Представители трёх уровней власти обсудили в Миссисоне проблемы почты, больниц и наводнений

MPs, MLAs, council discuss Mission’s top issues Published 2:08 pm Wednesday, July 15, 2026 Local representatives of all three levels of government met at a special council meeting in Mission on Monday (July 13). Mission-Matsqui-Abbotsford MP Brad Vis, Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge MP Marc Dalton, Abbotsford-Mission MLA Reann Gasper, and Maple Ridge East MLA Lawrence Mok joined Mission council to discuss a range of issues impacting the region. Among the topics discussed were the Mission Post Office, emergency department closures at the hospital, repaced funding for housing projects, transportation, Mission RCMP body-worn cameras, and diking improvements. Vis and Gasper credited the city for holding the public meeting. “Not every municipality I represent has an annual meeting like this. It helps guide my work on behalf of Mission, and I really appreciate the initiative on the part of the city to make this a reality,” Vis said. Emergency Department closures Gasper said she has met with Fraser Health and the health minister multiple times to determine how best to communicate what is going on at the hospital. “In an emergency, (people) need help. So … they don’t care about where we’re going to find a doctor. All they know is we want our ER open 24 hours,” Gasper said. A petition to ensure reliable emergency services at the hospital received 700 signatures and was tabled in BC Legislature. Mayor Paul Horn said the city has been working with Fraser Health to host a health forum in Mission in September. He said Fraser Health has informed the city that all of July is covered in the emergency department. “They have fast tracked the expansion of the emergency room, and the reason that that’s important is that they expect to have two physicians on staff at all times instead of one, building a degree of redundancy with the new expansion. Coun. Angel Elias was concerned that the hospital-related advocacy may not be the type that’s needed. “We need to have those tough conversations, and we need to be in the office of the Ministry of Health and talking to them and putting the pressure to (them),” Elias said. “Fraser Health understands what’s going on in the community and they can only do so much. But the Ministry of Health also needs to fully understand and grasp the impacts, the negative impacts that are happening to our community, and I feel that that’s where the breakdown is.” Mok said the opposition questions the minister of health almost every day during question period. “She knows exactly what is going on in the healthcare sector,” Mok said. Elias said Fraser Health has done its best to recruit physicians but has been “bound and tied and gagged by the Ministry of Health” in regards to their policies, funding and cuts. “There’s been a lot of movement in our hospital. There’s been positions that have been eliminated. There’s been senior managers that have been moved on. And so, if you look at the shuffling that’s happening at a senior executive level within our health authority, that in itself is concerning. How can we hire doctors when the person that’s responsible to hire doctors keeps getting moved from one hospital to the next,” Elias said. Mission Post Office Coun. Carol Hamilton asked Vis and Dalton about the status of Mission Post Office. Vis said the post office will stay open, according to the most recent communications from Canada Post. In conversations with the local union, Vis said the overall mandate of Canada Post and the new community mailbox policy came under scrutiny. “I will say on the record that I don’t believe that their grievance with Canada Posts and the arguments they’re making regarding community mailboxes are completely valid in my opinion … I have home delivery now, but when I was growing up, I had a community mailbox, and it wasn’t too much of an effort to walk to the end of the street,” Vis said. However, Vis said postal workers have a strong argument regarding the mandate of Canada Post. “Purolator, for example, is owned by Canada Post, yet their revenues are kept separate from the corporation. At the same time, the government of Canada is subsidizing Canada Post by over a billion dollars a year. So I believe it’s time for a review of Canada Post to look strategically at some outdated models that can be addressed and which can ensure some of these workers retain their positions and are not fired or let go through attrition,” Vis said. Transportation and diking improvements With Mission’s waterfront largely below flood construction level, Horn said it’s meant rolling out tiger dams at least once a year during atmospheric river events. Horn said dike improvements would be a major project and economic stimulus that could use partnership from the provincial and federal governments. The city has funding for the design, but it is working to bring the project close enough to shovel-ready to qualify for funding, Horn said building the dike is a predicate to implementing the South Mission Transportation Plan. He said the transportation plan is in the hands of the province. ”We are entirely at the whim of the province when it comes to funding it, unless there was some federal dollars that could help with some of it,” Horn said.