Local News Update

With fall around the corner, black bears will be seeking to fatten up for the winter on the coast. During this time, WildSafeBC is reminding everyone to create a bear-safe neighbourhood. WildSafeBC is an organization that offers education on preventing conflicts with wildlife. Gabriela De Romeri is the Communications Specialist for WildSafeBC, she said in the fall, bears will appear more often in...

With fall around the corner, black bears will be seeking to fatten up for the winter on the coast. During this time, WildSafeBC is reminding everyone to create a bear-safe neighbourhood. WildSafeBC is an organization that offers education on preventing conflicts with wildlife. Gabriela De Romeri is the Communications Specialist for WildSafeBC, she said in the fall, bears will appear more often in...

With fall around the corner, black bears will be seeking to fatten up for the winter on the coast. During this time, WildSafeBC is reminding everyone to create a bear-safe neighbourhood. WildSafeBC is an organization that offers education on preventing conflicts with wildlife. Gabriela De Romeri is the Communications Specialist for WildSafeBC, she said in the fall, bears will appear more often in...

With the school year now underway, one Nanaimo high school has announced it is expanding. As Nanaimo continues to grow, the government of B.C. is adding six new prefabricated classrooms to Wellington Secondary School which will add 150 new seats to the school. CHLY attended the announcement outside Wellington Secondary on Friday, August 30.  MLA for Nanaimo, Sheila Malcolmson, spoke at the announc...

According to a recent poll done by the TD Bank Group 65 per cent of post-secondary students define themselves as financially unstable. Between the end of July to the start of August of this year, over 500 students enrolled in a post-secondary institution and 515 parents of children currently enrolled in post-secondary were polled .  The poll found that 65 per cent of students define themselves as...

Nanaimo has been awarded the title of a Welcoming Francophone Community highlighting its growing French-speaking community.  Under the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Nanaimo has joined the list of 23 other communities across the country with this new title.  According to the IRCC, each of the 24 communities was picked based on its already inclusive Francophone community to cr...

Nanaimo has been awarded the title of a Welcoming Francophone Community highlighting its growing French-speaking community.  Under the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Nanaimo has joined the list of 23 other communities across the country with this new title.  According to the IRCC, each of the 24 communities was picked based on its already inclusive Francophone community to cr...

More people in Nanaimo and across the province will have better access to healthy food options through food infrastructure projects supported by provincial funding. On Thursday, August 22, CHLY attended a funding announcement at the Nanaimo Food Share Good Food Box packaging centre with the MLA for Nanaimo and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, Sheila Malcolmson. Malcolmson anno...

Nanaimo’s Ethan Katzberg is still celebrating his big win at the 2024 Paris Olympics after making history as the first-ever Canadian to win gold in hammer throw . Katzberg spoke with CHLY following the Olympics as he trains in Slovakia ahead of his next two competitions in the coming weeks. Katzberg’s story of how he got into hammer throw starts with the Nanaimo Track and Field Club where he wante...

For over 100 days, the VIU Palestine Solidarity Encampment stood at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus, and on day 110, the encampment was officially dismantled. The end of the encampment comes after the BC Supreme Court approved a 150-day injunction, ordering the removal of the encampment. The encampment was given until Sunday, August 18 at 9:30 a.m. to vacate the grassy area of the cam...

With about 350 people living on Protection Island, for the past ten years, the community has once again come together to celebrate pride on the island. Every August, on the island known for its pirate theme and floating bar, residents come together to put on a pride parade by decorating the main form of transportation on the island; golf carts. CHLY attended the tenth-anniversary of the pride para...

Around 150 competitors will be filling the Beban Park Social Centre this weekend to find out who is the best in the province at speedcubing. Nanaimo is hosting B.C.'s first-ever provincial speedcubing championship over the weekend starting on August 16 and running until August 18. Speedcubing is a competitive sport of speed-solving mechanical combination puzzles. While the puzzles can range in sha...

On day 106 of the VIU Palestine Solidarity Encampment at Vancouver Island University’s Nanaimo campus, the BC Supreme Court approved an injunction ordering the removal of the encampment. The VIU encampment which is the last known pro-Palestinian campus encampment left standing in Canada has been given 72 hours starting at 9:30 a.m. on August 15 to leave its current location on campus. Justice Mich...

