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Mission is a city in the
Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 ...
of the province of
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original Town of Mission City, along an independent core of the region, in 1969. It is bordered by the city of Abbotsford to the south and the city of Maple Ridge to the west. To the east are the unincorporated areas of Hatzic and Dewdney. It is situated on the north bank of the
Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
, backing onto mountains and lakes overlooking the Central Fraser Valley southeast of
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
.


Geography

Unlike the other
Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from th ...
municipalities, Mission is mostly forested upland with only small floodplains lining the shore of the Fraser River. Some benches of farmland rise in succession northwards above the core developed area of the city. Mission was once the heart of the berry industry in the Fraser Valley, with "Home of the Big Red Strawberry" as Mission's slogan in the 1930s and into the 1940s. The more southerly portion of the municipality is bounded on the west by the lower reaches of the Stave River, which consists mostly of the lakewaters of two hydroelectric reservoirs, Stave Lake and Hayward Lake. Although the vast majority of the population of Mission lives well to the east of the Stave, over 50% of the northern land area of the municipality is west and north of that river; its extreme northwest corner is on the far side of upper
Alouette Lake Alouette Lake, originally Lillooet Lake and not to be confused with the lake of that name farther north, is a lake and reservoir in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. It is at the southeastern foot of the mountain group known as the Golde ...
. A small portion of the lower Stave still runs free in its last two miles before its confluence with the
Fraser Fraser may refer to: Places Antarctica * Fraser Point, South Orkney Islands Australia * Fraser, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen * Division of Fraser (Australian Capital Territory), a former federal ...
at
Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...
; its last three-quarters of a mile forms the border with the larger municipality of Maple Ridge to the west. Over 40% of Mission is tree farm, making it one of two communities with municipal
tree farm In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated Plant stem, stem, or trunk (botany), trunk, usually supporting Branch, branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only Bark (botan ...
s (the other being Revelstoke, with a much smaller and newer farm). Mission's tree farm celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. It comprises much of the northern part of the district, including the area west of the Stave River, up to the district's northern boundary near the foot of Mount Robie Reid; a small sliver of Mission District is at the head of
Alouette Lake Alouette Lake, originally Lillooet Lake and not to be confused with the lake of that name farther north, is a lake and reservoir in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. It is at the southeastern foot of the mountain group known as the Golde ...
(normally thought of as being in Maple Ridge). The eastern boundary of the municipality roughly coincides with the division between the Mission upland and the alluvial floodplain of Hatzic Prairie, which resembles much of the rest of the Fraser Valley Lowland. The unincorporated communities from Hatzic eastwards through Dewdney and Nicomen Island to Deroche are part of the social and commercial matrix centred on Mission but have never joined the municipality, as is also the case with areas north of Hatzic and Dewdney such as McConnell Creek and Durieu; the local economy and societies are built on dairy, berry and corn farming as well as a large
First Nations First nations are indigenous settlers or bands. First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to: Indigenous groups *List of Indigenous peoples *First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
community at the Indian Reserves of the Leq' a: mel First Nation, formerly known as the Lakahahmen First Nation, on Nicomen Island and Deroche.


Government

Mission was incorporated in 1892 and is in size. In 1922 the District of Mission was partitioned by the creation of the Village of Mission, which later became the Village of Mission City, then the Town of Mission City, until amalgamated with the District by plebiscite in 1969. The City of Mission uses the current Council-Manager system of local government. The present Council, was elected on October 15, 2022. The current mayor is Paul Horn. A notable past mayor is Pam Alexis who resigned as the mayor of Mission in November 2020 after winning a seat for the provincial riding of Abbotsford-Mission in the
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia () is the deliberative assembly of the Legislature of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The other component of the Legislature is the lieutenant governor of British Columbi ...
.


