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Fraser Valley Regional District

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In the province of British Columbia in Canada, a regional district is an administrative subdivision of the province that consists of a geographic region with specific boundaries and governmental authority. As of January 2020, there were 28 regional districts in the province . Regional districts should not be confused with counties of British Columbia , which function as court house boundaries solely for the administration of justice.

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30-636: The Fraser Valley Regional District ( FVRD ) is a regional district in British Columbia , Canada. Its headquarters are in the city of Chilliwack . The FVRD covers an area of 13,361.74 km (5,159 sq mi). It was created in 1995 by an amalgamation of the Fraser-Cheam Regional District and Central Fraser Valley Regional District and the portion of the Dewdney-Alouette Regional District from and including

60-488: A chain of three lakes and the Nahatlatch River. Boston Bar sits in a pocket climate created by the confines of the canyon, and though on the edge of the coastal temperate zone just to the south, its climate is subject to the seasonal extremes of temperature common in the interior of the province. It enjoys 4 very distinct seasons with temperatures reaching up to 35-40 °C in the summer and down to -5 to -10 °C in

90-559: A regional district is under the control of the provincial government, or in the case of national parks and offshore waters, the federal government. Indian reserves located within the boundaries of regional districts are likewise excluded from their jurisdiction and infrastructure, and there are varying levels of collaboration between First Nations governments and regional district boards. Regional districts are governed by boards of directly and indirectly elected directors. Municipalities appoint directors to represent their populations (usually

120-521: Is hot. The vegetation has a mixture of rain forest and dry interior plant species with bigleaf maple and western red cedar prominent among the rain forest species and ponderosa pine , more common northward, standing tall as one of the Interior species. Douglas-fir is the most common tree. Boston Bar is in the Interior Douglas-fir zone, wet warm subzone (IDFww) . One consequence of the climate

150-456: Is inaccessible or uninhabitable. This inhabited lowland area is also known as Hatzic Valley , and includes the unincorporated localities of McConnell Creek and Miracle Valley in the north, and Hatzic Prairie and the farming town of Durieu in the south. This small but populous (~1,800 pop.) Electoral Area lies mainly north of the Fraser River but also encompasses portions of Sumas Mountain to

180-455: Is that Boston Bar is in the range of the northern Pacific rattlesnake , which is common in areas farther upstream along the Fraser and Thompson Rivers, such as Lytton . Boston Bar has a warm-summer mediterranean climate ( Csb ). Boston Bar experienced wildfires during the 2021 Western North America heat wave , with firefighters battling them. The highway between the town and Spences Bridge

210-941: Is the mother tongue of 10.02% of the population, followed by German (3.49%), Dutch (1.39%), French (1.07%), Korean (0.69%), Spanish (0.66%), Tagalog (0.35%), Chinese, n.o.s. (0.33%), and Vietnamese (0.30%). While the member municipalities provide for their own municipal services, the FVRD acts as the local government for the electoral areas. As a local government or regional district, it can provide services such as water piping, storm sewers, sanitary sewers, street lighting, waste management, fire protection, mosquito control, enhanced 911 service, emergency preparedness/recovery, cablevision, air quality monitoring, library funding, growth management, park maintenance, building inspections and bylaw enforcement, planning, and development approvals. Each area does not necessarily receive all these services so each electoral area pays property taxes, through

240-733: The District of Mission eastwards. The FVRD is the third most populous Regional District in British Columbia, incorporating roughly the eastern half of the Lower Mainland of southwestern BC, and is bordered by Whatcom County, Washington to the south, Metro Vancouver to the west, the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District to the east, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District to the northwest, and

270-734: The Fraser Canyon . Communities in this area are connected by three highways (Highway #1, #3, #5) which radiate out of the District of Hope. The communities of Dogwood Valley , Emory Creek , and Choate are just north of Hope and have a combined population of about 133 people. Sunshine Valley is a community on BC Highway 3 southeast of Hope with 164 people and was originally a Japanese internment camp named Tashme. Other communities in this area include Laidlaw , west of Hope, and Spuzzum , north of Yale . Communities in this area include Lake Errock with 368 people, Harrison Mills with 141 people, and

300-532: The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (1858–1861). A "bar" is a gold-bearing sandbar or sandy riverbank, and the one slightly down river and opposite today's town was populated heavily by Americans, who were known in the parlance of the Chinook Jargon as "Boston men" or simply "Bostons". A settlement developed on the east bank of the river to the north of the confluence with Anderson River. This was later moved to

330-700: The Thompson-Nicola Regional District to the northeast. It also includes unincorporated areas north of the City of Pitt Meadows , which were part of the Dewdney-Alouette Regional District but which were not transferred to the Metro Vancouver Regional District (MVRD) when it expanded to include Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge . As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada ,

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360-485: The local government in areas not incorporated into a municipality , and in certain regional affairs of shared concern between residents of unincorporated areas and those in the municipalities such as a stakeholder role in regional planning . In those predominantly rural areas, regional districts provide services such as land use planning , building inspection , solid- waste management , and some responsibility for community fire protection . Most land nominally within

390-504: The Fraser Valley Regional District had a population of 324,005 living in 118,217 of its 124,988 total private dwellings, a change of 9.5% from its 2016 population of 295,934 . With a land area of 13,319.34 km (5,142.63 sq mi), it had a population density of 24.3/km (63.0/sq mi) in 2021. According to the 2011 Census, 76.47% of Fraser Valley's population have English as mother tongue ; Punjabi

420-827: The construction of the CPR line (1881–1885) then later the Canadian Northern Railway (today the Canadian National Railway ) line on the Boston Bar side of the river. Boston Bar is a Canadian National Railway divisional point , where the Ashcroft Subdivision from Kamloops to Boston Bar joins the Yale Subdivision from Boston Bar to Vancouver . North Bend is also at the doorstep of the Nahatlatch Valley,

