Monday – April 14, 2025
I had a whole rant lined up about how we were unable to get a local Conservative candidate to participate in a pre-election interview. But through cajoling and public bullying, I’ve managed to set up a chat. So we are all good!
You can expect to see the interviews on Thursday or early next week, depending on logistics. We hope they’ll be interesting and insightful. My rant though still stands. It’s incredible how resistant modern political parties are to questions from the media. It lines up with the risk-averse nature of Canadian governments of all stripes. It’s why they employ hundreds of “communications” staffers. I doubt it really gets the parties anywhere in the long run. It certainly doesn’t seem to really impact any government’s ability to avoid scandal or defeat. In fact, I tend to think it hurts far more than it helps; people probably give politicians increased room for error if they sound like they are trying to be honest. If it looks like you’re hiding, then people start to wonder what you’re hiding from.
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The federal election campaign continues until election day on Monday, April 28. Advance voting will take place over the Easter weekend, from Friday, April 18 to Monday, April 21. Find everything you need to know—including where to vote—by visiting one of our local election hubs:
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Dozens of modular housing units will be combined to create a new supportive housing facility in Hope. 📷 BC Housing
Trans-Mountain site to be used as storage location for new housing project
A former Trans-Mountain pipeline construction site is going to feel a little more homey.
The District of Hope has granted a temporary use permit to prepare and store up to 48 modular units on a Flood Hope Road property next to the FVRD regional airpark. The modular units will eventually be combined to create a new BC Housing supportive housing facility and shelter on 7th Avenue, in central Hope. The project will include roughly 56 supportive homes, according to the government housing agency.
The former Trans-Mountain site, owned by G+M Liske Developments, previously stored construction materials, a 5,000-foot temporary shelter, and storage units needed for pipeline construction, among other equipment.
The district issued a three-year temporary use permit to host those materials in December 2021. (Construction on the Trans-Mountain pipeline finished last year.)
The latest temporary use permit for the modular units runs until the end of 2025.
Mission considers business tax changes
The City of Mission has put off a decision on whether to lower business taxes at the expense of homeowners.
Currently, homeowners account for 73% of all taxes collected while businesses kick in 22%. (The remainder comes from other property classes.) The ratio changes over time depending on development and assessed rates.
In recent years, some BC councils have considered pegging tax rates among classes to one another. That can be done two ways. One method involves setting a fixed ratio for how much businesses, as a group, pay towards all tax revenue. The other is to peg tax mill rates (the amount owed per assessed dollar) to one another. Former Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun, for instance, once suggested that the business tax mill rate should be set at two times the residential rate. (Businesses had been paying more than twice as much as homeowners, per assessed dollar.)
Fixing tax rates, however, can be politically and technically difficult because any adjustment that decreases taxes for one group inevitably pushes taxes up for another class.
Mission staff have suggested the city consider fixing businesses share of taxes to either 20% or 25%. Doing so, they say, would give council greater control over annual changes to tax rates and remove variations caused by market forces and development.
But increasing or decreasing the tax share this year would have an impact on residents’ tax bills. Staff noted in a report to council last week that setting the business share at 20%, would save a business owner $1,000 for every $1 million of assessed property value. But it would cost residents of an average detached house nearly $90. Raising the business share to 25% would save residents a similar amount—but cost businesses more.
Council agreed last week to keep the status quo. Councillors disagree over whether they should hold a workshop to consider future tax schemes in the future. Coun. Jag Gill suggested he would prefer to retain the current tax scheme while focusing efforts on recruiting more businesses to the city. Couns. Mark Davies and Angel Elias agreed with Gill, but the motion to revisit the topic later passed with the support of the other members of council.
Seniors meet: Langley Seniors in Action hosts its monthly hub meeting April 16 at 10:30am at the Langley Senior Resources Society (20605-51B Ave). Guest speaker Daniel Snyder will provide info on the Stepping Stone Community Services Society.
Art show: Chilliwack students will have their artwork on display at the O’Connor Art Gallery from Wednesday, April 16 to Saturday, May 17. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 26 starting at 1pm. Details online.
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