Petition launched to clean up Chilliwack River Valley, remove area elected official

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“Despite paying escalating property taxes, [I’m] tired of CRV being used for illegal dumping, multiple long-term encampments, hazardous and toxic waste going into the river (and groundwater we drink) while our FVRD Director, along with regulatory agencies, do absolutely nothing but hide behind a supposed ‘stakeholder group’, claiming to be making progress (at what???), and at the same time expect residents/volunteers to clean up the valley,” A. Lynn Bower wrote. “Regional District and provincial ‘leaders’ need to be held accountable for doing nothing and stop with the ‘it’s complicated’. If you can’t do your jobs and make a positive impact, step down. You are putting a lot of kind hearted people that do care at risk sending them out to do the dirty work that you’re obviously incapable of handling.”

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At last count, there were at least 15 occupied homeless encampments east of the Tamihi Creek bridge, according to Chilliwack cleanup volunteer Ross Aikenhead, who maintains meticulous information on the GPS coordinates of multiple homeless encampments in the Chilliwack River Valley. Aikenhead said Monday morning (June 17) there were roughly 17 RVs and two tents scattered throughout the Chilliwack River Valley at assorted locations.

The proliferation of homeless encampments has frustrated residents in the Chilliwack River Valley who call the beautiful Chilliwack Lake Road corridor home.

Image: Supplied / A picture of the former homeless encampment at Allison Pool just off Chilliwack Lake Road in the Chilliwack River Valley.

While a $200,000 grant was provided in 2023 to fund cleanups in the Chilliwack River Valley, it only applies to abandoned homeless camps, meaning occupied camps will never get touched, despite the provincial RAPP (Report All Poachers and Polluters) hotline that seemingly leads no little or no enforcement against people who degrade the Chilliwack River Valley.

“We need your signature to show that the citizens of Chilliwack care deeply about their environment and are willing to advocate for its protection,” Kramer wrote in his petition. “Please, sign this petition, and together, we can demand a better, greener future for Chilliwack. Sign today and help protect our environment! And remove the politicians in Electoral Area E that are not doing their jobs.”

Kramer made reference to the elected official in Electoral Area E, Patti MacAhonic, who currently represents areas like Bell Acres, Baker Trails, Slesse Park, and Post Creek on the FVRD board of directors. The population of Electoral Area E is estimated at 1,568 spread across 652 km² in a rural area north and south of Chilliwack Lake Road.

Aikenhead has been involved in multiple cleanups around Chilliwack spanning well over a decade, but says he’s frustrated by the current elected official in Electoral Area E.

“I’m not willing to do cleanups anymore because of Patti MacAhonic,” Aikenhead told Fraser Valley Today. “The whole thing about blaming me for the dump costs of the Allison Pool cleanup is bogus because she never attempted to get reimbursed from the Ministry of Forests.”

Volunteers are forbidden from going into inhabited camps to demolish or take them away because only the provincial FLNRO (Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations) can evict squatters from Crown lands. Similarly, abandoned RVs require some level of government authority to seize and recycle them.