Wednesday - Nov. 29 - A highway construction date

☀ High 6C

Good morning!

I recently binged the latest season of Welcome to Wrexham, the documentary that chronicles the efforts of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney to help steer a humble Welsh soccer club to success. That, of course, is only part of the documentary. It’s the hook, as we say. But it’s not the main topic or theme of the show. Over the two seasons, the show has been most interested in exploring how a small town and their soccer team are intertwined, and in chronicling the lives of fans. It’s nice and heartwarming. But Season 2 has a second major theme that you might not notice at first: parent-child relationships.

It’s hard to miss because the show tells a very diverse array of stories of parents and their children (sometimes grown, sometimes not). Each relationship dynamic is so different, and we’re used to certain tropes, that the stories individually feel like the sort we expect to see in a documentary trying to get viewers to keep watching. But across more than a dozen episodes, one slowly gets a sense of the joy, stress, heartache, and love of parent-child relationships. The stories are continually heartwarming, but many come with a bittersweet undercurrent that says: “Be grateful for what you have, enjoy it while you can, and do your best.”

– Tyler

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

🚘 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

First half of highway widening project won’t be done until 2029

The provincial government has finally conceded that even the first stage of widening Highway 1 to Abbotsford will take years longer than first anticipated. 

• Today, Tyler writes about new details—and the price tag—of the valley’s largest infrastructure project in decades.

Related

Need to Know

❗ Four Mission middle school students received ‘concerning’ calls from someone impersonating their principal [Mission Record]

🚰 Flooding caused by a broken water main closed a Langley school Tuesday [Langley School District]

🚪 Abbotsford’s shelters for homeless people are already over capacity [CBC]

🗳 Two Chilliwack First Nations signed a deal with the city to team up on a dike extension [Chilliwack Progress]

🔎 Mission Mounties are seeking help to find two people: one a 17-year-old student last seen Monday, the other a 32-year-old man last seen last week [Mission RCMP]

⚖ A Chilliwack senior who signed over family property to his son, who then sold it for $28 million has asked for his share [Vancouver Sun]

👉 BC’s housing minister said Langley shouldn’t halt single-family housing developments [Langley Advance Times]

🚔 A Chilliwack jewelry store has closed indefinitely after a burglary last week [Fraser Valley Today]

The Agenda

Mission’s pool more popular than ever, but residents avoiding fitness visits

Three years after COVID started a long-term plunge in attendance at recreation facilities, visitor numbers at Mission’s Leisure Centre have returned to pre-pandemic highs—though enthusiasm about hitting the weights is still lagging.

The district’s leisure centre has seen around 18,600 visitors each month so far in 2023. That’s up from only around 11,000 last year, and has exceeded the 16,711 monthly visitors seen before the onset of COVID.

The number of pool visits is largely to credit, with 2023 pool traffic 43% higher than before the pandemic.

On the flip side, the use of the Leisure Centre’s fitness room continues to lag, with around 30% fewer monthly visitors in 2023 than in 2019. The 2023 figures don’t factor in the last three months of the year, and it’s possible the dry weight room is more popular as the weather gets steadily rainier and less amenable to outdoor exercise.

But in a report to council, city staff say pre-pandemic attendance levels may never return because COVID led many people to develop home-based fitness routines.

Fitness is important for one’s health, but also comes with potential side effects. The city report notes that so far in 2023, 214 incidents have required “minor first-aid", 20 injuries were considered “major” and in need of a subsequent doctor visit, and paramedics were required on 10 occasions.

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📸 Current Cam

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🗓 Things to do

AHL hockey: The Abbotsford Canucks host the Laval Rocket Friday at 7pm. Tickets online.

BCHL hockey: The Langley Rivermen host the Chilliwack Chiefs Friday at 7:15pm, George Preston Arena. Tickets online.

PJHL hockey: The Mission City Outlaws host the Chilliwack Jets Saturday at 6:45pm at the Mission Leisure Centre. Tickets not online, but at the door.

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Catch up

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