History

The Town of Mission City took its name from the local St. Mary's Mission and Residential School established earlier in 1861 and began as a land promotion. The town's core commercial properties and residential streets were auctioned off through James Horne's auction, the "Great Land Sale" May 19, 1891, with buyers brought in via the CPR mainline from Vancouver as well as from Eastern Canada. Soon afterwards, Harry Brown French, an American from New York, came to the city and founded the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce on June 19, 1893."Old Document Reveals Board Founded in '93", ''The Fraser Valley Record'', Mission, BC, Canada, 19 April 1945. It was the first
Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
in B.C."Kask, Glen. "First board of trade in B.C.", ''The Fraser Valley Record'', Mission, BC, Canada, 16 June 1993. Some of the early houses and commercial buildings were, in fact, specifically designed to be reminiscent of small towns in southern Ontario in order to encourage buyers. Hailed at the time as a new metropolis, the fledgling town's location at the junction of the
Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...
mainline with a northward extension of the
Burlington Northern Railroad The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995. Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroad ...
brought name suggestions that included East Vancouver and North Seattle. The name Mission City was chosen due to the site's proximity to the historic St. Mary's Mission of the
Oblate In Christianity (specifically the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican and Methodist traditions), an oblate is a person associated with a Benedictine monastery or convent who is specifically dedicated to God and service. Oblates are i ...
order just east of town, which was founded in 1868 (now the Peckquaylis Indian Reserve). At the time of founding, the swing-span Mission Railway Bridge opened in 1891 was the only crossing of the Fraser River in the Fraser Valley below the Alexandra Bridge, and all rail traffic between Vancouver and the United States was necessarily routed through Mission until the New Westminster Bridge at
New Westminster New Westminster (colloquially known as New West) is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada, and a member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District. It was founded by Major-General Richard Moody as the cap ...
was built in 1904. The rail bridge at Mission doubled duty as a one-way alternating vehicular bridge until 1973, when a long-promised new Mission Bridge was finally completed. The bridge's location is geographically important at the head of the tidal bore on the Fraser River, and its water level gauge is an important measure of the Fraser's annual and sometimes dangerously large spring
freshet The term ''freshet'' is most commonly used to describe a snowmelt, an annual high water event on rivers resulting from snow and river ice melting. Description A spring freshet can sometimes last several weeks on large river systems, resulting ...
. Mission City's original retail core was in the small area of lowland between the CPR mainline and the river. Following the great flood of 1894 a few years after the town's founding, the core was relocated just north of the rail line at the foot of the hillside rising above the rail junction. This small commercial strip, originally named Washington Avenue, later Main Street and since the 1980s called First Avenue, is only four or five blocks long and was one of the principal commercial centres of the Fraser Valley for many decades and had a lively retail trade and social life. Following the 1894 flood, abandoned buildings and lots in the old downtown were taken over by Chinese merchants and workers, creating a Chinatown which lasted until the 1920s. The western part of the district, the Stave Valley, is largely rural and forested but its watercourse is home to what was the largest hydroelectric project in British Columbia until the
Bridge River Power Project The Bridge River Power Project is a hydroelectric power development in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located in the Lillooet Country between Whistler and Lillooet. It harnesses the power of the Bridge River, a tributary of the Frase ...
opened in 1961. It was built by the
British Columbia Electric Railway The British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) was an historic railway which operated in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Originally the parent company for, and later a division of, BC Electric Company (now BC Hydro), the BCER assumed cont ...
(BCER) to provide power to the electric street railway and interurban system in Vancouver. The Stave Falls Power Co. operated a light-gauge railway for passenger and freight service up the lower canyon of the river to the
dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...
at
Stave Falls Stave Falls is a rural community located in northwestern Mission, British Columbia, Mission, British Columbia, Canada, about 40km east of Vancouver. Noted for the iconic Stave Falls Dam and beautiful Rolley Lake Provincial Park and Stave Lake rese ...
. During the construction of the Ruskin Dam (completed 1931) the railway was rebuilt at a higher elevation so as to skirt the new Hayward Lake reservoir. The rail line has long been discontinued, but the old grade and its trestles are now part of a recreation trail circling the reservoir. Flanking the outraces of the powerhouse at Stave Falls there was once a fairly large community (300 houses), which was served by the railway via connections to the
CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during cardiac or respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function and maintain circulation until sp ...
line at
Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...
, although the (then very rough) Dewdney Trunk Road used the dam to cross the Stave River. Population in the Stave Falls area is now away from the dams, west along the Dewdney Trunk towards Maple Ridge, in a rural farm-and-wilderness area south of Rolley Lake Provincial Park. Up against the Maple Ridge boundary near the waterfront on the west side of the Stave, and halfway between the dam and the mills at Ruskin, was a large drive-in theatre for many years. It is now a large trailer park, and the most populated of Ruskin's neighbourhoods. The building of the Highway 1 freeway on the south side of the Fraser in the early 1960s brought huge population growth and large shopping malls to formerly rural Abbotsford, Matsqui, Sumas and Langley; as a result Mission lost its "anchor", the main Eaton's department store in the Valley, and the town's Main Street businesses lost much of their business to the new shopping malls a few minutes away across the river. This process was accelerated with the opening of the new bridge in the mid-1970s. Despite a cohesive business community and new retail malls on the edges of the old core, Mission's retail community has never regained its former prominence in the
Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and northwestern Washington State. It starts just west of Hope in a narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from th ...
