{"id":297270,"date":"2025-11-21T10:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T10:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297270\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T10:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T10:03:13","slug":"b-c-government-orders-closure-of-abbotsford-rest-stop-encampment-with-no-warning-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297270\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. government orders closure of Abbotsford rest stop encampment with \u2018no warning\u2019 – BC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The B.C. government has ordered the closure of the Cole Road rest stop<\/a> in Abbotsford.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The rest stop, just off Highway 1, has become an encampment for people, with RVs, vans, cars and a school bus making a permanent home there.<\/p>\n

But now, they have been ordered to move.<\/p>\n

Joseph Sikora, director of Ground Zero Ministries in Abbotsford, said this notice from the government came with no warning and services to the rest stop have been cut off.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals, they don\u2019t have any water, they have no power, they do not have anywhere to dump their refuse of the trailers and something else to highlight is that they have also removed the garbage bins from there, so there is no more garbage cleanup,\u201d he told Global News.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the residents that are there, they use those services, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sikora said the people who live there do not pose a significant threat to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s mainly seniors that are living there that can\u2019t afford a spot to park their trailer somewhere else. You know, they\u2019re on their pension, you know, or disability and that doesn\u2019t pay anything, right? They\u2019re just scraping by just enough to afford fuel for their trailers, just to keep warm or food or whatever it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sikora added these people are not in communities causing issues or committing crimes.<\/p>\n

He said there is one resident with multiple sclerosis who needs water and access to the bathroom and now they don\u2019t know where the people are going to go.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

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Some have been living there for years, including a person in their 70s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, they just had their services cut off with zero warning, nothing whatsoever,\u201d Sikora said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, one day they look outside and there\u2019s \u2026 a bunch of people putting up signs and locks in the bathrooms and, you know putting big blocks in and cutting off the dumping for their trailers and stuff. And it gets\u2026 it isn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:05
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tB.C. government to shut down two rest stop encampments\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Mike Farnworth, B.C.\u2019s minister of transportation and transit, told Global News that there are a number of reasons the site was closed.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cOne was the number of complaints that we are getting from police of issues around that particular site,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe significant amount of vandalism that has been taking place there. It was intended for public use. It has not been that for some time. And so that\u2019s why the services have been shut down. And then we will be working with the housing ministry to find accommodations for the individuals who are camping there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Farnworth said the B.C. government will work with people living at the site and BC Housing to find appropriate housing placements for the residents.<\/p>\n

Sikora said this issue just speaks to the need for more affordable housing for people and while there has been a lot of talk, there hasn\u2019t been any concrete action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about affordable housing, well, to me, it\u2019s all false because none of it is affordable for these folks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you get the SROs or the supportive housing, whatever you want to call it. And I\u2019ve experienced for myself, going into those places all the time, is that 95 per cent of those people, that or even higher, that live in there, struggle with mental health and addictions. You know, and there\u2019s drug dealers and criminal activity going on in those buildings more than what\u2019s going on in this encampment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sikora said there are no solutions at this point, there are just people trying to survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has gotten anything moving,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there\u2019s all this talk about supportive housing and this and that and shelters. Well, all of the shelters are full. There\u2019s nowhere for anybody to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these individuals that are staying in this encampment, even if there was a shelter bed for some of these people, they wouldn\u2019t take them anyways because they\u2019re above their level of care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sikora said it sends the worst message to the province\u2019s vulnerable citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re already feeling pretty vulnerable, like they have no value, no self-worth, no nothing, and this just sends the message even further, it\u2019s like, we don\u2019t care about you\u2026 I\u2019m watching people die all over the place on waiting lists and it\u2019s backwards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the community, just like they don\u2019t have any idea how hard it is for these individuals to actually get some help that they actually need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The B.C. government has ordered the closure of the Cole Road rest stop in Abbotsford. The rest stop,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[133729,49,48,133728,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-297270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-abbosford-encampment","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cole-road-rest-stop","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}