A planned activity centre at Long Lake has the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust(NALT), and a member of city council raising concerns about tree loss. 

Nanaimo city council changed course this week, narrowly voting in favour of a plan to spend close to $11 million building a new facility for boat storage and with community space at Loudon Park next to Long Lake.

At a previous Finance and Audit Committee meeting council had voted in favour of a plan that would have seen boat storage built in a different location at a cost of about $6.5 million.

A number of councillors were not present at that meeting, and this week, in a pair of 5-4 votes, council decided first against building the scaled down storage, and then to approve funding for the bigger building.

It’s estimated by NALT that more than 40 per cent of the trees in the park will be cut down as part of the planned building.

Midcoast Morning speaks with NALT’s executive director and Nanaimo City Councillor Ben Geselbracht about the issue.

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Four major new BC Ferries are on the way but plans for a fifth have been rejected for now.

The new ships will replace four aging vessels, the Queens of Cowichan, Alberni, Coquitlam and New Westminster.

It’s the largest capital project in the history of BC Ferries.

The first of the new vessels are expected to enter service in 2029, with all four operational by 2031.

BC Ferries had requested permission to build a fifth ship at the same time to increase capacity in the system.

All decisions on major capital expenditures for BC Ferries have to go through the BC Ferry Commission, an independent regulator that also sets the limit on average fare and reservation increases.

This week BC Ferries commissioner Eva Hage released her 32 page decision on BC Ferries application for new vessels, giving the go ahead to the four replacement ships, but rejecting the application for a fifth.

Midcoast Morning speaks with Hage and BC Ferries CEO Nicolas Jimenez about the development.

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Vancouver Island University is getting set to search for a new president.

Last week current president Deborah Saucier announced her resignation as of April fourth.

The move followed a vote of non confidence in her leadership from the VIU Faculty Association and a call for her removal from the Vancouver Island University Students Union (VIUSU).

Midcoast Morning speaks with a representative from VIUSU about their hopes for the change.

Plus this weekend voters in and around Oceanside will decide on the fate of substantial upgrades to the Ravensong Aquatic Centre in Qualicum Beach.

Parksville Mayor Doug O’Brien shares the journey the project has taken to reach this stage.

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Nanaimo’s northern gateway could look very different in 20 years.

The city is refining its plan for the Woodgrove area, and aims to add much denser housing to an area currently covered in concrete and chain stores.

Midcoast Morning speaks with Kasia Biegun from The City of Nanaimo planning department, and Michael Bassili of Strong Towns Nanaimo about the area.

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Familiar faces are lining up for what projects to be a tight Nanaimo race in the federal election.

All five candidates from the 2021 federal election are set to run again for their respective parties.

Incumbent MP Lisa Marie Barron of the NDP is looking to retain her seat.

2021 runner up Tamara Kronis is once again representing the Conservative party, and former MP and current city councillor Paul Manly has been announced as the Green Party candidate in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith Riding.

Michelle Corfield is once again running for the liberals and Stephen Welton has been announced as the People’s Party candidate.

As of recording time, none of the candidates have been officially confirmed by Elections Canada, the nomination process closes April 7th, and a complete list of Candidates will be available Wednesday April 9th.

Midcoast Morning tees up the race in a conversation with VIU political science professor Michael MacKenzie.

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It’s going to cost a quarter more to ride the bus in Nanaimo. April 1 transit fares are going up for the first time in years, following a fare review process.

A single ride will now cost $2.75 and a day pass $5.50

The price of Monthly concession passes for seniors and youth are also going up by $5.

The cost of a standard monthly bus pass remains the same at $65.

There’s also one route that’s decreased in price, the Nanaimo to Cowichan Valley Express route is now $5 dollars, down from $7.50.

Midcoast Morning speaks with the RDN’s Senior Manager of Transportation about the changes.

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The company that built the Nanaimo Bastion could be looking at the end of the line.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is seeking creditor protection and is expected to begin liquidating inventory at stores across Canada in the very near future.

Midcoast Morning explores what’s going on with The Bay now, and the role it played in Nanaimo’s coal mining roots.

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With trout being pumped into local freshwater lakes, and the herring spawn catching the attention of fishers on the saltwater side, Midcoast Morning explores the Nanaimo fishing scene.

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Permitting delays and Cost uncertainty are among the concerns expressed this week by home builders on Vancouver Island.

The Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce gathered contractors and other key players in the construction industry together Tuesday for an Island Housing Solutions Roadmap event at the coast bastion hotel.

Midcoast Morning attended and spoke with members of the Canadian Homebuilders Association.

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Cities, towns, and community organizations across Vancouver Island are increasingly leaving behind X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

This week Ladysmith joined Parksville as some of the latest communities to either shut down or publicly back away from use of the platform.

Midcoast Morning speaks with the town’s communications and engagement specialist who says the decision wasn’t a political one. The program also speaks with Nanaimo’s director of corporate communications to see if it’s looking at stepping away from X.

