User:Buffalkill/sandbox/Chwk

Chilliwack is a metropolitan area of about 115,000 residents and 261 km2 in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. It is located about 100 km east of the City of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley. It is the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in Canada.

About two-thirds of city land is protected as part of the Agricultural Land Reserve, and agriculture accounts for about 30 percent of the local economy. The city is bounded on the north side by the Fraser River, on the south side by the Vedder River and Canada–United States border, and is surrounded by tall mountain peaks, such as Mount Cheam and Slesse Mountain.

Etymology
In Halq'eméylem, the language of the Stó:lō communities around Chilliwack and Sardis, Tcil'Qe'uk means "valley of many streams". It also lends its name to the Chilliwack River, and group of aboriginal people, the Ts'elxwéyeqw (also spelt Ts'elxwíqw or Sts'elxwíqw). The spelling of Chilliwack is sometimes a matter of confusion. Prior to the amalgamation of the City of Chilliwack and the Municipality of Chilliwhack, there were two different spellings. When amalgamated, the current spelling of the city was adopted. Anglicized spellings include "Chilliwhyeuk" and other versions closer to the original Halq'eméylem.

History
The archeological record shows evidence of Stó:lō people in the Fraser Valley, or S'ólh Téméxw, 10,000 years ago. Permanent structures in the Chilliwack area date from around 5,000 years ago. It is estimated that at the time of the first contact with Europeans, there were as many as 40,000 people living within Stó:lō territory.

19th century
In the mid-nineteenth century, thousands of gold miners transited the area en route to the goldfields of the upper Fraser River. By the mid-1860s, settlers had established farms around Codville's Landing, Miller's Landing, Minto Landing, Sumas Landing, and Chilliwack Landing along the Fraser River.

On 26 April 1873, the "Corporation of the Township of Chilliwhack" (note the variant spelling) became the third municipality incorporated by the Province of British Columbia. The town centre at the time was concentrated at Chilliwack Landing along the Fraser River. Steamboats were the main mode of transportation, carrying goods and passengers between Chilliwhack and New Westminster. After the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, many residents began to cross the Fraser River at Minto Landing to ride the train from Harrison Mills.

In 1881, with little room for expansion and the threat of floods constantly looming, the town centre was moved south to "Five Corners" at the junction of the New Westminster-Yale Wagon Road, Wellington Avenue and Young Road. This subdivision was initially named "Centreville", but later was renamed "Chilliwack", as it was more commonly referred to by locals in 1887. The area would experience catastrophic flooding in 1894, 1935, 1948 and 2021.

On 20 April 1891, Richard Plunkett Cooke, George de Wolf, and Walter E. Graveley established the Chilliwhack Railway Company.

Early 20th century
On 20 February 1908, the area that was then known as Chilliwack, i.e., the subdivision within the greater Chilliwhack Township, was proclaimed as the City of Chilliwack by letters patent issued by the provincial government under the Chilliwack City Incorporation Act. The City of Chilliwack and the Township of Chilliwhack co-existed as separately administered municipalities until 1980.

On 4 October 1910, the British Columbia Electric Railway began operating regularly scheduled passenger service on the New Westminster–Chilliwack Interurban Line.

In 1941, Camp Chilliwack was established following Canada's entry into the Second World War in 1939. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the camp was expanded to garrison Canadian Army units for the defence of Canada's West Coast. It continued to be used as a permanent training facility and army garrison during the Cold War. Following the unification of the Canadian Armed Forces in 1968, the base was renamed Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack (CFB Chilliwack). The base housed the following units:

Late 20th century
On 1 January 1980, the Township of Chilliwhack and the City of Chilliwack amalgamated to form a single municipality styled the District of Chilliwack, following the passage of referendae in both municipalities. On 16 July 1999, the District of Chilliwack, once again, was renamed the City of Chilliwack. To the present day, locals idiosyncratically use the same name to refer to the city as a whole, and to the old city centre. It is also the name of the greater metropolitan area encompassing adjacent sovereign indigenous nations, municipalities, and unincorporated areas.

In 1997, following the end of the Cold War a few years earlier, CFB Chilliwack closed. Its training facilities were converted into the Canada Education Park, a campus for multiple institutions, including the Justice Institute of British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the University of the Fraser Valley, and the Western Area Training Centre (WATC). Today it also houses supply depots for the 39 Canadian Brigade Group of the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Army Cadets. The old quartermaster warehouse became the Canadian Military Education Centre Museum.

