All in all the federal government’s fiscal plan for this year presents a positive collection of initiatives to help the struggles of many Nuu-chah-nulth people, says Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns - although the spending measures fall short in tackling the opioid crisis.
A calf was recently born to the feral herd of cattle that have roamed freely on Meares Island for more than a century.
According to resident Norman Thomas, the calf was born on April 3, behind his house, located at the back side of the village of Opitsaht.
“My boys (in early 20s) saw it being born yesterday and they were worried that dogs or something would get after it when the mother wandered off,” Thomas told Ha-Shilth-Sa.
A new toxic drug alert text service has expanded to Island Health. The new service, available on Vancouver Island, sends out warnings by text of toxic drug advisories in your city.
Launched by Toward the Heart, a British Columbia Centre for Disease Control program, and Island Health in 2022, the drug-poisoning overdose advisory became available for Vancouver Islanders by text message in December 2022.
Forty-three people at risk of homelessness will soon have a permanent home in Victoria, at a facility designed to provide the positive elements of a First Nations community.
Over the next two weeks the House of Courage will be taking in its first residents. Located at 865 Catherine Street, deep within a residential neighbourhood in west Victoria, the four-storey facility will offer a carefully selected group their own suites, with meal services, employment and life skills programming delivered by around-the-clock staff.
With First Nations in B.C. having died at a rate 5.4 times higher than other residents in 2021, and Port Alberni, a hub for Nuu-chah-nulth, seeing an increase in drug induced deaths, Tseshaht First Nation organized a forum to address the opioid crisis.
“We're actually in a state of emergency for the amount of people that we've lost,” said Wahmeesh (Ken Watts), elected chief councillor of Tseshaht First Nation. “We've lost more people to [the] opioid crisis than COVID-19.”
The Port Alberni Friendship Center (PAFC) opened its doors to families on Friday, March 31 to celebrate spring.
Guests were treated to spaghetti dinner with refreshments while they chatted. PAFC employees Chantel Lalonde and Roxy Taylor served up plates of food while taking down names for door prizes.
There were fewer guests than expected, likely because the PAFC was hosting another celebration at The Shelter on Eighth. The PAFC was recently awarded the contract to manage the shelter beginning April 1, 2023.
Commuters, tourists and those traveling to and from Vancouver Island’s west coast no longer have to endure long traffic delays or schedule conflicts now that the Kennedy Hill Safety Improvement Project is substantially complete.
Improvements to the stretch of Highway 4 adjacent to Kennedy Lake and approximately 14 kilometres northeast of the Tofino/Ucluelet junction have to a large extent wrapped up after more than five years of construction.
The inability to see one another until seconds before impact is to blame for a float plane collision with an Ahousaht water taxi on Oct. 18, 2021, according to a Transportation Safety Board of Canada report released March 30.
The accident occurred in the busy Tofino Harbour in the autumn afternoon over a year ago, when a Tofino Air float plane, a de Havilland DHC-2 MK (Beaver), was coming in for a landing as an Ahousaht-based water taxi, the Rocky Pass, was also heading toward the First Street Dock.
Off the western coast of Vancouver Island, within the rocky shores of Flores Island, an inexhaustible passion for basketball has been breeding for over a generation. On any given night of the week you’ll have a hard time finding free court space in the Maaqtusiis school gym, as the Ahousaht community continues its love affair with a sport normally associated with North America’s inner cities.
“In Ahousaht basketball is a way of life,” said resident Tom Campbell. “When they’re two or three years old they start throwing a ball through a hoop.”
“He’s given so much to so many, recognition of him is long overdue,” said Shelley Harding, the Alberni Valley Museum’s coordinator and education curator, of the late cultural leader, George Clutesi.
George Clutesi, born 1905, was an artist, educator, scholar, author and actor. He was a strong proponent of teaching Nuu-chah-nulth culture to anyone that would listen, so that it may be passed on to future generations.