Local News Update

At a Regional District of Nanaimo, or RDN, board meeting on Tuesday, March 13, directors voted to defer a motion that would have seen a four per cent increase to curbside collection utility fees. Support local news reporting through our Nonprofit Newsroom with a monthly sustaining donation of $5 to $10 a month. Want more news on the Salish Sea? Check out Midcoast Morning . ★ Support this podcast ★

Utility boxes around the Ladysmith area are getting a new look. Ladysmith council passed a motion at its meeting on Tuesday, March 5 for staff to recommend designs and locations to wrap utility boxes.  The designs could include archival photographs, Indigenous cultural designs or artistic designs for up to 15 utility boxes. Councillor Duck Paterson suggested one idea of what could be featured in t...

A proposal for school children to help clean up an empty lot led to a heated debate at the Lantzville council meeting on Wednesday, March 6. The original motion was for district staff to develop a work plan and agreement with Seaview Elementary School to restore 7101 Stevens Place to a natural park space, have city staff remove all the invasive blackberry bushes, and allocate $2,500 to purchase na...

Leader of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh stopped by Nanaimo on Friday, March 8. He and Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Lisa Marie Barron spent some time volunteering at Loaves’ & Fishes free food market. Support local news reporting through our Nonprofit Newsroom with a monthly sustaining donation of $5 to $10 a month . Want more news on the Salish Sea? Find more news from our Nonprofit Newsroom with our...

Another local environmental group has spoken to their town council about the potential impacts of recent changes to B.C.’s Local Government Act could have on urban forests in the community.  Bill 44 amended the law to allow fourplexes to be built on any property within a municipality’s urban containment zone, and six plexes near transit hubs. At a Comox town council meeting on March 6, Mel McLauch...

Parksville city council voted to defer a motion that could have seen an Official Community Plan, (OCP) bylaw amendment to limit multi-unit developments along the Englishman River. ★ Support this podcast ★

A new building of micro rental suites ranging from 323 to 366 square feet  is coming to downtown Nanaimo after city council approved a development permit for a five-storey, 31-unit building at 337 Robson Street. ★ Support this podcast ★

Nanaimo city council is asking the provincial and federal government to help preserve the unique ecosystem in Harewood Plains. The city has received a subdivision and development permit application for the land, which includes dedicating five per cent of the land as park space and a no-build, no disturbance covenant on a section of the land that has been designated as an environmentally sensitive...

The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) has approved a new health and wellness service for Gabriola Island. This comes after an Alternative Approval Process (AAP), for the new service only received 101 forms in opposition to it. Support local news reporting through our Nonprofit Newsroom with a monthly sustaining donation of $5 to $10 a month . Want more news on the Salish Sea? Find more news from...

According to a report by Third Space Planning, short term rentals in Qualicum Beach are harming the local housing and rental markets and making life less affordable. Eric Swanson from Third Space Planning presented the findings to the town council on February 28.  Support local news reporting through our Nonprofit Newsroom with a monthly sustaining donation of $5 to $10 a month . Want more news on...

Currently, it is illegal for RCMP to enforce school zone speed limits at many schools in the city as the “roads do not abut the school building or school grounds,” per a report by city staff. According to the report, if a school’s property line is over 50 meters from the street, the school is not considered to be adjacent to that street and the school zone speed is unenforceable  Staff recommended...

 BC’s minimum wage will be increasing from $16.75 to $17.40 an hour on June 1st. The province also introduced legislation that would tie future increases to the minimum wage to inflation. Alternate minimum rates for residential caretakers, live-in home-support workers and camp leaders will also receive a 3.9 per cent increase on June 1st, and the minimum agricultural piece rates will see the same...

On February 21, Parksville city council voted to move ahead with an application to allow the development of a non-market rental building at 1225 Franklin Gulls Road by the Parksville Lions Society.  The land for the development is a city-owned lot and the plans are for a four-storey 36 unit rental apartment building with 18 one-bedroom, 15, two-bedroom and three three-bedroom apartments.  Accordin...