. Burgeoning "
exurban An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and relatively hi ...
" population growth connected with the rapid growth of the population of the
Lower Mainland The Lower Mainland is a geographic and cultural region of the mainland coast of British Columbia that generally comprises the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Home to approximately 3.05million people as of the 2021 ...
and encouraged by a new
commuter rail Commuter rail or suburban rail is a Passenger train, passenger rail service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting Commuting, commuters to a Central business district, central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter town ...
line direct to downtown Vancouver, the
West Coast Express The West Coast Express is a Commuter rail in North America, commuter railway serving the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It is owned and operated by the region's transit authority, TransLink (British Columbia), TransLink. ...
, has reversed this trend. Outside of the core "urban" area, most of which had been the Town of Mission City, the former District of Mission was a collection of distinct rural communities, each with their own history and sometimes distinct ethnic flavour. Silverdale, west of Mission on the east bank of the lower Stave River, was homesteaded in the 1880s by Italian immigrants. Neighbouring Silverhill was founded by a Finnish Utopian sect who were superseded by Scandinavian and German settlers following a forest fire that virtually wiped out the Finns. Steelhead, in the northern part of the district, was originally a weekend retreat for some of Vancouver's press community. Other localities such as Ferndale, Cedar Valley and Hatzic were farming communities of mixed origin, with Europeans and anglicized French-Canadians alongside the usual English-Scottish Canadian mix typical of much of the Fraser Valley. Throughout the Mission area before
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, there was a large Japanese-Canadian population involved in berry farming, logging and milling and in the fishery on the river. In 1954,
Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
s obtained land near Mission, where they set up their
Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
and Seminary of Christ the King. They have lived there ever since, running their own farm and teaching high school and college men at the seminary. The berry industry, formerly the district's largest and most important, formed the heart of the town's annual summer party, the Strawberry Festival. The Strawberry Festival began in 1946, when it was suggested by the Board of Trade. But with the impacts on this industry ( relocation of the Japanese during wartime and the devastating
flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
of 1948), the strawberry theme was abandoned. The town acquired the rights to the Western Canada championships of the
Soap Box Derby The Soap Box Derby is a youth-oriented gravity racer program, founded in 1934 in the United States by Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio native Myron Scott, a photojournalist employed by the Dayton Daily News, and preceded by events such as ''Kid Aut ...
, which were held annually in a specially built facility until 1973; the Derby has been revived in the new millennium. Mission's other major industry was logging, and the town's several mills were noted for being the world's largest suppliers of red cedar shakes and shingles. The District of Mission has operated for many years its own
tree farm In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated Plant stem, stem, or trunk (botany), trunk, usually supporting Branch, branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only Bark (botan ...
, covering most of its northern and northwestern mountainous forests. This tree farm served as a model for silvicultural management on a larger scale throughout British Columbia as well as provided a unique income source for the municipality. From 1967 through the 1970s, the Soap Box Derby shared the July 1
Dominion Day Dominion Day was a day commemorating the granting of certain countries Dominion status — that is, "autonomous Communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or externa ...
holiday with a large Loggers Sports event, one of the largest in British Columbia and important on the North American Loggers Sports Association circuit. In the 1960s and 1970s there was a large cluster of productive mills on the waterfront in Mission, for many years world capital of red cedar shake production (the mill at Whonnock outproduced the largest of the Mission mills, but Mission's city of mills was the largest overall producer). Nearby Eddy Match Co., between Mission and Hatzic, was the largest matchstick-making plant in the world until it closed in the 1960s; its only rival was in
Hull, Quebec Hull is the central business district and oldest neighbourhood of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of Canada's ...
. Adjoining it was the Empress Foods Co. cannery, the survivor of the struggles of the berry industry in the Central Fraser Valley, and dating from the days of Mission's supremacy as strawberry capital of the valley before the 1948
Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...
flood wiped it out. In more recent times one of these buildings was for a while converted into the province's largest
marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
grow-op Cultivation of cannabis is the production of cannabis infructescences ("buds" or "leaves"). Cultivation techniques for other purposes (such as hemp production) differ. In the United States, all cannabis products in a regulated market must be ...
, in a scandal involving one of the town's wealthiest families. Mission is noted as the home of a long-established professional dragstrip, Mission Raceway Park, which was moved in relatively recent times outside the dyking of the lower part of town to reduce noise in residential and commercial areas nearby. In 1972 a large tract of land in central Mission's Ferndale area, flat upland at the top of the slope above downtown, was acquired by the federal government and developed into two large penal facilities. One is a
minimum In mathematical analysis, the maximum and minimum of a function are, respectively, the greatest and least value taken by the function. Known generically as extremum, they may be defined either within a given range (the ''local'' or ''relative ...
security facility, and the other is a
medium security A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...
prison. The northern part of the district, and the wilds of the Stave River basin to the north of it, are home to a few wilderness work camps for young offenders and low-risk convicts; these camps have over recent decades participated in the ongoing clearing of vast forests of flooded-out trees from the inundated areas of Stave Lake, opening the lake to water recreation and public exploration. In the 1990s, The Junction Shopping Centre, Mission's largest shopping centre located near the southern tip, was opened to the public. On March 29, 2021, the District of Mission was reclassified as a city.