450-673: The electoral areas directly elect one director each. Economically, the area has grown around resource extraction, specifically farming, logging and gravel mining. Much of the Fraser Valley's land base is within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). The balance, not privately owned is in Crown Lands . Retirement and recreational services (like campgrounds, RV parks, boating, skiing etc.) have become increasingly important. However, most commercial and industrial activities are kept within

480-467: The enactment of amendments to the Municipal Act. Until the creation of regional districts, the only local form of government in British Columbia was incorporated municipalities, and services in areas outside municipal boundaries had to be sought from the province or through improvement districts. Similar to counties in other parts of Canada, regional districts serve only to provide municipal services as

510-493: The mayors), while residents of unincorporated areas (which are grouped into electoral areas ) elect directors directly. The votes of directors from municipalities generally count more than the votes of directors from electoral areas, and larger municipalities have more votes than smaller ones. For example, both North Saanich and Metchosin appoint one director to the Capital Regional District board of directors, but

540-432: The municipal boundaries and leaving the electoral areas for farming and rural residential uses. The areas in a regional district that are not incorporated are called ‘electoral areas’. Boston Bar and North Bend , with populations nearing 200 people each, are the two main small towns in this area. Other residents of this area live in small subdivisions (i.e. Canyon Alpine and Falls Creek ) or Indian reserves which line

570-548: The north and west, the Metro Vancouver Regional District to the west, Electoral Area G and the cities of Mission and Maple Ridge to the South, and Electoral Area C to the east. The Area F population of approximately 1,300 people lives exclusively in the southern, lowland portion of Area F, specifically that between Hatzic Lake and the southeast end of Stave Lake, as everything in this electoral area north of Stave Lake

600-643: The original was renamed North Bend by the Canadian Pacific Railway . In June 2011, Boston Bar briefly unofficially changed its name to "Vancouver Bar", in an effort to support the nearby Vancouver Canucks hockey team of the NHL in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals as they took on the Boston Bruins . This followed Canadian restaurant chain Boston Pizza unofficially changing their name to "Vancouver Pizza" during

630-535: The population live in the small area between the mountains and the river, which is generally divided into three areas: Slesse Park , Baker Trails and Bell Acres . Other residents of this area live on the north end of Cultus Lake , or in the Columbia Valley , south of Cultus Lake, bordering Washington state. Area F lies between the boundaries of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District to

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660-469: The present site with the construction of Canadian Northern Pacific Railway . The original Nlaka'pamuctsin (Thompson Salish) name of Boston Bar was rendered in English-style spelling as Quayome , which appears commonly on frontier-era maps and in diaries and newspapers of the day. The name originally referred to the other side of the river from today's town, but came into use for the present site after

690-610: The primary activities. Approximately one-quarter of the residents live on Hatzic Island with much of the Electoral Area's remaining population residing in more rural locations and on Leq’a:mel First Nation Reserve lands. The Sasquatch Lions Club (member club of Lions Clubs International) is the predominant service organization found in Area "G" and the Deroche and District Community Association has been active since 1908. This new Electoral Area H

720-489: The provincial government, in accordance with the particular services they receive. The FVRD has opted to implement a regional growth strategy, as allowed by Section 25 of the BC Local Government Act. The regional district is a federation of municipalities and electoral areas. Each municipality appoints councillors to the board of directors for the regional district in proportion to their relative population sizes and

750-469: The resort town of Hemlock Valley , with only 15 permanent residents (but several hundred hotel guests and condo residents during the ski season). There are vacation homes on islands in Harrison Lake . The population of this area lives in the unincorporated villages of Popkum and Bridal Falls . Combined they have a population of 972 people. The Chilliwack River runs east-west through this area. Most of

780-408: The same round of the playoffs. Across the Fraser River is the small town of North Bend, which could only be accessed by rail or by aerial ferry until January 1986 when the two lane bridge was built. The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) has a small terminal here that is the half way point between Vancouver and Kamloops. The building of the railway played an important role in this region, first with

810-693: The south (formerly Electoral Area "H".) Area "G" borders the District of Mission to the west, Electoral Areas "F" and "C" to the North and East and the city of Abbotsford, British Columbia to the south. It includes the communities of Hatzic Island , Dewdney , Nicomen Island , and Deroche . FVRD local services provided to Area "G" include the Dewdney and Deroche Community Water Systems, North Fraser Fire Protection, North Side Street Lighting and North Side Garbage. Farming (dairy, nursery and blue berries) and resource extraction (forestry and aggregate) along with recreation are

840-449: The vote of North Saanich's director counts three times as much as the vote of Metchosin's appointee. This British Columbia -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Boston Bar, British Columbia Boston Bar is an unincorporated community in the Fraser Canyon of the Canadian province of British Columbia . The name dates from the time of

870-482: The winter. It is notably the first place inland up the Fraser Canyon where rainfall levels are markedly lower than the rainier stretches from Yale and Spuzzum north to Hell's Gate. The climate is transitional between marine west coast and continental . The heaviest precipitation occurs in winter, which also has the strongest marine influence in most years. The continental influence is most pronounced in summer, which

900-538: Was re-established in 2014 to include Cultus Lake and Columbia Valley. Previously, Electoral Area H was dissolved in 2008, with privately owned lands within the area being annexed into Abbotsford, and crown lands being reassigned to Electoral Area "G". The previous area consisted of the majority of Sumas Mountain . 49°35′00″N 121°50′00″W  /  49.58333°N 121.83333°W  / 49.58333; -121.83333 Regional district Regional districts came into being as an order of government in 1965 with

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