Vancouver Island, BC – Get ready for a sudden arrival of early winter weather as a long, warm, extended summer comes to an abrupt end, at least at high elevations.
The BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure released a statement on Oct. 21, 2022, warning people to be ready for snow on BC’s mountain passes.
“…snow is in the forecast this weekend and drivers should be prepared,” reads the statement.
Christopher Columbus, John Cabbot, and Jacques Cartier are just some of the names known for landing on North American soil as early explorers. Many of these explorers are known for their great discoveries. However, it is widely known that before European explorers, First Nations lived on the lands.
The complex legal history of Canada’s origins, and the Indigenous-Crown relationship, began with a series of Papal Bulls from the Pope of the Catholic Church. Presently, the weight that the Doctrine of Discovery has in Canada’s systems is being argued.
As uncertainty hangs over aquaculture on the B.C. coast, Canada’s fisheries minster visited Vancouver Island fish farms last week, armed with a mandate to transition open net pens out of the ocean by 2025.
But a coalition of First Nations advocating to keep salmon farms in their territories informed Joyce Murray, the visiting minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, that they will continue to operate according to their Aboriginal rights, regardless of what the government decides.
With little to no rainfall occurring over the past five weeks, the west coast of Vancouver Island has now reached Drought Level 4, putting salmon at risk of decay.
According to the Province of B.C., at Drought Level 4 conditions are extremely dry and adverse effects to socio-economic or ecosystem values are likely.
Areas under Drought Level 4 include the Fort Nelson basin, the Sunshine Coast basin, Lower Mainland basin and the east and west Vancouver Island.
As the heat of the summer extends into October there has been a prolonged forest fire season. As of Oct. 18, the province has 201 active fires with six having started in the previous two days.
Though two of the four fires in the Port Alberni area are no longer burning, four in Strathcona, and four between Gold River and Zeballos remain.
Tarek Ayache, air quality meteorologist with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, said that the smoke across Vancouver Island is largely due to the forest fires burning south of the border.
Nearly a year after the Zim Kingston lost over 100 shipping containers at sea west of Vancouver Island, a House of Commons committee has concluded that Canada is ill-prepared to deal with marine cargo accidents.
British Columbians who have a family doctor can count themselves fortunate, as about 20 per cent of the population - or one in five people - have no regular family physician to go to, according to the BCFamilyDocs website.
The shortage of family physicians is nation-wide problem and is being felt more acutely over the past two years during the pandemic, when COVID-19 cases added pressure to the health care system
But there are other reasons for the doctor shortage, including the fact that there are fewer medical school graduates.
With an unusually warm autumn season, for many British Columbians it may feel like there is an extra month of summer, but the lack of rainfall has extended forest fire season.
Julia Caranci, fire information officer with the Coastal Fire Centre, says that the fires have continued to pop up through to the middle of October because there has not been a season-ending rainfall event.
A supportive housing facility in Port Alberni for individuals experiencing substance use issues has had to close its doors after Island Health chose not to renew a contract with the service provider.
The New Leaf opened 12 recovery beds in the community in 2015 for people working towards recovery from substance use. Island Health funded six of those beds until they recently chose not to renew the contract with New Leaf owner Lisa George.
George said five people were displaced following the facility’s closure and seven staff members were let go.
A late start to summer and an unusually warm autumn seems to be bringing out more black bears than usual, seeking food sources for insatiable appetites as instinct drives them to prepare for winter.
In Port Alberni it is not uncommon to see black bears roaming the streets, knocking over trash and compost bins late at night. All city-provided compost bins in the small city have brass clips that help keep bears out, but not all trash bins have them.