Although the winter weather is still in the air, the Village of Cumberland is already looking forward to their annual summer concert series — and the noise it may bring.  A motion was brought to the Cumberland Village Council meeting on February 27th, for an exemption to the Noise Control Bylaw from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday evenings from July to August. This would allow for their Summer Con...

Paul Manly, executive director of the Naniamo Unitarian Shelter, is speaking out after a 23-year old woman named Sophia — who worked at the shelter —  died after struggling to access primary care.  “She was a real rising star young, 23 years old when she died. Just very bright, and, and very compassionate, and dedicated to her work,” he said. “She was really well liked by other staff and guests at...

The biggest francophone celebration on Vancouver Island kicks off in Nanaimo tonight. The three-day event is to celebrate French culture, language, food and music. The Maple Sugar Festival is the biggest celebration the Nanaimo Francophone Association puts on every year. Pauline Maerten is the cultural and administrative coordinator for the Nanaimo Francophone Association. Maerten said the associa...

Nanaimo’s Seventh Street Pump Station is getting an early upgrade after heavy rains in November 2021 overwhelmed the system. During the atmospheric river event, both of the system's pumps had to operate at the same time, meaning if one failed, sewers in the area could have overflowed.  At the city’s finance and audit committee meeting on February 20, Bill Sims, general manager for engineering and...

Registration has opened for Inclusion BC’s Everybody Belongs! Conference that will be held in Nanaimo this spring.  The conference connects participants to the latest information and resources on inclusion and diversity. The conference will be held from May 30th to June first at the Vancouver Island Conference Center, in downtown Nanaimo. This year it will be held in partnership with the Nanaimo A...

As the provincial election approaches in October, Elections BC has a new tool to help voters find what electoral district they are in. The Elections BC website now has a search bar where people can type their address and it will show what riding you are in and what the boundaries of it are. This year, British Columbia will have 93 electoral districts, up from 87, as the province’s population conti...

Registration has opened for Inclusion BC’s Everybody Belongs! Conference that will be held in Nanaimo this spring.  The conference connects participants to the latest information and resources on inclusion and diversity. The conference will be held from May 30th to June first at the Vancouver Island Conference Center, in downtown Nanaimo. This year it will be held in partnership with the Nanaimo A...

Chocolate can be one of the sweetest gifts to give the person you love for Valentine's Day, and student Grace Poirier knows a thing or two about chocolate. The second-year Vancouver Island University (VIU) Bakery and Pastry Arts student has recently returned from Europe after a school field trip with seven of her classmates. But on this trip, Poirier got a special opportunity to learn the secrets...

The RDN board was debating developing a regional strategy for net zero buildings and localized energy generation. “At the risk of offending every true climate believer I think the whole climate thing is a bit of a fiasco,” he said. “We've been facing this global warming thing now for 45 years and it's not happening.” As the alternate director, Fell attends RDN board meetings when Area F director L...

Chocolate can be one of the sweetest gifts to give the person you love for Valentine's Day, and student Grace Poirier knows a thing or two about chocolate. The second-year Vancouver Island University (VIU) Bakery and Pastry Arts student has recently returned from Europe after a school field trip with seven of her classmates. But on this trip, Poirier got a special opportunity to learn the secrets...

Nanaimo city councillor Tyler Brown says he was threatened at a city council meeting on Monday, February 5. “I think what he was saying was we'd end up in a gas chamber,” Brown said. “Then, as another gentleman was leaving, I happened to just be getting up from my seat, and he basically just looked at me right in the face and said, ‘Watch your back Brown’.” Brown isn’t the only politician who has...

At a special council meeting on Monday, February 12 Nanaimo City Council voted to cancel a second Alternative Approval Process, or AAP, to take out a $48.5 million loan to rebuild the public works yard. The city made a fatal error when elector response forms were not available until a day after the official notice for the AAP was posted. According to a staff report, this error meant that the AAP d...