With voters preparing to head to the polls for the BC General Election, a Nuu-chah-nulth leader shared her thoughts on the top two candidates running for premier.

NTC President Coly-e-iis, Dr. Judith Sayers, has been involved in Nuu-chah-nulth politics for many years. A member of the Hupacasath First Nation, Sayers was elected as the president of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council in September 2017 and is a long-time advocate for the promotion and protection of First Nations rights and title.

Over 70 per cent of salmon are below their long-term average, according to the recently published State of Salmon report from the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF). 

The report aims to educate and answer questions about the current conditions of salmon in B.C. and northward to the Yukon. This report comes at a time where PSF’s polls show that 85 per cent residents in British Columbia are very concerned about declining salmon stocks.

This October students got an opportunity to learn about the fragility of our environment by stepping out of the classroom and getting their feet wet in a creek.

On the morning of Oct. 8, nine students from Alberni District Secondary School’s new Land Based Learning program, Grades 9 to 12, helped biologists install a trap to capture wild salmon spawners. This trap will aid in increasing the coho numbers in the Sproat watershed.

This is the pilot year for the Land Based Learning program, led by teacher Sarah Williams and land-based worker Erin O’Hagan. 

The extremely busy walk-in clinic in Port Alberni announced that it has been forced to reduce its hours for a period of one month due to a doctor shortage. 

According to a recent post on the Mapleway (sic) Medical Center Facebook page, “from October 10, 2024 until November 12, 2024, the urgent care opening hours will be drastically reduced due to lack of medical doctors.” 

Alberni District Secondary’s sports teams now have a new name, after following a decision-making process that led to an inherent dynamic of the territory that they call home.

To a gym filled with jubilant fanfare, ADSS announced on Oct. 3 that its sports teams will now bear the name Storm, referencing the Alberni Valley’s long history of harsh weather over the cooler months. Storm replaces the former Armada name, which the school abandoned over a year ago due to it having little meaning for students.

Plunging down into the abyss of the Pacific Ocean along the west coast of Vancouver Island, B.C., a deep-sea droid dubbed ‘Jenny’ embarked on its first major expedition this fall with Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) and Canpac Marine Services Inc.

Jenny, a roughly $8 million remotely operated vehicle (ROV) capable of reaching depths of 6,000 metres, is off completing key maintenance tasks on ONC’s offshore subsea 800-kilometre-long cabled observatory infrastructure from Oct. 5 to 12.

Like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, Toquaht citizen Dennis Hetu couldn’t believe his eyes the day he stumbled upon an ancient clam garden in his ḥaḥuułi (traditional territory) on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The action unfolded over 20 years ago, but Hetu remembers it like it was yesterday.

After a harrowing weekend emergency that saw dozens of first responders, law enforcement and support workers pour into the Ditidaht community at Nitinaht Lake, Chief Councillor Judi Thomas is calling on the government of Canada to fulfill their commitment to bring reliable, high-speed internet and cellular service to the remote community.

With the provincial election looming, the words of candidates are being carefully scrutinized, including what Conservative leader John Rustad said earlier this year. On Feb. 1 the former minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation posted this statement on the Conservative Party of BC’s website: “We must also repeal the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was established for conditions in other countries — not Canada.”