Cityscape
Chilliwack is on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Stó꞉lō Coast Salish peoples. It is estimated that at the time of the first contact with Europeans, there were as many as 40,000 people living within Stó:lō territory. Today, around 6,240 people, or five percent, of the greater metropolitan area's population live on First Nations land, also known as Indian reserves.

The city is bounded in the north by the Fraser River, in the east by the Eastern Hillsides, in the south by the Vedder River and Canada–US border, and in the west by the Vedder Canal. It is surrounded by the tall mountain peaks of the North Cascades, Cheam Range, and Skagit Range. Cheam Peak, Lady Peak and Slesse Mountain are especially prominent and can be seen from anywhere in the city on a clear day. The city has an urban core that follows a north–south axis, with the Trans-Canada Highway as the dividing line between north and south. About two-thirds of the city's land base is protected farmland.

There are 662 km of roads and 673 km of active transportation infrastructure throughout the city.

Parks

 * Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park
 * Cheam Wetlands Regional Park
 * Chilliwack Heritage Park
 * Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park
 * Cultus Lake Provincial Park
 * Fairfield Park
 * Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve
 * Gwynne Vaughn Park
 * Island 22
 * Salish Park
 * Sardis Park
 * Townsend Park

sub-topics

 * Land use, city planning Neighbourhood Map
 * Neighbourhoods
 * Road network
 * Parks
 * Golf courses:
 * Cheam Mountain Golf Course
 * Meadowlands Golf and Country Club
 * The Falls Golf Club
 * Chilliwack Golf Club
 * Royalwood Golf Club
 * Kinkora Golf Course
 * Cultus Lake Golf Club
 * Bridal Falls Golf Club

Government
Chilliwack City Council is the governing body for the city. Its powers and responsibilities are derived from the Local Government Act, and the Community Charter. It has the power of a natural person, the power to expropriate, and the power to establish and enforce bylaws. It raises funds through property taxes and user fees, and can borrow a limited amount through the Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia to pay for capital costs. Some areas of regional concern are administered by the Fraser Valley Regional District, which also provides local government services, such as land use planning, building inspection, waste management, and fire protection for unincorporated areas.

Chilliwack is represented in the House of Commons of Canada by the member of parliament for the Chilliwack—Hope riding. Chilliwack is represented in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia by the representatives for Chilliwack and Chilliwack-Kent. The boundaries and names of the provincial ridings will change after the 2024 British Columbia general election. The Chilliwack riding will be renamed Chilliwack North and Chilliwack-Kent will be renamed Chilliwack-Cultus Lake.

Demographics
The enumerated population is 93,203 in the city and 113,767 in the greater metropolitan area. It is the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in Canada.

Ethnicity

 * Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.

Religion
According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Chilliwack included:
 * Irreligion (45,475 persons or 49.4%)
 * Christianity (41,875 persons or 45.5%)
 * Sikhism (1,570 persons or 1.7%)
 * Islam (750 persons or 0.8%)
 * Buddhism (575 persons or 0.6%)
 * Hinduism (575 persons or 0.6%)
 * Judaism (120 persons or 0.1%)
 * Indigenous Spirituality (105 persons or 0.1%)

Languages
Language demographics

Notable people



 * Academics:


 * Activists:


 * Athletes:


 * Arts and entertainment:


 * Journalists:


 * Jurists:


 * Military:


 * Politicians:


 * Writers:


 * Others:

Newspapers
Chilliwack Times published its final edition on December 28, 2016.
 * Chilliwack Progress - British Columbia's oldest community newspaper, published continuously with the same name in the same community since April 1891

Radio

 * FM 89.5 - CHWK-FM
 * FM 91.7 - CBYF-FM
 * FM 98.3 - CKSR-FM
 * FM 99.9 - CBU-FM-7
 * FM 102.1 - CBUF-FM-1
 * FM 107.5 - CKKS-FM

Television

 * Channel 11 CHAN-TV-1 Global

Sports

 * Chilliwack Chiefs, play at the Chilliwack Coliseum.


 * Chilliwack Jets


 * Valley Huskers play at Exhibition Stadium.

Economy
Chilliwack is part of the Lower Mainland-Southwest economic region.

