It has been 40 years since NEDC (Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation) began making dreams of young businesspersons true when they launched an innovative model of support services.

According to their website, NEDC is an Indigenous Financial Institution (IFI) providing developmental lending, business financing and support services to Aboriginal entrepreneurs on Vancouver Island. NEDC plays a major role in helping First Nation communities on Vancouver Island become healthy, wealthy and socio-economically independent.

A young Roosevelt elk is free roaming again after a female hiker tactfully disentangled an old parachute from around its neck and antlers. 

The lucky bull Rosie elk was likely entwined in the strings and material from the parachute for a couple days, according to his rescuer who wishes to go unnamed.

“It’s about the animals and nature and human waste,” said the 39-year-old hiker. 

Ucluelet’s beloved Cedar House Gallery has been converted into a discount toy store for the holiday season.

Tla-o-qui-aht artist and gallery owner Hjalmer Wenstob spent the past weekend in the shop making space for all the toys and Christmas decorations.

“It’s been a tight few years for everyone and so we thought if we could offer toys and Christmas decorations that are inexpensive then it would be fun for the communities,” said Wenstob.

Are they the adorable superheroes of the Pacific, or the “rats of the sea”? It depends on who you talk to, but the continued resurgence of sea otters on British Columbia’s coast has many who live off the ocean calling for an approach to control the population – including some methods that the general public might find hard to stomach.

A Port Alberni man sentenced in 2018 to four years in prison for a violent assault on another man has applied to Huu-ay-aht First Nations to live on their treaty lands.

David Bird, 45, now on probation after serving his sentence, was convicted of attacking a man with a hammer. Bird was automatically excluded from Huu-ay-aht’s treaty settlement lands in accordance with their Community Safety Act, enshrined in the Maa-nulth treaty.

It was late in the evening on June 20, 1942, when the Japanese submarine I-26 shelled the Estevan Point Lighthouse and the Dominion government’s radio telegraph station. The incident occurred on the Hesquiaht First Nation’s former main village on the west coast of Vancouver Island. 

Nobody was hurt and no damage was done to the lighthouse, but the incident marked the first time enemy militants attacked Canadian soil since the War of 1812, according to official reports. 

Manned lighthouses on Vancouver Island are becoming a thing of the past and that is raising alarm among the seafaring people of the remote west coast communities. 

The Canadian Coast Guard and the federal government announced in July that lighthouses at Pachena Point and Carmanah Point would no longer have keepers as of Friday, Oct. 25 due to seismic concerns. While the Coast Guard acknowledged the facilities’ role in alerting mariners to hazards, the safety of lighthouse personnel “is the highest priority”.

Leading up to Remembrance Day on Nov. 11, Canada officially recognizes the role Indigenous veterans have held in international conflicts, an occasion that is about “honouring our ancestors,” says a Tseshaht member.

Today is Indigenous Veterans Day, when the country acknowledges the Aboriginal people who fought for Canada. According to Veterans Affairs Canada, this totaled over 12,000 in the 20th century’s conflicts, with at least 500 losing their lives. 

Regulators have responded to calls for cracking down on bootlegging that continues to flood Ahousaht with hard liquor by placing purchase limits on Tofino’s government-owned liquor store.

Former Canadian Anishinaabe judge and senator Murray Sinclair died early Monday morning in Winnipeg at the age of 73.

Sinclair is remembered most for chairing Canada's National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, being an instrumental part of bringing to light the residential school experiences of Indigenous people in Canada and bringing forth a number of reports outlining the role of different Canadian institutions in the suffering of Indigenous people, and recommendations for how to work towards reconciliation.