IslandLink, a Nanaimo-based passenger bus service, is pleased to announce that it is meeting the demand for increased bus service from Port Alberni to Tofino and on other Vancouver Island routes, thanks to the purchase of more buses.

“We knew there was a need for year-round bus service on this route and the enthusiastic response over the last three months is proof,” says Phillip Morgan, owner of IslandLink. “We are thrilled that travelers in the region have accepted us as a provider of reliable and efficient bus service and we thank everyone for continuing to book seats with us,”

It’s been more than four decades since a new hotel opened in the Vancouver Island city of Port Alberni. But that will be changing in the near future.

That’s because it was announced in early May 2023 that the Huu-ay-aht Group of Businesses (HGB), the economic arm of Huu-ay-aht First Nation, has entered into a partnership with Tseshaht First Nation and MasterBUILT Hotels Ltd.

The partnership group is planning to build a Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham in Port Alberni.

A young Ahousaht University student recently returned from a trip to South Korea, where he saw similarities between their culture and his, and he saw ways in which improvements can be made at home in terms of food security.

Daral ƛahayašištuuł Campbell, age 22, said he was originally invited to South Korea in 2020 as part of a group representing Ahousaht’s Chah chum hii yup tiic mis, also known as the Holistic Centre. Ahousaht’s new wellness centre is nearing completion on the site of a former residential school in the village.

For Lil’Star Frank, daughter to Lillian Jack, when Trevor Jack passed away from an overdose nothing would stop her from being with her family to mourn the loss of their loved one. 

She found out about her brother’s passing when she had gotten a call at 4:00 a.m., from Anita Baker, Trevor Jack's mother, and who Frank considered another mother.

She drove from Ahousaht and waited in the Kennedy Hill construction so that she could be with her family in Victoria.

At the time she had been caring for 10 children.

It has been a tough three years since the loss of her son, but Anita Baker summoned the strength to gather her family to celebrate the lives of her son, Trevor, and mother Margaret Jack of Kyuquot, BC.

Margaret Jack, born May 1, 1940, lovingly raised her family from her home in Kyuquot, then, later in Campbell River. She was the daughter of Emile and Sophie Jules, connecting her to the Tyee Ha’wilth of Kyuquot, Christine Cox. She married fisherman Leo Jack, raising seven children together.

Ahousaht’s new affordable housing project – čitaapi Mahtii is one step closer to groundbreaking as demolition of the old school building on site begins on the second week of May, 2023.

According to Ahousaht’s previous council, there are more than 500 registered members living in the city of Port Alberni. Many struggle to find affordable housing.

So, when BC Housing offered to support Ahousaht in creating an Indigenous housing development, the former Ahousaht council jumped at the opportunity.

A paper published in April has suggested marine species usually only found on the Pacific coasts are able to survive in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and the recent study has a Vancouver Island connection.

A new health clinic is coming to Port Alberni’s inner-city area, presenting a collaborative approach to primary care that aims to improve upon a traditional system that, for many patients, has proved to be ineffective.

The B.C. Ministry of Health has approved funding for the Indigenous Urban Community Health Centre. Launched by the Port Alberni Primary Care Network, the new clinic is planned to open in 2024 in the small city’s South Port area, between 3rd and 10th Avenue where needs were identified to be most urgent.

This fall a new nursing stream is coming to six universities in B.C., offering Indigenous graduate students training that aims to empower First Nations to determine their own path to wellness.

Port Alberni, BC – It was at 10 a.m. that the color red, along with posters of missing and murdered loved ones, began to fill the parking lot at n̓aasn̓aasʔaqsa totem pole, near the Victoria Quay.

May 5th marks National Red Dress Day, where, in Port Alberni, Nuu-chah-nulth-aht and community members gathered to raise awareness of MMIWG2S+ and remember their missing and murdered loved ones.