The Chilliwack
Progress Tuesday
13 Life
3
22
News
Sports
Community
100 years
Chiefs
The Wanted Children Foundation continues to bring smiles in Nigeria.
Marking 100 years since the Fraser slide.
New faces everywhere as Chiefs start camp.
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, A U G U S T 2 0 , 2 0 1 3
Two fires keep crews busy Sunday First fire prompts AQ warning; second deemed suspicious Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Smoke drifting from a landfill fire on the Shxwha:y reserve Sunday might have impacted air quality for residents. It was one of two fire calls that crews were summoned to in the pre-dawn hours, said Chilliwack Fire Department officials. The first was just after 3 a.m. A fire was reported on a section of the Shxwha:y Village (formerly Skway First Nation) on the outskirts of Chilliwack, where a private landfill is operated by a contractor. There were no fire hydrants so hand lines had to be deployed by firefighters, and water tenders supplied water to the area. A huge pile of waste was burning. Estimated to be “three storey high” the stack contained “mixed materials.” Anyone with respiratory conditions was told to stay inside and keep windows closed. About 20 Chilliwack fire personnel rotated throughout the day to put out the fire completely, and the contractor provided an excavator to assist with digging through the debris. The cause is not yet known, but officials said it was not suspicious. But the second fire call was deemed suspicious. Chilliwack Fire Department and RCMP officials are investigating a structure fire as a possible arson, in the 46000 block of Fourth Avenue. It was called in at about 3:30 that same Sunday morning. Fire crews arrived to find a detached garage was fully engulfed in flames and it had ignited a nearby boarded-up house.
Retail 85¢ PLUS PST Box $1.00
4/12T_TM3
Continued: FIRE/ p12
Squiala First Nation CEO David Jimmie stands in some of the 22 acres yet to be developed at Eagle Landing. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Squiala fly solo for rest of Eagle Landing Alina Konevski The Progress The empty overgrown lots around Home Depot at the Eagle Landing shopping centre will be developed exclusively by Squiala First Nation, the band has confirmed. That’s contrary to the original plan of developing the site in a partnership between Squiala and real estate developer League Assets Corp. When first announced in 2009, Eagle Landing was billed to become B.C.’s largest unenclosed shopping complex, with a final size of 600,000 square feet. Roughly two-thirds of this
DOES YOUR BOX LOOK LIKE THIS?
amount has been developed so far. While Home Depot nests behind a field of gravel and grass enclosed by temporary fencing, League Assets announced last week that it has completed all construction of the Eagle Landing project. That’s because the partnership between Squiala and League Assets has been dissolved for the north site, which contains Home Depot and the remaining undeveloped land. “The original intent of the project was to be a partnership throughout the entire site,” explained David Jimmie, Chief and CEO of Squiala First Nation. “Once we got about half-way through, just finishing up the
SERIOUS PROTECTION KILLER LOOKS!
Walmart area and the Shell location, the band decided as a council that we wouldn’t continue the partnership onto the second half of the project.” Squiala will develop the northern site alone. “Once we started learning more about the business and more about the opportunity, and whether or not we could finance it on our own, or whether we had enough equity to do it, once we figured out that we could, there was really no need for a partner,” said Jimmie. The partnership remains for the south site around the movie theatre, and the east site around the Shell gas station.
League Assets says it backed out of partnering on the development of the northern portion because of low demand for commercial space. “We just didn’t see the demand being there in the short term for more than what’s already now been built,” said CEO Adam Gant. Squiala says that’s just an excuse, and disagrees that demand is a legitimate concern. “They’re still asking, to this day, to be a part of the partnership. To keep the partnership going to the north,” said Jimmie. The band learned about land development through its experience on the south site, and Continued: EAGLE/ p12
• TRUCK & RV TOWING EXPERTS •
44467 Yale Road West • 604-792-3132 info@vehiclesolutions.ca Open: 8am-5pm Monday-Friday - 9am-5pm Saturday
Protect your vehicle with our quality products!
www.vehiclesolutions.ca