunday to Thursday, and 11pm on Friday and Saturday.

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