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It’s Canada’s 145th birthday on Sunday, and she doesn’t look a day over 123.

If you’re out in Abbotsford you’ll want to get a good spot for the parade.

It starts at 11, running from South Fraser Way at Ware street to George Ferguson at Trethewy.

After that the place to be is Exhibition park.

Charlotte Diamond headlines an afternoon of stage entertainment that includes juggling, ventriloquism, and a group called Dehli 2 Dublin.

The grounds will be full of kids activities and roaming circus performers, along with various community displays and an international food fair.

Finally at 10 a fireworks show will cap off the day.

For more information go to abbotsford.ca/canadaday

The City of Abbotsford has issued a request for expressions of interest in an effort to explore options with the Ledgeview golf course.

City Manager Frank Pizzuto says the priority is to find someone to rebuild and run the facilities.

“The clubhouse, the maintenance facilities that are in need of replacement because they’re quite old. So the City would certainly look at providing some land to the right proponent and manage the facilities.”

Pizzuto says they will also look at options if someone wants to take over the full operation of the course once the agreement with the Ledgeview society expires.

Earlier this year the Ledgeview Society asked Council for 250 thousand dollars to help keep them afloat after a run of tough financial times.

The City gave them 115 thousand.

Jordan Christian Reno, the 22 year old man found murdered in Prince George on Monday, had a criminal history in the Fraser Valley according to a story in the Abby News.

Reno had charges and convictions in Mission for theft, break-and-enter, assaulting a police officer, and resisting arrest.

He was also convicted a year ago for a break and enter in Abbotsford.

He may have other connections to the Valley, as several of his facebook friends are from Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and Mission.

RCMP believe his death was targeted and are looking for information.

The River Forecast Centre is predicting the Mission Gauge to peak Friday or Saturday at around 6.3 meters.
They’re also looking at a peak in Hope of between 11 200 and 11 500m3/s.
Dave Campbell with the centre says they don’t think things will be worse than last weekend.

“It’s going to be similar or a little bit below.  Certainly at the Mission gauge we’re looking at it being similar or 10cms below what it was last weekend.  Again, that varies as we go down various spots along the river, but 10cms is a reasonable estimate.”

Emergency management BC is still asking people to stay away from the rivers and streams and follow the directions of emergency management officials.

It was a nice surprise for folks in Hope.  Emergency Management BC delivered 400 metres of gabion baskets to the District to help out with some of the potential flooding.  The baskets arrived yesterday and were placed along 7th ave near Wardle St.  Gabion baskets about a metre high, linked together and filled with sand.  People in the area are currently under evacuation alert.  Hope Fire Chief Tom DeSorcy says this is helping with public safety, and also laying the groundwork for future flood mitigation.

(Aerial view of Hope)                                                                (Crews filling gabion baskets)

(Photos courtesy of Emergency Management BC)

Monday night Abbotsford Council voted in favour of a policy that will let restaurants and cafes in the historic downtown to apply to open patios.
Downtown business association executive director Tina Stewart says a lot of people love sitting on patios and says it will be a great addition to the downtown.

“We’re encouraging shoppers to grab a coffee on a patio and sit in the sun and enjoy their day, and then walk over and browse through some of the great little downtown shops we have to offer.”

The association will act as a liaison to help streamline the application process through the City.
A few details have to be ironed out, like insurance and specific procedures, but Stewart says we could start to see patios in about a month.

Abbotsford Council has voted to set up some public meetings this fall to get feedback on whether the City should revisit the harm reduction bylaw.

Currently the bylaw bans needle exchanges but Fraser Health has been pushing for a change.

Mayor bruce banman says he wants clarification on the intent of the motion since it was his impression Council had already decided to revisit the bylaw.

“We’re going to go through a big huge public consultation to find out whether we should even consider reconsidering the bylaw. I thought we were already past that point.”

Banman has said in the past that Fraser Health needs to bring detox to the table if Abbotsford is to consider needle exchanges.