Economy

Historically,
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...
, hydroelectricity and agriculture were Mission's chief resource sectors and provided the basis for varied related retail and service activities. In recent history, transportation improvements have enabled the manufacturing sector to expand beyond sawmilling and food processing. Forest and wood related industries dominate the manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on redcedar shake and shingle mills. Mission also holds the only municipal tree farm license in British Columbia.
Agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
is mostly restricted to a narrow belt along the Fraser River, and the unincorporated Dewdney-Deroche district east of Mission contains the majority of the farms in the area. There are about 96 commercial and hobby farms in the area. Dairy is the chief agricultural enterprise; other income sources include poultry, hogs, beef and vegetables. Mission's largest employer is the local school district, School District #75, and its second largest employer is the District (i.e. the municipality) itself.


Transportation

Transportation infrastructure includes Abbotsford-Mission Highway 11, and the Lougheed Highway 7. Mission is also accessible through commuter rail, the
West Coast Express The West Coast Express is a Commuter rail in North America, commuter railway serving the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It is owned and operated by the region's transit authority, TransLink (British Columbia), TransLink. ...
, which runs five trains in each direction a day, five days a week, between
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
and Mission City Station. Bus service in Mission is served by the Central Fraser Valley Transit System connecting with the
City of Abbotsford Abbotsford is a city in British Columbia next to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver, and the Fraser River. With a census population of 153,569 people (2021), it is the most populous municipality in the province outside metropol ...
, as well as TransLink with service to
Coquitlam Central Station Coquitlam Central station is an Intermodal passenger transport, intermodal rapid transit station in Metro Vancouver served by both the Millennium Line—part of the SkyTrain (Vancouver), SkyTrain system—and the region's West Coast Express commut ...
via route 701. Three days per week
Via Rail Via Rail Canada Inc. (), operating as Via Rail or Via (stylized as VIA Rail), is a Canadian Crown corporation that operates intercity passenger rail service in Canada. As of December 2023, Via Rail operates 406 trains per week across eight ...
's ''
The Canadian ''The Canadian'' () is a transcontinental passenger train operated by Via Rail with service between Union Station in Toronto, Ontario, and Pacific Central Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Canadian Pacific introduced this serv ...
'' provides eastbound flag stop service from Mission Harbour railway station. Westbound service on The Canadian is provided through Abbotsford due to CN and CPR utilizing directional running through the Thompson and Fraser Canyons. Mission differs from some of the other Fraser Valley communities because of its access to the Fraser River. The Fraser near Mission is for the most part undeveloped and unspoiled which makes Mission the launch point for many water based activities that happen year round. Boat tours run from Mission's docks on Harbour Avenue, which are also home to sport and commercial fishing vessels; the Fraser has famous salmon runs and population of green sturgeon.


