Infrastructure in Remote Communities

The 2023 Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council Annual General Meeting ended with an announcement from Ahousaht chief and council, stating that they plan to disengage from NTC’s health-specific programs so that the First Nation can directly manage these services on their own.

Elected Chief n̓aasʔałuk (John Rampanen) thanked the other Nuu-chah-nulth nations for standing together over the years and helping Ahousaht get on their feet. He said the nation will begin to transition into a new model of health delivery services in 2024.

Three Ditidaht First Nation community buildings at Nitinaht Lake will receive upgrades to improve accessibility, thanks to financial support from the Rick Hansen Fund.

The Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) announced three B.C. First Nations would be beneficiaries of grants as part of Indigenous Disability Awareness Month. Ditidaht joins Malahat Nation and the Seabird Island Band as recipients of grants that will allow them to make accessibility improvements to community facilities. The RHF program’s goal is to improve accessibility for people facing mobility challenges.

After seeing a precipitation deficit through November, the West Coast's wettest month, a ‘potent and impactful’ atmospheric river brings heavy rainfall to western Vancouver Island.

According to Environment Canada, up to 150 millimetres of rain is expected in some areas, with the storm expected to calm in the early hours of Tuesday, Dec. 5.

The River Forecast Centre issued a high streamflow advisory for the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The Province of British Columbia and BC Hydro are are working with First Nations and clean-energy companies to advance a call for power next spring.

In June 2023, the province announced that BC Hydro is moving ahead with a call for resources to meet the growing demand for electricity in B.C.

Objectives of the call are to acquire energy from clean or renewable sources that are cost-effective for ratepayers - projects that can come online as early as fall 2028 and initiatives that can be meaningful partnerships with First Nations.

One year ago Tla-o-qui-aht, Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ and the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District introduced a three-stream roadside collection in hitac̓u, Esowista, and Ty-histanis, a service which has since eliminated 175 kilograms of waste per household.

Since the Maa-nulth Final Agreement came into effect over a decade ago, a hole has existed right in the middle of the Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k'tles7et'h' First Nations treaty settlement land. Amid an ongoing housing shortage in its village on the northwest coast of Vancouver Island - with pressing needs for infrastructural upgrades - the 40 acres that remained under the ownership of the region’s school district lingered over the years as a barrier to the First Nation gaining the full self-determination that it had fought decades for leading up the Maa-nulth treaty.

It’s been 13 years since two veteran Tofino paramedics lost their lives when the ambulance they were in went off the road and plunged more than 100 feet down the cliff into Kennedy Lake. On Oct. 19 dozens of paramedics from Tofino and around the province gathered at the site on the 13th anniversary to dedicate a memorial stone at the site of the accident.

Heavy rains coupled with high tides are wreaking havoc on industrial roads leading to Bamfield and Nitinaht.

Local motorists from Anacla, Bamfield and Nitinaht shared photos of road conditions on the way to the remote communities.

Kristen Young of Huu-ay-aht shared a photo of a slide that occurred at the 44 kilometre marker outside of Bamfield on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 18. She reported that the debris had been mostly cleared by 9:30 that morning and drivers could get through.

After three years of work, decades of lobbying and multiple traffic fatalities the Bamfield road has been upgraded, offering a newly surfaced, safer passage to the Barkley Sound community.

As cool fall temperatures set in, residents of Anacla and Bamfield are seeing their notoriously dusty, bumpy, and dangerous access road improve as crews near the end of the final segment of chip sealing just outside of Port Alberni.

Bamfield Main is a 76-kilometre industrial road, mostly located on the traditional territory of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, that acts as a link between the communities of Anacla, Bamfield, and Port Alberni.