Since first publishing on April 16, 1891 the Chilliwack Progress has been the newspaper of record in Chilliwack.
One hundred and 28 years later the Progress remains the longest continuously published newspaper in British Columbia. With the addition of a thriving digital operation anchored by theprogress.com, the Progress delivers more news to more people than ever before.
‘From the Progress Archives’ is a journey into the past, to see what was making news decades ago.
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Headline: Up in Arms: Looming layoffs spark protest by CFB Chilliwack employees
Date: March 3, 1995
Reporter: Pauline Martin
What do they want? CFB Chilliwack. How do they want it? Open.
Dozens of angry members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada chanted and marched at CFB Chilliwack Thursday, outraged over the base closure announced in Monday’s federal budget.
The rally was the first of several being planned in response to the budget cuts, and Union of National Defence Employees president Thomas Holmes says other unions will be joining the fight.
Holmes blasted Fraser Valley East MP Chuck Strahl, the Reform public service critic, for his party’s platform that the Liberal budget didn’t cut deep enough.
“Reform says the budget should have cut a lot more,” said Holmes. “We disagree.”
CFB Chilliwack is the only mainland base in B.C. and this community’s largest employer, with an annual income base of $1.6 million, said Holmes.
But of equal concern to the community is the relief that troops can bring in the event of local emergencies.
“You’ve got seven prisons around here,” said Holmes. “This base is your riot control.”
CFB Chilliwack troops have also been called on to help during flood events.
“In the last flood, we probably couldn’t have done without them,” said Carol Martin, one of hundreds of Chilliwack River Valley residents whose homes were placed in peril from the raging water in 1989 and 1990.
Chilliwack Mayor John Les was in Ottawa Thursday trying to persuade federal officials that the base should remain open.
But that was small comfort to people like Henry Dankwerth, a PSAC worker on the local base who didn’t think much of the mayor’s suggestion that the site could be used for a new technical university.
“That’s not going to be a money-maker,” said Dankwerth, who had hoped to see politicians fighting to keep the site open, not pondering new ways to use the property.
“Three years ago we had the support,” he said, referring to the last round of closures that spared Chilliwack after a public outcry.
“It’s a real kick in the teeth,” said Dankwerth, an employee at the base for more than eight years.
“I was laid off from two jobs before I got this one,” he said. “I thought there’d be some security in a job with the federal government.”
