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120 YEARS YOUR COMMUNITY
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Chiefs stun mighty Vipers with road wins.
1891-2011
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T U E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 8 , 2 0 1 1
Soprema expansion a ‘vote of confidence’ Robert Freeman The Progress A multi-million expansion of the Soprema manufacturing plant in Chilliwack was announced even as the company won the city’s top business award last week. Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz said the expansion is “fantastic” news for the city, in terms of new jobs and attracting new businesses. “It means more jobs for our community,” she said, which helps create aan “intact” community w where residents don’t n need to commute to Don’t D ’t ever let l t make a living. “The assumption of anyone tell you Chilliwack as a bedroom Canada can’t community is highly overrated,” she said, referring compete in to a recently-released study that manufacturing transportation shows 87 per cent of daily trips are made within the ~ Soprema Chilliwack sub-region. Soprema’s expansion director announcement “can only Paul Boileau help” the city’s business reputation, she added, and a new tax exemption b bylaw should encourage i to llocate h more companies here. Soprema director Paul Boileau said construction of the second production plant will begin in 2012 on the north-east side of the company’s current site in the Chilliwack Business Estates. “After a relatively quiet period of more than three years of industrial development, it’s hoped that this investment — a vote of confidence in Chilliwack — will echo Soprema’s beginning during the last economic downturn,” he said. In 2000, the company started operations at the business park operated by the Chilliwack Economic Partners Corporation - the city’s economic development arm — and it was soon shipping its waterproof roofing materials around the world.
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From left, Austin Underwood, Skwah Chief Robert Combes, and Justin Williams have organized the Walk for Peace which takes place on Nov. 19. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Walk for Peace gains momentum Jennifer Feinberg The Progress They’re fed up with gangs and drug-fuelled violence. Organizers of the first ever Walk for Peace said they’ll hit the streets of downtown Chilliwack on Nov. 19. “We are symbolically taking responsibility to take back our community,” said Skwah Chief Robert Combes. “We are tired of all the activities involving drugs and gangs. “We want to stop it — or at least slow it down.” Starting from Five Corners at 11 a.m. with a few speakers addressing the crowd, the marchers will then head down Wellington Avenue to Skwah First Nation.
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The goal is to do “whatever” it takes to put a stop to the entrenched problem of booze, drugs and the criminal element, the chief said. It’s created parasitic relationships and wrecked lives, but the problem is larger than one small reserve, he said. The Walk for Peace is a continuation of the annual Walk for Sobriety event, organized by Skwah First Nation members in recent years. The marchers would sometimes stop along the walk to identify sources of neighbourhood problems. “Everyone is invited to join the walk,” said Combes, which is being held on election day, Saturday, Nov. 19, to send politicians a clear
message. The date also coincides with National Addictions Awareness Week. This year City of Chilliwack was approached to broaden the scope of the Walk for Peace, and city officials quickly accepted the invitation. “We are all aware that these issues are not limited to aboriginal communities,” said Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz. “We have hope of a life absent from drugs and violence and the devastating effects they have on all of us.” The walk has gained momentum with support received from other First Nations, RCMP, Fraser Health Authority, Salvation Army, as well as businesses, groups and service agencies.
“This is an opportunity to make people aware of a need, and once that need is identified by the general public, then we’ll be able to fix it,” said Austin Underwood, who helped organize the Walk for Peace. “It’s been incredible to see this come together. Everyone has come on board and think it’s a good idea.” All it took was for someone to ask for help, he said. Underwood is a job developer with Triangle Community Resources, and it was one of his clients who reached out to him with real-life horror stories of violence and intimidation inflicted by organized crime and fuelled by addiction. Continued: PEACE/ p11
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