Another election season is underway, after a mid-August announcement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that Canadians will head to the polls on Sept. 20 – less than two years since the last federal election took place.

Highway 4 is closed in both directions at Cameron Lake, after a vehicle incident in Cathedral Grove this morning.

The B.C. Ministry of Transportation’s DriveBC site reported the incident at 8:49 a.m. today from the west end of Cameron Lake. An assessment is in progress, according to the provincial site.

Reports from the scene saw traffic at a standstill along Cameron Lake, while two black helicopters circled around the vicinity of the incident before landing. By 9:30 a.m. traffic was backed up to Koen Road, near Whisky Creek.

As the president of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce, Terry Deakin is pleased whenever there is positive business news in the region.

That’s why Deakin was thrilled to see the Chims Guest House in Port Alberni host a special grand opening for its RV sites and Indigenous cultural centre earlier this month.

Chims, located at 6890 Pacific Rim Hwy., will have four fully serviced RV sites available for bookings starting next month.

“Anything we can add to our communities to build capacity for our tourism is great,” Deakin said.

When Natasha and Bill Dennis expressed their feelings about the pandemic onto a T-shirt a year ago, little did they know that the act would develop into a Port Alberni storefront that serves clients from across the region.

On Aug. 1 Billybeauty opened at 4567 Gertrude Street, offering custom-made T-shirt designs, as well as prints on other clothing - plus a variety wood, metal and glasswork the Dennises inherited from Ladybird Engraving, which they purchased.

Following a spring and summer of almost no precipitation and coupled with record-breaking high temperatures, freshwater resources are under unprecedented stress, according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.

As of Friday, Aug. 20th, all of Vancouver Island was at Drought Level 5. This means that there will likely be regulatory action and emergency response preparation on the part of the ministry, including the likelihood of mandatory water restrictions.

A fourth wave of COVID-19 dominated by the highly contagious Delta variant is making its way through British Columbia - including in communities with high populations of Nuu-chah-nulth people like Nitinaht Lake, Tofino, and Port Alberni.

On Aug. 20 the Ditidaht First Nation’s elected chief and council issued a community update. In it, the nation acknowledges that some of their community members are coming down with cold and flu-like symptoms. Since that time at least some of the cases have been confirmed to be COVID-19.

A 66-year-old man who went missing on Monday remains unaccounted for, after his boat was found empty near Rainy Bay, where the Alberni Inlet opens up into Barkley Sound.

The disappearance was reported to police on Aug. 16 when the man didn’t return to a camp where he was staying in the remote location. He left the camp on his boat to get cellular service, according to the Port Alberni RCMP.

A thick layer of fog wrapped around the Broken Group Islands on an early morning in late-July. It acted like a veil, withholding the beauty of the islands’ white sandy beaches, rocky outcrops, and the surrounding turquoise waters.

The region is a mecca for kayakers and boaters alike who flock to the remote set of islands every year, which Parks Canada has long been describing as a “wilderness” destination. 

It’s one that deeply troubles Denis St. Claire.

“To call this wilderness is just patently absurd,” he said.

A group of Ahousaht members hosted a gathering at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church Hall Sunday on Aug. 15. The purpose was to cement the friendship between the church and the Victoria-based Ahousaht members.