However he says that there’s no point in futher talks with Fraser Health unless Council makes a firm decision on looking at the bylaw following public feedback.

Officials from the Supercross World Cup are very impressed with the upgrades to Abbotsford’s BMX track.

So impressed that they’ve awarded a round of the world cup to Abbotsford for 2013, on top of the round already planned for September of 2012.

Cycling BC contributed much of the funding for the upgrades, and CEO Keith Ryan says the result exceeded his expectations.

“It’s the best track in North America, and it’s going to host the best event in North America.We’ve got a great city that’s labled sport as a priority, and we’ve just been so excited to come here and build it and to have a world cup in 2012, and now in 2013 as well, it’s just great for the City.”

Ryan says the track renovation was roughly a five hundred thousand dollar project, with half coming from CyclingBC and half from donations and in kind services.

Over a hundred residents of electoral areas came out to the FVRD’s public information meeting on the Aggregate Pilot Project last night.
Many of them were pretty angry over how the FVRD came up with their ideas on how to regulate the gravel industry.
One of the big concerns is that residents were not allowed by the province to be a part of the process to create the plan.
Dick Harrington said he doesn’t agree with that kind of thinking.

“If changes are being made to the environment that affect citizens all over the Fraser Valley for a hundred years, the public has a right, in a place called a democracy, to be involved.”
The plan that was presented divided up electoral areas into three types of zones.
Red, which means no new operations and no expansion of current mines.
Yellow, which allow gravel mines, and green which allows extraction and processing. In both yellow and green zones mines would be subject to a set of restrictions on a bylaw that is being developed.
A number of other people spoke on the issue, some worried that the APP plan won’t do enough to protect communities and others saying that areas that used to be red zones are now yellow thanks to negotiations with the gravel industry.

Abbotsford-Mission MLA Randy Hawes says that yellow or green zones don’t mean gravel mines can have a free for all.

“There is a process that includes an environmental review, a hydrological review, engineering….none of those things, including aboriginal consultation, are bypassed by this process.  All this does is say to the industry ‘don’t look here if you want to establish a gravel mine, but here’s where you could look’ and there could be very severe conditions.”

FVRD Board Chair Sharon Gaetz said coming into the evening that nothing was carved in stone…that’s why they held the public meeting in the first place.

Anyone see this coming?

After a year of job action including rotating strikes, it appears the end is near for the teacher’s dispute.
The BC Teacher’s Federation and the Public School Employers’ Association have reached a tentative agreement.
The agreement follows weeks of mediation efforts.  Education Minister George Abbott says the 2 year deal is consistent with the governments net zero mandate.  He says both sides have agreed to further discuss improvements on key policy issues.

“When parties disagree as we have over the past year, really it’s not the parties themselves that suffer.  It is students and their parents who suffer and I’m really delighted that this gives us an opportunity to work hard and hopefully build a better relationship.”

As far as wage increases in the next contract…

“Hopefully we have a better base on which to form conclusions about whether the province is in a position to do any greater sharing beyond cooperative gains.”

BCTF President Susan Lambert says the federation was compelled into this process under threat of huge fines and further punitive legislation.
She will be speaking to the media this morning at 9.

Teachers will now vote to ratify the agreement until Friday, and we should have the results of that vote by Friday evening.  The term of this agreement runs until June 30, 2013.

The City of Abbotsford has released its statement of financial information for 2011, a document detailing payroll expenses, as well as payments for goods and services.

Over 200 city employees make over 75 thousand dollars per year, including 89 who top the six figure plateau.

Heading the list is city manager Frank Pizzuto, who clocks in at 249 thousand dollars per year.

The mayor’s salary was split between George Peary and Bruce Banman thanks to the election, for a total of just over 88 thousand.

Councillors made between 34 and 38 thousand depending on how many water sewer commission meetings they attended.

The City paid Jake’s Construction over 12 million dollars last year for work on various infrastructure projects, including the airport.

That was tops on goods and services payments, followed by over 10 and a half million to Global Spectrum to manage the AESC.