Route 65 Has Retired: Where BC Families Should Find Senior Care Now (2026)

For about seven years, Route65.ca was one of the more widely used digital starting points for BC families trying to figure out senior care. The site was managed by the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) — the industry association representing most of the province's long-term care, assisted living, and home support operators — and it offered a centralized directory of member-run residences across British Columbia.

If your parent was nearing the point of needing a care home, or you were trying to understand which assisted living communities served a particular city, Route 65 was where many people landed. It also did quieter work behind the scenes: hospital discharge planners and Health Authority navigators sometimes pointed families toward Route 65 as a single trusted reference point.

It launched in 2019, ran for nearly seven years, and according to BCCPA's own retirement notice "provided value... helping seniors and families navigate long-term care, assisted living, independent living, and home health providers across B.C." That's the BCCPA Board speaking — not us — and it's worth noting because the retirement was not framed as a failure of the idea.

On January 19, 2026, the BCCPA Board announced that Route65.ca would be retired effective April 1, 2026. The notice cited "careful consideration" and described the decision as a strategic reallocation of resources toward initiatives that more directly support BCCPA members' service delivery needs.

In plainer terms: maintaining a public-facing directory takes ongoing investment — data refresh, technology upkeep, member coordination, content management. The BCCPA Board concluded that those resources would deliver more value invested elsewhere within the association. The retirement notice does not describe technical problems, low usage, or external pressure. It describes a priority shift.

That framing matters. BCCPA's own messaging implies that the problem Route 65 was solving — families needing a centralized way to navigate BC senior care — is still real. What changed is who's investing in solving it.

Without Route65.ca, families looking for a centralized starting point have a few options:

• Contact each Health Authority directly for publicly funded long-term care and assisted living. That's the official pathway — Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, Island Health, Interior Health, and Northern Health each run their own intake. It's accurate, but it's slow and assumes you already know which Health Authority covers your parent's city.
• Call 8-1-1 (HealthLink BC) for nurse-assessed advice and pointers to the right office. Useful when you're not sure where to start.
• Use an independent directory like CareCompare, which is structurally separate from BCCPA, the Health Authorities, and the operators themselves.

The honest gap left by Route 65 is wayfinding. The information families needed wasn't classified; it was scattered. Route 65 pulled it into one place. Until another centralized source emerges, families either have to assemble the picture themselves or rely on an independent platform that does the assembly for them.

Three things to know, in plain terms.

One: the coverage is broader than Route 65 was. Route 65 focused on residential care and home health — long-term care, assisted living, independent living. CareCompare covers all of those, but also home help, foot care, medical equipment, transport, meal delivery, respite, adult day programs, counseling, elder law, and caregiver support. Those are the everyday services families need while navigating residential care decisions, especially during the average 287-day waitlist for a publicly funded long-term care bed in BC. That broader picture is exactly what families on the waitlist actually need.

Two: the data is current. Independent platforms maintain their listings through public sources — the BC Assisted Living Registrar, the Health Authorities, operator websites, and provincial open data feeds — refreshed continuously rather than batch-updated. Contact details, locations, care types, and operator changes flow through as they happen.

Three: editorial independence. CareCompare is not run by an industry association and does not accept facility commissions or referral fees. Operators can pay to be labeled as Featured listings on directory pages, but Featured status never influences Navigator recommendations, comparison order, or care-plan ranking. That's a structural commitment, not a marketing line — it's how the platform is built. Families get the same answer whether or not an operator is paying anything.

None of that is a knock on Route 65. BCCPA-run directories solve a particular problem (industry-wide visibility for member operators) and BCCPA decided that's no longer the priority. The gap that creates for families is real, and an independent platform is structurally well positioned to fill it — there's no member-association tension to manage.

Did Route 65 shut down because of low traffic or technical problems?

No. The BCCPA Board's retirement notice frames the decision as a strategic reallocation of resources toward initiatives that more directly support BCCPA members. The notice explicitly says Route 65 "provided value" since 2019. There's no public statement about technical or traffic issues.

Is BCCPA building a replacement?

Not as of the April 1, 2026 retirement. BCCPA's notice indicates resources are being redirected to member-focused initiatives rather than to a new public-facing directory. If that changes, BCCPA is the authoritative source — their site is bccare.ca.

Was the Route 65 data lost when the site went down?

The public-facing directory is gone, but the underlying information — facility names, locations, Health Authority connections, care types — was never unique to Route 65. It comes from public sources: the BC Assisted Living Registrar, the Health Authorities, operator websites, and provincial open data. Independent platforms continue to compile and maintain that information. It's still findable.

How do I find a publicly funded long-term care bed for my parent?

Start by calling your regional Health Authority's home and community care intake. If you're not sure which Health Authority covers your city, 8-1-1 (HealthLink BC) can direct you. The average wait for a publicly funded bed in BC is about 287 days, so most families also arrange home care or respite to cover the waiting period — and that's where an independent platform like CareCompare can help.

What does CareCompare cost families to use?

Nothing. The platform is free for families, no account required, no referral or commission fees. Operators can pay to be labeled as Featured on directory pages, but Featured status never influences Navigator recommendations or comparison results.

Looking for a provider Route 65 used to list? Search senior care services by category and city.