Monday, April 3, 2023 edition - What to do in April?

Monday, April 3, 2023 | Today: 🌤️ High 12C, Low 2C | 7-day forecast

Good morning!

There’s a lot of things that can be said about TikTok and its endless little videos. (The U.S. congress is discussing some of them right now, and Canada has said some of them, too).

But one of the things I’ll say is that a (very viral) TikTok video gave me my absolute favourite workday lunch: the spicy mayo rice bowl. The concept is simple. You mix cooked rice with spicy mayo and fish (the original recipe uses leftover salmon, I use half a tin of tuna), then scoop it into bitesize wraps made from seaweed snacks. It’s a lazy, homemade, California-role-in-a-bowl situation.

And now for something completely different: we’re halfway to our membership goal! And we have you guys to thank for that. Help us make it the rest of the way to our membership goal by signing up here. (The goal is to keep our news items free for everyone, with members getting our expanded events and food listings plus other perks like a Saturday round-up edition.)

NEWS

A golden flower, hockey celebrities, and honeybees: the best of April in the Fraser Valley

What do a golden flower, a sports celebrity, and a honeybee have in common? The answer: they will be at the centre of three fun events happening across the Fraser Valley this month.

Now that we’re providing a weekly comprehensive round-up of individual events for Insider members, our monthly events spotlight will focus on three specific noteworthy things to do.

• Today, we focus on one of the valley’s longest-running events, a chance to meet some hockey legends, and one of nature’s hardest working insects—plus a great outdoor experience to enjoy over the coming month.

Need to know

🐄 A Langley farm-based recovery program for people struggling with addiction is unique in Canada [CTV]

👉️ The man accused of killing off-duty Abbotsford police officer in Nelson took the stand Thursday during his trial [Abbotsford News]

🚚 Langley’s annual food truck festival organizers will be on the hook for policing costs [Langley Advance Times]

👉️ A homicide at a Chilliwack cemetery marked the third shooting in eight days in the city [Chilliwack Progress]

🏘️ Kwantlen First Nation’s council ended it’s rent-to-own housing program with two days notice [Langley Advance Times]

➡️ A production called Black and Rural, from an artist who’s roots in oral storytelling started in an Agassiz library, is coming to Vancouver [Global News]

🏗️ Construction on an eight-storey seniors building in Langley City will face delays after a contractor bought the wrong kind of concrete [Langley Advance Times]

🏢 Six new six-storey apartment buildings were approved in Abbotsford [Abbotsford News]

🧑‍🎤 TODAY’S SMILE: Have you ever wondered what every Canadian prime minister would look like as a rockstar from the ‘70s? Well, now you don’t have to. [Craig Baird/Twitter]

The Agenda

Fraser Valley Regional Library will receive almost $800,000

The Fraser Valley Regional Library will receive an extra $789,007 this year.

The money, coming from a one-time provincial grant, is not subject to particularly narrow parameters, according to FVRL Executive Director Scott Hargrove, but no priorities have been set for the valley’s library yet. The broad guidelines given by the province include projects that enhance library services, help libraries keep up with shifting demands, improve local services, or increase climate readiness.

The province announced $45 million in the one-time grants for libraries across the province last week.

The board will decide how the money will be spent in the valley’s 25 community libraries near the end of April.

Township to decide on future of Donna Gabriel Robins community park; seven-storey mixed-use building heads to public hearing

On Monday, Langley Township council will consider spending $2.1 million to complete Donna Gabriel Robins Park.

The park, formerly the Southwest Yorkson Neighbourhood Park, borders the new Donna Gabriel Robins Elementary School which opened in 2021. The plan for the five-acre park includes a children’s play area, walking paths, a full-size soccer field, a half-size junior soccer field and an overlapping, informal baseball area.

Council will also consider approving its annual budget and a new development cost charge spending scheme. View Monday’s entire agenda here.

At 7pm Monday the township will hold a public hearing to gather feedback about its proposed election signs bylaw, along with a proposal to amend the Willoughby Community Plan and the Latimer Neighbourhood Plan to make way for a seven-storey mixed-use building with 289 apartments. The development is proposed for a property at 20069 80 Ave.

View the details on those and the other projects scheduled for Monday’s public hearing here.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TANA MCNICOL, ROYAL LEPAGE WOLSTENCROFT

Why stage your home when selling?

Staging a home makes it more appealing visually and also creates an emotional connection between your home and the buyer. It will set your home apart from other properties on the market and it has been proven that staged homes yield higher sales than homes that are not staged.

Learn more from Fraser Valley realtor Tana McNicol.

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