Keith Henry is much more upbeat now than he was just a few months ago.
Henry, who is the president and CEO of the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC), was rather gloomy this past September.
At the time he said research indicated it would take until 2028, and possibly even 2030, for the country’s Indigenous tourism industry to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
An innovative trades education program is bringing much-needed infrastructure to Nuu-chah-nulth communities, while delivering trades skills to students.
The future of pacific salmon will depend on how effectively global greenhouse gas emissions can be controlled, according to a 2022 forecast on West Coast returns delivered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
With an emphasis on the continued effects of global warming - including higher ocean temperatures, drier streams, increased forest fires and heavy flooding - this year’s overall returns are expected to be below the historical average.
A Nuu-chah-nulth leader is urging people to follow provincial health guidelines after contracting COVID-19. Ken Watts, Tseshaht elected chief, said in a social media post that he started feeling rough on the evening of Thursday, Jan. 6.
“I had my COVID-19 test yesterday and today my results came back positive for COVID-19,” he wrote.
Watts said that he considers himself a healthy person and is fully vaccinated except for the booster.
Christmas arrived a week early for Tseshaht First Nation with a $350 specific payment to each member, a dispersal of forestry revenues the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the 1950s.
“We had a good, successful year this year and we were able to give a bit of what we earned,” said Tseshaht Chief Councillor Ken Watts.
Some extra cash — a modest sum in relation to the soaring cost of groceries — would go a long way to easing financial constraints and hardships, but there was more behind the specific payment than earnings alone, Watts explained.
The controversial trailers located at the Wintergreen Apartments on Fourth Avenue in Port Alberni will be removed from the property, said owner Randy Brown.
Brown brought the trailers to an empty lot he owns after seeing a spike of people sleeping outside on sidewalks within the lower Fourth Avenue corridor in 2020.
“I have a big heart,” he said. “I can’t handle seeing these people out in the cold.”
His solution was to move around nine trailers onto his property to provide a housing solution for the homeless.
A late-night search and rescue operation on the water near Flores Island on Wednesday, Jan. 5 was called off just before midnight, sending searchers from Tla-o-qui-aht, Ahousaht and the Canadian Coast Guard home.
The evening of Jan. 5 was dark, and snow was drifting down steadily on the ocean southeast of Flores Island (Ahousaht). An Ahousaht man went out on his boat to rendezvous with a fish farm company vessel just before 9 p.m.
The extent of an early January snowfall was clear to see this morning in Tsaxana, where the top of an upright baseball ball was all that could be seen from the feet that had amassed overnight.
Like many places in British Columbia, the Mowachaht/Muchalaht community near Gold River was buried under more than two feet of snow, forcing the First Nation to close its offices as residents struggled to get out from the heaviest dump they had seen in years.
Two Nuu-chah-nulth nations have received funding to advance clean-energy projects within their communities.
Through the British Columbia Indigenous Clean Energy Initiative (BCICEI), as well as provincial support through Clean BC, the Uchucklesaht Tribe Government was given $299,975 and Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k:tles7et'h' First Nations received $112,500.
British Columbia’s longest running high school basketball tournament will not be held as planned this month in Port Alberni – but organizers haven’t ruled out the possibility that TOTEM could be rescheduled to a later date.