Mission (British Columbia)
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| Location in British Columbia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | British Columbia | ||
| Regional District : | Fraser Valley | ||
| Coordinates : | 49 ° 8 ′ N , 122 ° 18 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 12 m | ||
| Area : | 225.7 km² | ||
| Residents : | 36,426 (as of 2011) | ||
| Population density : | 161.4 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Time zone : | Pacific Time ( UTC − 8 ) | ||
| Postal code : | V2V, V4S | ||
| Mayor : | Ted Adlem | ||
Mission is a town in the Canadian province of British Columbia on the north bank of the Fraser River . The city was formally founded in 1892 ( incorporated ). The place name was derived from the Oblate Mission Station St. Mary's Mission founded in 1868, which was east of the city.
history
The Fraser Valley has long been inhabited , as shown by sites such as the Milliken Site at Yale and the Glenrose Cannery at the mouth of the river. Permanent dwellings can be found from around 3,000 BC. Prove. The Matsqui First Nation , which belongs to the Stó: lō tribal group , now lives on an island called Matsqui Island in the Fraser. They go back to the earliest inhabitants. Their main settlement is 5 km west of Mission on the left bank of the Fraser in the Matsqui Main 2 reservation . In February 2019, 97 Matsqui lived in their own reservations, with a total of 262 members.
The first European in the region was probably Simon Fraser , who sailed the Fraser River named after him in 1808. From the 1820s the Hudson's Bay Company founded forts, with Stó: lo working for the company along its trails as trappers , packers, guides, rowers, couriers and cooks.
The area of what is now the city was privatized during the Great Land Sale of 1891 when the Canadian Pacific Railway came into being. The place was interesting for soil speculators because the branch from the CPR to the north, the Burlington Northern Railroad , was to be built here.
In 1891 the Mission Railway Bridge was built, which was the only one below Yale to span the Fraser. This meant that all traffic between Vancouver and the USA had to run via Mission, but only until 1904 when a bridge was built in New Westminster. A new bridge was not built in Mission until 1973.
The town center was built between the CPR main line and the river, but had to be relocated to the north side of the railway embankment after the flood of 1894. The trading center was only four to five blocks long.
The west, the Stave Valley, remained largely rural, but the Stave Falls Dam, a reservoir for electricity production , was created here by the British Columbia Electric Railway in 1961. The Stave Falls Power Company maintained a freight and passenger railway up to the dam. Around 300 houses were also built for the employees.
With the construction of Highway 1 on the south side of the Fraser in the early 1960s, the neighboring towns of Abbotsford, Matsqui, Sumas and Langley grew, but Mission lost a large branch of Eaton's, Canada's most important mail order company. The construction of a new bridge also increased competition, so that Mission lost numerous businesses. This development was reinforced by a direct connection by the West Coast Express to Vancouver.
The neighboring rural towns in the Mission district, such as Silverdale, 7 km west of Mission, were mainly populated by Italian immigrants. There was also a Finnish utopian settlement near Silverhill, but Scandinavian and German settlers followed after a devastating forest fire.
Steelhead to the north was created as a destination for wealthy Vancouverans. Ferndale, Cedar Valley and Hatzic were settled as rural communities by British immigrants, and up to the Second World War they were also inhabited by numerous Japanese who played a role in the fishing industry, logging and horticulture.
In 1954, Benedictines bought land at Mission and built a monastery and church called Westminster Abbey and a Christ the King seminary.
In 1969 the population of both the city and the district voted for a merger.
population
The 2011 census revealed a population of 36,426 residents for the district municipality. The city's population only increased by 5.6% compared to the 2006 census, while the population in the entire province of British Columbia grew by 7.0% at the same time.
According to the economic structure, around three fifths of the working population are commuters.
The share of the Christian population was 55.1% in 2001, that of the Sikh at 5.1%. So-called visible minorities are the Indians, who make up around 5% of the population, in the east there are members of the Stó: lō .
climate
The average rainfall is 1,764 mm per year, with July being the driest and December being the wettest. In July the average temperature usually fluctuates between 12 and 24 ° C, in December between 1 and 5 ° C. The highest measured temperature in the last few decades was 37.8 ° C and the lowest was −19.4 ° C.
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economy
Formerly the farmers' most important livelihood was the berry harvest, especially that of strawberries. However, it was destroyed by the deportation of the Japanese and the severe flooding of 1948. Only Empress Foods Co. survived the disaster.
The wood industry, which was based primarily on the so-called red cedar, reached similar proportions. Tree nurseries occupied the entire north and northwest of the district. The nearby Eddy Match Co. between Mission and Hatzic was the largest match factory in the world, but it was closed in the 1960s.
In 2006, in terms of the number of employees, the most important branches of the economy were construction, manufacturing, trade, health and social affairs, and forestry and woodworking.
The median income of Mission employees in 2006 averaged C $ 24,679, while at the same time the average for the entire province of British Columbia was C $ 24,867. The income difference between men (C $ 31,943) and women (C $ 19,197) in Mission is roughly equivalent to the provincial average ( ⌀ - men = C $ 31,598, ⌀ - women = C $ 19,997).
traffic
ValleyMAX , a regional transportation system, connects Mission to Abbotsford . BC Transit maintains a bus system. There is also the West Coast Express , which connects to Vancouver five times a day.
Canoes and some jet boats go on the river, which is not navigable here.
Mission is connected to Vancouver via Highway 7 , to the south the city of Abbotsford is reached via Highway 11 , which then continues to the United States .
Museums
X̲á: ytem or the Xá: ytem Longhouse Interpretive Center deals with the history and culture of the Indians on the lower Fraser River , particularly the Stó: lō , who are part of the coastal Salish .
sons and daughters of the town
- Debbie Brill (* 1953), high jumper
- Jordan Hickmott (born 1990), ice hockey player
- Carly Rae Jepsen (* 1985), songwriter
- Robin Sochan (born 1977), ice hockey player
- Graham Wardle (born 1986), actor
- Walter Young (1913-2004), marathon runner
literature
- Andreas Schroeder: Carved from Wood: Mission, BC 1861-1992 , The Mission Foundation 1991.
Web links
- District of Mission
- School District # 75 (Mission)
- History of Mission, Mission. Chamber of Commerce
- Website of the Benedictine Abbey of "Westminster Abbey"
Remarks
- ^ Matsqui First Nation - Registered Population. In: Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada . Retrieved May 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Statistics Canada (2011 Census). Mission District Municipality Profile
- ↑ 2001 census
- ↑ Mission Community Facts. (PDF; 48.13 kB) In: BCStats . Retrieved October 15, 2012 .