Province appoints new Downtown Eastside adviser

Former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell has a new job with the NDP government as an adviser for the Downtown Eastside (DTES).

His contract is for six months from Sept. 29, 2025, until March 31, 2026, and he is getting paid $92,000, plus up to $10,000 in expenses.

“I am not a czar. I am not a saviour,” said Campbell during a Sept. 29 press conference in Vancouver. “I’m going to try. That’s all I can say.”

Crash by Cameron Lake leaves one dead, another with ‘potentially life threatening injuries’

A highway collision by Cameron Lake has taken the life of a young man, while leaving a senior with “potentially life-threatening injuries”, according to police.

The car crash occurred at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27 on Highway 4, when a Honda Civic “appeared to have lost control on a series of curves” near the lake, colliding with a Chevrolet Impala headed west, according to Oceanside RCMP. 

Old Christie Residential School outbuildings to be demolished – Ahousaht Ha’wiih invite survivors to healing event

Survivors of Christie Indian Residential School are invited to witness the demolition of the remaining buildings that were once part of old Christie Residential School, located on Meares Island in Ahousaht traditional territory.

“Former students at Christie school will have the opportunity to witness and/or participate in the demolition of the three remaining buildings,” reads the invitation.

Port Alberni Friendship Center elects four new board members at annual general meeting

The doors were open at the Port Alberni Friendship Center on the evening of September 23 as they kicked off their annual general meeting starting with a free roast beef dinner, prepared and served by PAFC staff. Attendees signed in upon arrival and were given complimentary PAFC Society membership cards, allowing them to participate in nomination and voting activities.

Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region celebrates 25-year milestone

As one group of people gathered in southern Vancouver Island to protest the logging of B.C.’s old-growth forest in the Walbran Valley, another came together in Clayoquot Sound to celebrate 25 years of conservation and community building.

For decades, Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island was a region in conflict as hundreds of people stood on logging roads to save a temperate coastal rainforest from being clearcut.   

No serious injuries after lake embankment collapses causing industrial truck to fall into Nitinaht Lake

A truck driver escaped with his life after his industrial truck loaded with woody debris and trees slid into Nitinaht Lake Aug. 26 when the embankment he was driving on collapsed.

A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. Posted by Roc-Star Enterprises, the video shows an industrial truck loaded with logs driving onto an embankment on Nitinaht Lake when the soil gives way, causing the truck to tumble sideways into the lake. The driver reportedly escaped through a window and swam ashore, uninjured.

Spirit of Yuquot expressed through bentwood box pinhole camera carving and film photos

Two traditional artists from different cultures came together to create a remarkable project that tells the story of the Wolf Clan at Yuquot on Nootka Island, B.C. – a place of first contact with Europeans and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations. 

Over the span of seven years, master carver Sanford Williams (Ahtsik-sta Qwayachiik) of Mowachaht First Nation and large format film photographer Ron Smid from Orillia, Ontario worked on a bentwood box pinhole camera. 

‘Your body really aches’: Detox remains a struggle with lack of facility in Alberni

Despite being the urban hub for a region with the highest fatal overdose rate on Vancouver Island, there are no detox beds in Port Alberni.

This summer the BC Coroners Service released data on drug overdose deaths for the first half of 2025, numbers that put the Alberni-Clayoquot local health area fourth in the province for the rate of fatalities. Comprising almost 36,000 residents, this health area includes Port Alberni, Tofino, Bamfield and all communities in between, where a fatality rate of 74.1 per 100,000 was tracked from January until the end of June 2025. 

Tofino bans plastic water bottles

There are exemptions to the rule, of course.

Mobility/accessibility cases are exempt. People can still purchase water bottles sold in packaged multiples or flats. If a State of Emergency is declared at the local, provincial, or federal level and the Emergency Operation Centre is activated, single-use plastic water bottles will be on hand; same applies when Stage 3 water conservation measures are announced.

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