Climate

Mission has an
oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
''Cfb'') due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean. However, Mission has plentiful rainfall all year round, with a drying trend in the summer.


Demographics

In the
2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...
, Mission had a population of 41,519 living in 14,098 of its 14,701 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 38,554. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. At the
census metropolitan area The census geographic units of Canada are the census subdivisions defined and used by Canada's federal government statistics bureau Statistics Canada to conduct the country's quinquennial census. These areas exist solely for the purposes of stat ...
(CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Abbotsford - Mission CMA had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The community has a young population, with a median age of 36.4, according to the 2001 Canadian census,


Ethnicity

The largest group is
European Canadian European Canadians are Canadians who can trace their ancestry to the continent of Europe. They form the largest panethnic group within Canada. In the 2021 Canadian census, 19,062,115 people or 52.5% of the population self-identified ethnic ori ...
, comprising approximately 74% of the population, but even within that Mission's ethnic makeup is very complex, with, in addition to British settlers, large numbers of Germans and Dutch, but also Finns, Norwegians and other Scandinavians, Italians, Hungarians, Poles, anglicized French-Canadians and others. There is a sizeable First Nations community, forming 8.6% of the population. The Peckquaylis Indian Reserve, which is the former St. Mary's Residential School and its grounds, is a centre for services and governments of the Sto:lo communities in the area to the east. The largest visible minority group in Mission are South Asians, primarily Indo-Canadians comprising 10.7% of the population. Mission's Indo-Canadian community was active since the early 1900s. An Indo-Canadian volleyball team, "Mission Sikhs", was active in the area. Naranjan Grewall became the first Indo-Canadian elected to public office when he took a position in Mission City's government.Mahil, Lovleen.
Indo-Canadian Community in Mission

Archive
. ''Mission Community Archives'', Mission Museum. Retrieved on March 16, 2015.
According to the
2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...
, the South Asian population in Mission stood at 4,330 persons, forming approximately 10.7% of the total population, up from 2,220 persons or 6.6% of the total population as of the
2006 Canadian census The 2006 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population. Census day was May 16, 2006. The following census was the 2011 census. Canada's total population enumerated by the 2006 census was 31,612,897. This count was lower t ...
.Profile of Diversity in BC Communities 2006 Mission

Archive
. Government of British Columbia. Retrieved on October 24, 2014.
Mission's
Japanese Canadian are Canadians, Canadian citizens of Japanese people, Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, British Columbia, which hosts the largest ...
community began in 1904, when Kumekichi Fujino moved to the city. Many ''
issei are Japanese immigrants to countries in North America and South America. The term is used mostly by ethnic Japanese. are born in Japan; their children born in the new country are (, "two", plus , "generation"); and their grandchildren are ...
'', or first generation immigrants, included prospective farmers and "picture brides", or women who communicated with suitors through the mail for the purpose of marriage. Organizations established in Mission included the Japanese Farmer's Association (Nokai), established in 1916; the Mission Judo Club; the Mission Buddhist Church; and a Japanese Language School. The ethnic Japanese people in Mission had of land on 103 properties by 1930. During the pre-
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
era 30% of Mission's public school enrollment consisted of ethnic Japanese. The Nokai had 79 members in 1942. The World War II-era
Japanese Canadian internment From 1942 to 1949, Canada forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia in the name of "national security". The majority we ...
disrupted Mission's ethnic Japanese community as their properties were confiscated, and productivity decreased as the farms were managed by their new non-Japanese. Many Japanese chose not to move back to Mission in the post-war era, even though they were permitted to come back in 1949.Wong, Kathy.
Japanese-Canadian Community in Mission

