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- Monday - July 21, 2025 - BC Transit pitches fare hikes, bus future plan for Abby & Mission
Monday - July 21, 2025 - BC Transit pitches fare hikes, bus future plan for Abby & Mission
Lubna El Elaimy
July 21, 2025
🌦️ High 25C
Good morning!
I hope you all had a great weekend. After last week’s heat wave, the cooler weather over the weekend felt like a relief. Before we get into today’s newsletter, let me introduce myself. I’m Lubna and I will be editing the Fraser Valley Current newsletters from now on. Tyler spent some time filling me in on everything I need to know about the FVC, but it will probably be a couple of weeks until I get into the groove of things. Thank you all very much for your patience and if you have any story suggestions or comments, please send them to [email protected].
– Lubna
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Traffic & Weather
🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope
🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.
🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.
News
The heli-torch
Fire crews use a device called a ‘heli-torch’ to create controlled burns that can limit wildfire spread. 📷 Photo courtesy CK9 Studios & Optic Nerve Films
You need a lot of tools to fight a fire. There are pumps, hoses, shovels, chainsaws, helicopter buckets, weather satellites, and so on.
There is even something called “the red dragon”: a helicopter-borne device that drops incendiary ping-pong-like balls into a forest to start a controlled burn.
When documentary filmmaker Kevin Eastwood began shooting his five-part documentary for Knowledge Network, he was particularly (and perhaps predictably) excited to try to film the device in action. Instead, he got something even more spectacular: a blow-by-blow drama introducing viewers to a “heli-torch” and the crews that use the one-of-a-kind, hand-rigged machines designed to create large, precise burns to foil an incoming wildfire.
Related
Need to Know
🚨 Late Saturday evening, an ATV accident sparked a wildfire east of Harrison Lake. Residents and campers in the area were evacuated and at the time of writing, the fire is being held at 2 hectares [Fraser Valley Today]
🧑🚒 The Alexandra Bridge Park wildfire in Spuzzum was discovered on Friday and is being held at 2.5 hectares in size [Mission City Record]
🏛️ New BC cabinet sworn in, the province announced the new cabinet will “centre jobs, the economy and the needs of British Columbians in their communities” [BC Government News]
💧City of Abbotsford moves to stage-two water restrictions with drought conditions expected to worsen [City of Abbotsford]
🚞 Chilliwack woman and her dog narrowly escape train collision after car stalls on train tracks. The woman jumped out of the car with her dog just as the train was coming [The Chilliwack Progress]
🥸 Mission RCMP search for thief with painted moustache. The disguised shoplifter escaped the store after loading stolen items into a laundry basket [Mission City Record]
🏢🚗 Two cars slam into buildings in Langley on the same day [Langley Advance Times]
🚓 Man sentenced to five years in prison after carjacking one vehicle, stealing another before colliding with a Langley RCMP vehicle [Langley Advance Times]
🚞 Train derailment in Abbotsford near the Sumas border affects traffic, no injuries reported [Global News]
🍜 Chilliwack Chinese restaurant set to close next month. Mandarin Garden Buffet on Luckakuck Way’s last day will be Sunday, Aug. 31 [Fraser Valley Today]
🍵 New from Mateína: A zero sugar, organic yerba mate that delivers clean, balanced energy — no crash, no weird ingredients. Just plant-powered fuel that works.*
*Sponsored Listing
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The Agenda
📷 Province of British Columbia/Flickr
BC Transit pitches fare hikes, bus future plan for Abby & Mission
Mission and Abbotsford councils will consider fare hikes for local transit this week. Chilliwack recently approved similar increases, which come after BC Transit launched a review of bus fees aimed at aligning fares across the region. (Abbotsford and Mission riders have generally paid slightly more than transit users to the east.)
The proposed hikes will increase the cost of a single bus in Abbotsford to $2.50 next year and $2.75 in 2026/2027. Currently adults pay $2.25 and students and seniors pay $1.75. The cost of a monthly pass is also proposed to increase—although Chilliwack council had directed month-long passes for seniors in that community to hold steady.
The suggested fee hikes will go to Mission council Monday and Abbotsford council Tuesday for approval.
BC Transit has also sketched out a plan for a host of changes to the bus system in the two communities. They include shortening Route 3, which runs between downtown Abbotsford and Huntingdon, and improving service to Abbotsford International Airport. You can see the plan here. The planned improvements, however, will depend on securing more funding from the provincial government, which has rejected recent requests for more money from Fraser Valley cities.
Community journalism needs the entire community for it to succeed.
As part of a membership, you get our special weekend roundup of all the things you might’ve missed each week!
🗓 Things to do
Folk music: Mission Folk Music Festival, July 25-27; tickets start at $15 for evening passes for youth, children 12 and under enter for free, but must be accompanied by an adult. Details online.
Explore the arts: Youth ages 12-18 can explore their creative side at ARC Youth Centre’s Explore the Arts youth day camps, 2499 McMillan Rd., Abbotsford. Details online.
Fresh and local: You can come for the local products and stay for the live music and food trucks at Yarrow Farm Market, every Friday until Aug. 29, at Yarrow Pioneer Park, Chilliwack. Details online.
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