Climate
The climate is typical oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) but with some influence of the land mass being some distance from the sea, similar to Orléans, France (although the former has a precipitation more than twice as long and with a tendency towards the Mediterranean pattern). Chilliwack's mild climate with limited extremes provides excellent growing conditions for a wide variety of crops and agricultural products. In fact, when averaged from 1981 to 2010, Chilliwack had one of the warmest mean temperatures for any city in Canada.

The highest temperature recorded within the city of Chilliwack is 43.7 C on June 28, 2021, which was set during the 2021 Western North America Heat wave, beating the old mark of 38.0 C recorded on July 21, 2006. The lowest recorded temperature was -21.7 C on Dec 27, 1968. Precipitation falls mostly as rain, with snow limited to the surrounding mountains, except for two or three weeks per year generally in December or January when artic outflow occurs. Chilliwack enjoys some of the warmest average high temperatures in Canada, with 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) being the yearly average high.

Chilliwack receives nearly the same number of days of precipitation (184.6 days at greater than 0.2 mm) as comparable local communities nearer Vancouver such as Maple Ridge (185.8 days) and the City of Mission (186.0 days) (Environment Canada Statistics). Summers in Chilliwack are usually sunny and warm, with long days (light out until well after 10 pm in June with dusk that lasts for hours) and with occasional stretches of heat where temperatures rise above 30 °C.

Due to its location at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, there has been some debate about preserving Chilliwack's air quality. However, the 2011 World Health Organization's study of air quality shows that Chilliwack enjoys air quality among the best in the world. For PM10 (10 µm) size particulates, Canada averaged third best in the world (along with Australia) at an average of 13 micrograms per cubic metre. The City of Chilliwack and the Greater Vancouver Regional District were tied at a low 8.0 MPCM. For smaller particulate of 2.5 µm size (PM2.5), "the City of Chilliwack averaged 4.9 micrograms per cubic metre. Vancouver also had 4.9, Calgary had 5.6, Winnipeg had 5.6, Toronto had 7.9, Montreal had 11.2 and Sarnia had 12.7."

Airports
Vancouver International Airport is located about 113 km from downtown Chilliwack and has non-stop flights daily to Asia, Europe, Oceania, the United States, and Mexico, and other airports within Canada. Abbotsford International Airport is located about 42 km west of Downtown Chilliwack and offers scheduled service to Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Victoria, where passengers can connect to anywhere.

Chilliwack Airport is a small regional airport located in Downtown Chilliwack. It has 1,219 m of paved and lit runway that includes a parallel taxiway. Approximately 70% of the estimated 60,000 annual air traffic movements are itinerant traffic that consists of both pilot training and recreational flights from all around BC and south of the border.

Active transportation
There are 673 km of active transportation throughout the city, the most per capita of any municipality in the Lower Mainland.

Highways
A four-lane to six-lane expressway from Horseshoe Bay to Hope runs through Chilliwack on the Lower Mainland section of the Trans-Canada Highway.

The Agassiz-Rosedale Highway is a north–south route in the eastern part of Chilliwack that acts as the last connection between Highways 1 and 7 eastbound before Hope, and is the main access to the resort village of Harrison Hot Springs. The highway first opened in 1953, originally going between Yale Road in Rosedale and Highway 7, with a ferry across the Fraser River. A bridge replaced the ferry in 1956. When the section of Highway 1 east of Chilliwack opened in 1961, Highway 9 was extended south to a junction with the new Highway 1 alignment, which replaced Yale Road as the main route between Chilliwack and Hope.

Mass transit
Chilliwack Transit System consists of a fleet of 9 buses that operate along regularly scheduled routes throughout the metropolitan area.

Passenger rail
Chilliwack historically was served by the British Columbia Electric Railway New Westminster–Chilliwack interurban line. The company announced its "Rails-to-Rubber" conversion programme in 1944, and the Chilliwack line ceased service in 1950.

In 2019, the South Fraser Community Rail Society was launched by former BC premier Bill Vander Zalm and former mayor of Langley Township Rick Green, to resurrect passenger service using the former BCER right-of-way. The proposed light-rail line would be 64 mile long.

Education
The Canada Education Park is an 86 acre campus located on the former site of CFB Chilliwack that houses multiple learning institutions, including the Justice Institute of British Columbia, the RCMP Pacific Region Training Centre, and the University of the Fraser Valley.

The Chilliwack School District operates 32 public schools, and the Francophone Education Authority of British Columbia operates one public francophone school in Chilliwack. There are also eight private schools that operate independently.