A murder in Port Alberni’s poorest neighbourhood has raised the urgency for an upcoming development that will house the city’s marginalized residents.

Just before 9 p.m. on Dec. 2 police found three people injured from knife wounds, with one person who was killed during the incident on Port Alberni’s lower 4th Avenue. Police tape was put up at a unit in the Wintergreen Apartments, a building next to an empty lot full of run-down trailers being rented for low rates.

Thirteen Level 1 Carpentry students are set to graduate on Dec. 13, leaving a legacy of their work at the upcoming Tiny Home Village on lower 4th Avenue in Port Alberni.

In a unique partnership between the Port Alberni Friendship Center, North Island College and the Nuu-chah-nulth Employment Training Program (NETP), the students were able to complete their course load by sharpening their skills at the Tiny Home Village, still under construction.

After a week and a half of closure due to an influenza outbreak, both Ahousaht schools have welcomed their students and staff back for regular classes.

During the time of the closure both schools were deeply sanitized, and they continue to clean high-touch surfaces, explained Rebecca Atleo, Ahousaht’s education director.

Dec. 7 marks the beginning of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference.

COP 15, Conference of the Parties, is being held in Montreal, the unceded territory of Kahnawake Mohawk First Nation. Governments from countries around the world will come together to negotiate and create a new framework of goals and strategies, known as the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, to minimize biodiversity loss and preserve nature. These goals will then be carried into the next decade of conservation work throughout the 196 countries involved.

Off the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, inland from the West Coast Trail, is a quiet and remote lake brimming with vibrant ecosystems. From trumpeter swans to black bears, the Cheewaht Lake watershed provides a home for dense and rare biodiversity.

The Cheewaht Lake watershed is on the traditional territory of Ditidaht First Nation, who, for thousands of years, managed the area from villages along the coast at the mouth of the Cheewaht River.

At the beginning of January, Hipolite Williams began carving a 35-foot canoe for Uchucklesaht Nation. Through winter, spring, summer, and fall, he and his apprentice, Cooper Styan, worked daily toward carving the red cedar canoe.

The log, chosen by Williams and sourced from C̕awak ʔqin Forestry, was 45 feet long, 5 feet at the base, 3.5 to 4 feet at the top, weighing 16, 000 pounds, said Ryan Anaka, director of Lands and Resources for Uchucklesaht.

As B.C. continues to struggle with an overdose crisis and its underlying contributing factors tied to mental health, the provincial government has announced a new focus on youth to “prevent small problems from turning into big ones.”

With a recent executive order banning commercial fish farms in Washington State waters, British Columbia is left as the only jurisdiction on the North Pacific coast to still have large-scale, industrial finfish aquaculture.

And now the industry faces an approaching deadline to make “a responsible plan to transition from open net pen salmon farming in coastal British Columbia by 2025,” according to a mandate from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

A new multi-unit facility is being built in Port Alberni, providing safe living spaces for women and their children escaping violence.

The Attorney General and Ministry Responsible for Housing made the announcement on Nov. 25.

Sage Haven (formerly Alberni Community and Women's Services Society) offers first-stage transition homes to women and their children. This new development is set to offer a temporary place to stay for women and children escaping violence.

On Tuesday, Nov. 29, Gina Amos, Wally Samuel, George Frank, and Ed Ross met with Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions. They came together for the signing of the deed to the former Cedarwood Elementary School, where they plan to build an affordable housing complex for Ahousaht members living in Port Alberni.

Roughly four years ago Ahousaht’s elected chief and council initiated the search for housing for the First Nation’s members living in Port Alberni, said Ahousaht elder Wally Samuel.