Archive
. ''Mission Community Archives'', Mission Museum. Retrieved on March 16, 2015.
In 2006 there were 145 Japanese living in Mission, making up 4.1% of the city's visible minorities. *Note: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses.


Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Mission included: *
Irreligion Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ...
(23,160 persons or 57.0%) *
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
(12,905 persons or 31.8%) *
Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...
(3,275 persons or 8.1%) *
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
(380 persons or 0.9%) *
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
(285 persons or 0.7%) *
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
(275 persons or 0.7%) *
Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
(55 persons or 0.1%) * Indigenous Spirituality (35 persons or 0.1%)


Education

School District 75 Mission operates public schools in the District of Mission and in the unincorporated areas to the east. Students from Deroche/Lake Errock, Dewdney, Nicomen Island, Hatzic Island and Hatzic Prairie/Durieu and McConnell Creek elementary schools attend post-secondary at Mission Secondary School. The '' Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique'' operates one Francophone school: ''école des Deux-rives'' primary school.


Sports

Mission has a mix of sport offerings locally standard to any municipality in this region. One exception is the large outdoor trail network within the Tree Farm and Interpretive Forest. Mission is home t
world-class mountain bike trails
as well as plenty of backcountry hiking opportunities that lie within the District Limits. Mission is home to a Pacific Junior Hockey League team - the Mission City Outlaws. Mission is also home to th
Mission Soccer Club
(MSC), which was established in 1974 and celebrated 50 years in 2024. MSC calls the Mission Sports Park its home. MSC is a member of the BC Soccer Association and the Canadian Soccer Association. MSC's programming is based on the Canadian Soccer Association and BC Soccer Association Long Term Player Development. Mission's soccer history is rich, with multiple successes in the Pakenham Cup and Presidents Cup. Mission has won the Pakenham Cup 4 times (1924, 1925, 1950, & 1951) with the honours in 1951 split with Bradner FC. The reason is the longest Pakenham Final on record, lasting well over four hours. After a complete game and three overtime periods, Bradner and Mission decided to call it a draw and share honours. Mission's Fraser Valley Soccer League Division 2 men's team won the Presidents Cup in 2022 and are the current cup holders for 2024 after dominant displays throughout those tournaments. The same team was league champions in the Division 2A 2021-22 Season and the Division 2B 2022-23 Season.


Kidnapping and murder of Jessica Russell

Jessica Russell was a young Canadian girl who disappeared from a
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
suburb on the morning of May 4, 2000, and was found dead the next day after she was kidnapped and murdered by a 20 year old man whose name was David Trott as he ostensibly took her to school. She was found dead in an incinerated trailer near Mission,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
.


