Wednesday - Oct. 18, 2023 - How a trench sparked Lytton to protest

🌧 High 15C

Good morning!

Last week, I wrote about how American TV shows and books are full of characters expressing surprise when told to take off their shoes at the threshold of a home. Canadians, I sensed, are different, but we ran a poll just to be sure. More than 1,300 of you took part (!) and the results are not exactly surprising, but they are interesting. And I do want to hear more from the 82 animals (I say that with love, especially if you’re an Insider member) who wear outside shoes inside.

We asked: What kind of footwear do you usually wear around your home?

• Slippers: 38%

• Socks: 19%

• Barefeet: 18%

• Indoor shoes: 12%

• Flip-flops: 7%

• The same shoes you wear outside: 6%

– Tyler

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WORTH KNOWING

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope

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NEWS

Lytton’s $1,686/hour breaking point

Twenty-seven months after Lytton burned to the ground, residents have finally decided to protest amid continued uncertainty surrounding the basic elements needed to rebuild their town.

Today, Lytton finally looks like a village that will soon see significant construction. Painstaking archaeology work is complete. Contaminated soil is removed. And most lots have a brand new layer of flattened backfill to allow for imminent rebuilding.

It should be a time of optimism.

Last year, residents were told many homes would be rebuilt by now. Earlier this year, they were told construction, at least, would have started.

“We were so looking forward to something happening this fall [that] would give us some hope,” resident Lorna Fandrich said Tuesday.

Instead, while lot preparation has continued, no construction looks imminent and angst, confusion and frustration have reached such a point that, for the first time since the fire, Lytton residents are planning to gather to protest the lack of rebuilding in their town and to call attention to ongoing issues delaying the resurrection of Lytton.

At the core of the most recent worries is the delicate matter of ongoing archaeological work, and questions about how to preserve and document the past, how to move forward into the future and, vitally, just how much it should all cost.

• Today, Tyler writes about Lytton residents’ flagging hope for their community, and how archaeological obstacles embody the delays that have plagued its rebuilding.

Related

Need to know

🌧 Intense rain on Monday knocked out power in some Langley neighbourhoods [Langley Advance Times]

🗳 The deadline for candidates to run for Hope’s open council seat is this Friday [Fraser Valley Today]

🔥 An Abbotsford man got probation and a conditional discharge in relation to two apartment fires in 2022 [Abbotsford News]

🎄 Langley Township’s mayor says he didn’t tell city staff not to take part in a popular park light display [Langley Advance Times]

👉 A BC non-profit is offering free legal advice to victims of sexual assault [CBC]

🚲 Bike lanes will be installed along a portion of Lickman Road in Chilliwack [Fraser Valley Today]

🏠 A Spanish-themed home in Chilliwack is up for sale for $1.8 million [Daily Hive]

⚖ The province has sued the builder of a Langley deck that collapsed in 2019 and sent 18 people to hospital [CBC]

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The Agenda

Speed camera pitched for Langley intersection

Safety concerns from residents living near one of Langley’s steepest streets may prompt Langley City to consider ways to slow traffic.

In September, residents told council that high driving speeds and a lack of police enforcement were leading to collisions and jeopardizing the lives of pedestrians.

According to the agenda for today’s council’s meeting, Coun. Paul Albrecht will make a motion suggesting the city ask ICBC to set up speed and red-light cameras at the intersections of 48th Avenue and 208th Street and at 45th Avenue and 208th Street. The cameras, Albrecht wrote, would help prove that “speed is a real and serious concern along this corridor.”

Albrecht also plans to ask staff to find possible ways to slow vehicles on 208th Street (and how much each option would cost) in Langley City’s upcoming Transport 2045 plan.

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SPONSORED BY UNIVERSITY OF THE FRASER VALLEY

Chowiyes-Xwithet/Rise Up-Wake Up! gathering honours residential school survivors and their families

In partnership with Éy St’elmexw St’elt’ílém/Good Medicine Songs, the University of the Fraser Valley hosted the Chowiyes-Xwithet/Rise Up-Wake Up! gathering on September 28 in Chilliwack to honour the shxweli (“life spirit”) of children lost to residential schools, survivors, and their families.

Find resources about truth and reconciliation here.

🤝 Now hiring

• General manager at Smugglers Trail Caskworks in Langley

• Aquatic guard (a fancy name for lifeguard) at City of Mission

• Maintenance technician at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Agassiz

• Investment specialist at TD Bank in Abbotsford

• Forest engineering technologist at the Province of BC in Chilliwack

Hiring in the Fraser Valley? Reply back and let us know!

📸 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.

Any guesses as to where this week’s Current Cam was taken? Fill out this form with your best guess—or with a picture we can use in a future edition.

🗓 Things to do

Film fest: The first Langley City Film Festival takes place this weekend at Lumiere Film Studios. Tickets start at $6.66 and are available online.

Plant plants: Help the Fraser Valley Conservancy plant 1,000 native trees and shrubs along Lane Creek in Mission on Oct. 21. A free lunch will be provided. Details online.

Pain science: If you have chronic pain, UFV researchers want to talk to you to try to learn more about pain and advance treatment options. Details on the study and how to take part are available online.

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

Catch up

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