Friday - July 4, 2025 - Abbotsford student housing

🌤 High 30C

Good morning!

Thanks for your patience this week. I hope you had a terrific Canada Day. My son, who will turn 10 this year, made our family pancakes. My daughter once was the pancake fiend, but has seemingly grown out of the need to make us all food. And lo, here comes a new kid who has discovered that if he wants pancakes, he’ll have to make them himself. It’s quite the treat.

– Tyler

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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 truth of fiction

Abbotsford author Loghan Paylor’s acclaimed historical novel started with a relative’s diary, a personal journey, and a desire for a book that, somehow, didn’t seem to exist yet.

It also started with a question: “What is the book my younger self wanted to find, but couldn’t?”

• Today, Tyler writes about the historical questions Paylor’s acclaimed wartime drama tries to answer through fiction.

Related

Need to Know

🚨 The deaths of two Abbotsford seniors was a murder-suicide, police believe [Global]

🐔 More than 20,000 chickens perished in a Langley barn fire last weekend [CTV]

🚔 An Abbotsford man was stabbed following an altercation Wednesday [CityNews]

👉 The City of Mission is considering borrowing $52 million to build a new firehall and buy a new city hall [Mission Record]

🏫 The superintendent of the Abbotsford School District has left the job after just two years [Abbotsford News]

🐕 A chihuahua was caught on camera chasing a large bear out of Mission family’s backyard [CTV]

👉 The province says suicide-prevention fencing or netting is not feasible on the Mission bridge [Mission Record]

⚖ Langley-Abbotsford MLA Harman Bhangu has filed a response to a libel lawsuit against him by the Teamsters Union [Langley Advance Times]

🏍 A motorcyclist was seriously injured in a crash in Chilliwack Sunday [CityNews]

🐶 A Langley woman says Township animal control officers got the wrong dog when they seized her animal following an attack on a contractor [Global]

👉 A young Abbotsford curler has been paralyzed by a rare condition, but hopes to walk and compete again [CTV]

📚 Futures start here. KPU’s hands-on programs prepare students to make an impact in your community. Explore their diverse programs.*

*Sponsored Listing

SPONSORED BY BC EGG

Feathers, family, and forward thinking

Jordan Wiens blends old-school values and high-tech tools to care for his flock—and his future. From 5:30 a.m. barn checks to raising his own farm kids, the Abbotsford egg farmer is proof that the next generation of agriculture is in good hands.

Read the full article here.

The Agenda

New plan for Abbotsford student housing

Plans have been submitted to construct a new rental apartment building targeted at students near the University of the Fraser Valley’s Abbotsford campus.

According to online records, White Rock architecture firm has submitted a proposal to build a five-storey, 58-unit building at the corner of McKenzie and King roads, just northeast of the UFV campus. The site is comprised of seven assembled lots at the corner. It would add to a relative paucity of student-oriented housing near UFV campuses.

The university is wrapping up construction on an addition to its Baker House student housing project that will add nearly 400 units. The vast majority of students—including nearly 2,000 foreign learners—live in private accommodations across the region.

Province rejects Mission transit funding request

The City of Mission wanted to spend a quarter-million dollars to improve bus service. The BC government did not.

As in Chilliwack, the province has rejected Mission’s plans for expanded transit despite BC Transit’s support for the municipality’s proposal. Mission had wanted to bolster weekday and Saturday service to Hatzic and extend the Abbotsford-Mission connector bus to the McCallum Park and Ride. Currently, Mission residents who want to connect with the Fraser Valley Express must change buses at Abbotsford’s Bourquin exchange. Mission had also sought funding to allow for extended morning or weekend service.

Funding for BC Transit buses is split between the local municipality, which pays 53% of the cost, and the provincial government, which covers the rest. Any expansion of service requires both parties to commit money.

Ottawa gives money for rural transit plan—after Victoria rejects rural transit plan

The federal government is giving the Fraser Valley Regional District $50,000 to complete a rural transit needs assessment and action plan—even though the FVRD just had a plan to bolster rural transit rejected by the province.

Nearly two years ago, the Fraser Valley Regional District applied to a federal government program for funding to study rural transit needs and plan how to fix them. The FVRD, though, already has a longstanding plan to address rural transit deficits north of the Fraser. Last year, the FVRD and BC Transit sketched out a plan for a route that would connect Agassiz and Mission while serving Deroche, Dewdney, Lake Errock, Harrison Mills, and several First Nations along Highway 7. This spring, though, the FVRD was told its request for funding had been rejected by the province—which has also kiboshed transit expansion projects in several Fraser Valley communities.

Just before the plan was rejected, the FVRD received news from the federal government that it was finally ready to provide money for rural transit planning. The money will support an assessment of transit needs and the creation of an “action plan” to address them. But it will not pay to implement the plan and actually improve rural transit. That will require money from Victoria.

🗓 Things to do

Charity skydiving: The Cyrus Centre hosts its annual Leap of Faith on Thursday, July 10. Participants skydive to support youth experiencing homelessness in the Fraser Valley. The family-friendly day will include food trucks, a face painter, vendors, and tandem skydiving. Participants need to raise at least $800 to jump. Details and registration online.

Shakespearean improv: Township 7 Winery in Langley hosts a performance by the Spontaneous Shakespeare Company as part of the Bard In The Valley series. Details online.

Barrel racing: Chilliwack Heritage Park hosts barrel racing Saturday starting at 11:30am. Details online.

Learn to Fish: The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC hosts several upcoming learn-to-fish events. Learn the basics at Cultus Lake today from 10am to noon, on Sunday at Hicks Lake from 10am to noon, Monday at the Fraser Valley Trout Hatchery in Abbotsford from 9am to noon, or on Tuesday at Lightning Lake in Manning Park from 11am to 1pm. Details online.

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Catch up

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