Media


Notable people

*Pop singer and ''
Canadian Idol ''Canadian Idol'' is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show '' Pop Idol''. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Do ...
'' finalist
Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...
*Electro-pop singer Lights Poxleitner *1976 Olympic silver medalist swimmer Gary MacDonald *
Poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
Pro Player Brad Booth *
NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...
athlete Gage Goncalves *
Big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
era musician Mart Kenney and his wife, Norma Locke *singer-songwriter and Juno nominee
Paul Janz Paul Janz (born 1951) is a Canadian theologian who was formerly a prominent singer-songwriter of pop rock music in the mainstream and contemporary Christian markets. He is known for such hits as "Every Little Tear", "One Night", "All I Have", " ...
*2005 CFOX Seeds winner Dave Faber and Ray Bull of 604 Records' recording artist
Faber Drive Faber Drive is a Canadian pop punk band from Mission, British Columbia, formed in 2004. The band consists of lead vocalist Dave Faber, lead guitarist Jordan Pritchett, bass guitarist Jeremy "Krikit" Liddle and drummer Seamus O'Neill. Their bigge ...
* 1988 Olympic short-track speedskater Eden Donatelli *Swimmer
Brent Hayden Brent Matthew Hayden (born October 21, 1983) is a Canadian retired competitive swimmer. Representing Canada for a decade, Hayden is regarded as the fastest swimmer in Canadian history. Hayden won a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle at the 201 ...
(Canadian Record holder in the 50m, 100m, & 200m freestyle, 2007 100m freestyle World Champion, 3x Olympian (2004, 2008, 2012), and 2012 Olympic Bronze Medalist) *Actor Graham Wardle from Heartland *WNBA (Sacramento Monarchs) basketball player Kim Smith *1996 and 2000 Olympic swimmer Shannon Shakespeare *
High jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...
athlete Debbie Brill *Justice of the Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Todd Ducharme *Former logging company owner and British Columbia political figure Norman Jacobsen * Margaret Lyons, first female vice-president of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...
. *
Hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
artist Powfu. *
Hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
artist
Lil Windex Dylan Godfrey (born September 22, 1992), better known by his stage name Lil Windex or DTG is a Canadian rapper. He is known for the humorous and satirical tone of his lyrics. Career 2015–2017: Career beginnings Godfrey began his career as ...


Neighbourhoods

Mission's neighbourhoods include a number of rural localities which were part of the District Municipality before amalgamation and which still have some strong local identity. The following list is incomplete, due to the emergence of modern-era development neighbourhoods, but covers the historical localities (usually defined by a school and a store of the same name): * Cade-Barr * Cedar Valley * Clay Road *
Cherry Hill Cherry Hill often refers to: * Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a township in Camden County, New Jersey * Cherry Hill, Prince William County, Virginia, a census-designated place Cherry Hill may also refer to: Places Canada * Cherry Hill, Nova Scotia, a ...
*Deroche *Dewdney *Historic Downtown- 1st Avenue business strip *Historic Central Mission- 2nd Avenue to 7th Avenue * Hatzic *Hillside *Ferndale * Keystone Road * Silverdale * Silverhill *
Stave Falls Stave Falls is a rural community located in northwestern Mission, British Columbia, Mission, British Columbia, Canada, about 40km east of Vancouver. Noted for the iconic Stave Falls Dam and beautiful Rolley Lake Provincial Park and Stave Lake rese ...
* Stave Gardens *
Ruskin Ruskin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ruskin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Ruskin (given name), a list of people Places United States * Ruskin, Florida, a census-designated place * Ruskin, Georgia, an uni ...
(also part of Maple Ridge) *
Steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...
* Richards Road * West Heights


Non-Mission District neighbourhoods

Unincorporated communities and rural areas to the east of Mission are linked closely to Mission, partly because of School District No. 75, but also because Mission is the dominant service centre for the north side of the Fraser between Maple Ridge and
Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he recei ...
-
Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...
. These communities include: * Hatzic Valley ** Durieu ** Hatzic Prairie ** Hatzic Island ** McConnell Creek ** Miracle Valley * Dewdney * Nicomen Island * Deroche * Lake Errock


Neighbouring communities


Sister cities

*
Oyama, Shizuoka is a List of towns in Japan, town located in Suntō District, Shizuoka, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 17,297 in 7496 households and a population density of 127 persons per km2. The total ...
,
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, since October 1996


Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Mission.


Individuals

* Abraham "Abe" Neufeld: 2007. * Valerie Billesberger: 26 April 2022. * James "Jim" Hinds: 26 April 2022. * Glen Kask: 26 April 2022. * Doug Pearson: 26 April 2022.


See also

* Mission Bridge * Mission Railway Bridge


Notes


References

*Schroeder, Andreas. ''Carved from Wood: Mission, B.C. 1861-1992'' The Mission Foundation (1991). *Cherrington, John. ''Mission on the Fraser'' Mitchell Press (1974). ISBN B0006CL344 * *


External links

* * {{Authority control 1868 establishments in Canada Cities in British Columbia Populated places established in 1868 Populated places in the Fraser Valley Regional District Populated places on the Fraser River