Midcoast Morning

A new hospital, a cardiology program, and more staff are all needed in Nanaimo according to Dr. David Coupland, head of the Nanaimo Medical Staff Engagement Society. Plus how could the raft of housing announcements we’ve been hearing from the provincial government impact Nanaimo? Kaeley Wiseman who teaches at VIU and works in the non market housing space shares her thoughts. ★ Support this podcast...

Sophia worked at The Nanaimo Unitarian Shelter. She died late last year from an infection, aged 23. With her mother’s blessing, the shelter’s Executive Director Paul Manly is sharing Sophia’s story. In a post to the Unitarian shelter’s Facebook page titled Remembering Sophia, an open letter about the preventable loss of a community champion, Manly provided an account of Sophia’s difficulty accessi...

There’s a cloud of uncertainty hanging over many smaller media outlets around Vancouver Island and beyond. A federally funded program to support civic journalism in under-served communities is set to expire at the end of next month, and there’s been no definitive answer one way or another about its future. Called The Local Journalism Initiative or LJI, it provides funds to a number of not for prof...

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog discusses the cancelled alternative approval process and the future of the public works yard project. Shoppers at Nanaimo’s Superette share memories of the store in the wake of the news that it’s up for sale. ★ Support this podcast ★

Nanaimo has shelved an alternative approval process for the second time, after failing to follow the rules set out in provincial legislation. To try and make sense of the situation, we spoke with Vancouver Island University Political Studies Professor Michael MacKenzie. ★ Support this podcast ★

Lunar New Year falls on Saturday February 10th in 2024 An important holiday in the culture of many Asian nations, including China, Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia, Today we’ll be taking a look at some of the ways it’s being celebrated here in Nanaimo. We’ll visit the Nanaimo Chinese Cultural Society’s Lunar New Year event, and we’ll hear the favourite traditions of a number of students at VIU. ★ Sup...

Nanaimo’s nailed down five specific proposals it wants to see action on from the province This week council approved the resolutions the city will bring before the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities. We’ll be exploring what that means, what the resolutions are, how this all works, and why you should care. ★ Support this podcast ★

Housing has been a hot topic around town this week. The provincial housing minister was in Nanaimo for an announcement, the province announced more funding for rent banks in BC, and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation came out with its 2024 rental market report. We’ll hear from housing minister Ravi Kahlon, and we’ll explore the Nanaimo housing scene with VIU Master of Community Planning p...

A pair of Vancouver Island Entrepreneurs have lost their space but not their vision. Last Mother's day Sabrina Anderson and Whirly Bird launched Stray Coastal Moat Farm market, hoping to create community for island farmers. They took over the building  across from the Nanaimo Airport in Cassidy that’s hosted farm markets in one way or another since the 1970s. In October, just as they were getting...

The Canada goose and the Vancouver Island marmot, two iconic species in very different situations. We’re going to hear about a pair of efforts on today’s show, one to get our goose population under control, and one to bring marmots back from the brink. Nanaimo’s launched a bid looking for contractors to do some Canada goose egg addling. At the same time, The Marmot Recovery Foundation is hiring fo...

Paige Pierce is Nanaimo’s new Youth Poet Laureate. The Vancouver Island University education student will spend a two year term raising awareness of poetry and the impact that literary arts can have on community life. Pierce, 21, has published 7 books of poetry, the first of those coming when she was 15. CHLY reporter Mick Sweetman spoke with her in our studio. We also follow up with Nanaimo's Poe...

For the next two weeks It’s Dine About Mid-Island, as the local food and beverage festival returns for a second year. During the event a variety of independent restaurants from Ladysmith to Qualicum Beach will be offering special menus. Midcoast Morning is taking a look at the local food scene to mark the occasion. ★ Support this podcast ★

Nanaimo is offering tours of its public works yard this weekend. The city is looking to borrow $48.5 million to begin replacing and upgrading parts of the facility, which was built in the 1960s. Members of the media were invited for a separate tour Tuesday, we’ll bring you excerpts from that.. We’ll also explore the Alternative Approval Process that’s opening up this week as the city seeks voter a...

British Columbia has a new French-language policy . The five page document outlines a goal of incrementally increasing services available for francophones across the province. Today on the program, we’ll explore what the policy means, and learn more about the francophone community in Nanaimo and across the province. ★ Support this podcast ★

National commentator Jen Gerson is in town for a talk tonight at Vancouver Island University. Titled “Free speech in the digital age: the problems of censorship and the perils of regulation”, the lecture will touch on the Canadian media landscape, the Online News Act and Meta’s ban on news in Canada Gerson has been published in The Globe and Mail, CBC, The National Post, The New York Times, and al...

The stoppage time winner, the penalty save, the last second tackle, the dazzling dribble. There are a lot of reasons why people might call soccer the beautiful game, but have you ever thought about beautiful refereeing? Ross Cameron has. He’s the head referee for Nanaimo United Football club, a referee assessor and instructor for BC Soccer. For most people, a referee’’s done a good job if they are...

What happens at a Christmas tree farm in January? And what’s the best way to dispose of your tree? Can you put it in the green bin? ★ Support this podcast ★

From the Hullo Ferry, to new turf fields, to some prime locations that are due for facelifts, we check in on the infrastructure of Nanaimo in part 2 of our 2023 Year in review with Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog. ★ Support this podcast ★

As Nanaimo gets ready to turn the page on 2023, we’re taking a look at the year in books. In this episode, we explore the world of Literacy Central Vancouver Island, and hear from an independent bookseller in Nanaimo about some of the year’s most popular titles. ★ Support this podcast ★

As Nanaimo gets ready to turn the page on 2023, we’re taking a look at the year in books. In this episode, we head to the Vancouver Island Regional Library to learn about the most checked out titles. We also hear from Literacy Central Vancouver Island’s Indigenous Literacy Coordinator Aimee Chalifoux. ★ Support this podcast ★

As Nanaimo gets ready to turn the page on 2023, we’re taking a look at the year in books. In this episode, we explore the world of Literacy Central Vancouver Island, and hear from an independent bookseller in Nanaimo about some of the year’s most popular titles. ★ Support this podcast ★

International students have received some answers about how much they’ll be allowed to work over the coming months. The federal government provided an update on a number of temporary policies impacting international students, which had been set to expire at the end of the year. Among the updates is an extension of the waiver allowing international students to spend more than 20 hours a week workin...

It’s been more than twelve years since passenger rail on Vancouver Island ground to a halt. Back in the 19th century, governments gave away around two million acres of land on southeastern Vancouver Island to get The Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway built. Now it sits abandoned. But the unbroken 289 kilometre corridor stretching from Esquilmalt to Courtenay is still almost entirely intact. In March,...

The sun may be setting on a Vancouver Island landmark. If you’ve so much as driven through Duncan in the last thirty years, chances are you’ve seen the World’s Largest Hockey Stick. Now, with its wooden structure rotting, its future is in doubt. Built for Expo 86 in Vancouver, it made its way to the island a few years later and currently stick above the Cowichan Community Centre. With an estimated...

Nanaimo’s MP is speaking up amid concerns that the habitat of the city’s official flower is at risk. There’s a an application to build a subdivision on land in Harewood Plains, a site that the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust describes as home to critically imperiled ecological communities including Garry Oak woodlands and vernal Pools. The area is also where you’ll find most of the Hosackia pinnata...