To inspire Indigenous youth and young adults with the world of aviation and aerospace, the Nanaimo Airport YCD hosted an event to highlight the wonders and opportunities in the industry. In cooperation with Indigenous LIFT Collective, Alkan Air, Elevate Aviation Learning Centre, Gulf Island Seaplanes and elibird aero, the Nanaimo Airport hosted the Give Them Wings event to introduce Indigenous you...

Amidst the rise in popularity of pickleball, the City of Nanaimo is moving its six pickleball courts to a new, quieter location. Construction of eight new pickleball courts is underway at Beban Park after the city heard complaints from residents near the Beaufort Park area about the racket the Beaufort courts there were making. In December 2023, Nanaimo city council voted to use $518,000 to create...

After three years, Kamal Parmar’s term as the City of Nanaimo’s Poet Laureate is coming to an end, and she is reflecting on the work she has done and the lessons she has learned. Parmar, who has a deep love for writing poetry, took on the position in 2021. As the Poet Laureate, she connected the community with poetry as a literary ambassador She said her time as the Poet Laureate was one of the mo...

A local farmer’s market is celebrating its 12th anniversary of supporting local farmers and makers.  It has been 12 years since the Island Roots Market Co-operative became a registered co-op. The seed for the co-op came from the 2011 Occupy Nanaimo general assembly where would-be farmers noted there was no place to sell their produce year-round. Michele Greene is the market manager and a current b...

A local farmer’s market is celebrating its 12th anniversary of supporting local farmers and makers.  It has been 12 years since the Island Roots Market Co-operative became a registered co-op. The seed for the co-op came from the 2011 Occupy Nanaimo general assembly where would-be farmers noted there was no place to sell their produce year-round. Michele Greene is the market manager and a current b...

A local farmer’s market is celebrating its 12th anniversary of supporting local farmers and makers.  It has been 12 years since the Island Roots Market Co-operative became a registered co-op. The seed for the co-op came from the 2011 Occupy Nanaimo general assembly where would-be farmers noted there was no place to sell their produce year-round. Michele Greene is the market manager and a current b...

The City of Nanaimo, for a third time, is moving forward with an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) to seek approval from electors to borrow money for the Public Works Yard, but this time with a higher price tag. This comes after council reevaluated its plans for upgrading the Public Works Yard from its original plan to upgrade the space in phases. The original phase plan, which would have seen $4...

People in Nanaimo will now have an easier time returning to work following a disability with a new provincial program. In partnership with the Government of Canada, the Government of B.C. and the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR), are implementing a new program to provide resources and support for workers and employers following a worker disability. The Reducing Pov...

A local theatre collective is using the backdrop of Maffeo Sutton Park to host its theatre festival. The Artists’ Collective Theatre started in 2012 and moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island during the COVID-19 pandemic. The collective is a space for actors and actresses to strengthen their skills and showcase their talents through new works and fresh perspectives on classic plays.  The Island Su...

For over 25 years the Nanaimo Art Gallery has offered their Artists in the Schools program, but now they are fundraising money to pay off a deficit. The Artists in the Schools program brings professional artists from the central Vancouver Island region to teach students in the Nanaimo Ladysmith School District, Qualicum School District and the Cowichan Valley School District. The artists teach var...

After a long pause, the Coast Salish Games has once again kicked off in Nanaimo. Hosted this year by the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the tournament brings Indigenous athletes ages seven to sixteen from across the Coast Salish region together to participate in various events including soccer, lacrosse, war canoe races, and basketball. The competition will also feature the traditional Indigenous game L...

A new urgent and primary care centre is coming to Nanaimo in 2025. The Health Minister, Adrian Dix announced on July 17 what will be Nanaimo’s second urgent and primary care centre–or UPCC–outside of its future location at 3260 Norwell Drive behind Country Club Centre.  The new UPCC will have an expanded team-based model with family physicians, nurse practitioners and interdisciplinary members suc...