Plus, Ladysmith has a new mayor

Deena Beeston picked up 854 of 1740 votes cast in a byelection last Saturday. She spoke with Midcoast Morning about the campaign, and what she hopes to accomplish in the role.

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As The City of Nanaimo attempts to deal with unruly conduct during council meetings, a proposed ban on recording has some councillors raising concerns.

Bylaw changes that include bans on photography and audio and video recordings of council meetings passed three readings at a February 24th council meeting, with council voting 7-2 in favour of the changes.

Under the rules, which would still need to be adopted at a later date, photography and recording at a meeting could still be permitted if allowed by the meeting’s chair.

Councillors Hilary Eastmure and Sheryl Armstrong voted against the changes, and expressed concern about their ability to stand up to legal challenges.

At a meeting this past week, Councillor Paul Manly, who originally voted in favour of the changes, said he’s not comfortable with the bylaw as it’s worded and that he would be bringing forward a motion to revisit discussion on the issue at a later date.

Eastmure, Manly, and Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog spoke with Midcoast Morning about the issue.

For more local reporting on this story, you can find a February 27 piece in The Discourse from CHLY alumni Mick Sweetman.

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Concerns about a potential loss of representation, and a new implementation plan have caused farmers to make their voices heard at the regional district of Nanaimo so far this year.  

In January, a staff report presented the RDN board with the option of consolidating a number of committees,

One of them was the Agricultural Advisory Committee or AAC, which is made up of members of the farming community and directors on the RDN board. 

That potential loss of the committee caused a number of farmers to reach out and contact the RDN, and local farmer Ben Glassen advocated for the committee and issues affecting his community at a January RDN board meeting.

While a number of other committees were collapsed into the committee of the whole, the AAC was spared.

Part of the AAC’s work is an agricultural area plan, developed in 2012. 

Many items from the plan haven’t been put into practice yet, and this week the RDN adopted a new implementation plan to try and address that.

This week Ben Glassen once again spoke to the RDN board about issues facing local farmers.

Glassen and AAC chair Jessica Stanley spoke with Midcoast Morning about the issues island farmers are facing.

Editor’s note, Glassen is also a volunteer at CHLY, where he hosts a farming themed program called the Tuning Fork.

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The City of Nanaimo is taking another step on the road to replacing its aging public works yard.

Nanaimo city council voted 6 to 3 in favour of a plan to fund more detailed designs for the project.

The city is looking to upgrade facilities on Labieux road by building a new administration building and a new fleet maintenance facility, where it would service vehicles like garbage trucks and snow ploughs.

A plan to borrow up to $90 million to complete the upgrades had to be shelved after an unsuccessful alternative approval process last year. 

The designs are projected to cost $1.8 million, staff say it’s something that will need to be completed no matter how the rest of the project is financed.

Bill Sims, General Manager of Engineering and Public Works with the City of Nanaimo, spoke with Midcoast Morning about the latest developments on the project.

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The work of Black Canadian poets George Elliot Clarke, Dionne Brand, M Nourbese Philip, and Wayde Compton, as well as rapper K’naan, is in the spotlight in a new book from VIU professor Paul Watkins.

Called Soundin’ Canaan, in the book, Watkins takes what he describes as a DJ approach to analyzing works of Black Canadian poetry as forms of social, ethical, and political expression.

Watkins paid a visit to the CHLY studio to speak about the work.

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It was a banner year for the Vancouver Island Marmot.

There were more marmots recorded in the wild than at any time since their population started being tracked in the 1980s.

The wild marmot population is mainly centered around two areas, Strathcona Park and Nanaimo Lakes.

The Marmot Recovery foundation is a non profit founded in 1999 with the goal of restoring the wild population of the Vancouver Island Marmot, their work includes captive breeding programs and habitat restoration efforts.

The organization’s executive director and head veterinarian joined Midcoast Morning to break down the latest on B.C.’s only endemic mammal species.

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Community members are gathering downtown this afternoon to honour the lives of of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

The No More Stolen Sisters March begins at Diana Krall Plaza at 3:30.

Starting in 1992 memorial marches have been held in communities across the country each year on February 14th.

The event originated as a memorial march for Cheryl Anne Joe, a mother of three from Sechelt who was murdered that year in Vancouver.

Leah Vaisanen is organizing the march in Nanaimo.

Monique May is organizing a march this Sunday in Victoria. She’ll also be in attendance Friday in Nanaimo.

Both of them spoke with Midcoast Morning about the march, and the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQIA+ people.

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University of Vermont professor Kim Coleman is hitting the mountain biking trails of Vancouver Island.

But she’s not here on vacation.

Coleman is visiting Vancouver Island University for the spring semester as a Fulbright Canada Research Chair.

She’s studying how communities manage outdoor recreation, comparing examples on the island with some she’s studied back in New England.

Coleman visited the CHLY studio to talk about how communities change when mountain biking goes

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Christine Meutzner says when she’s driving around Nanaimo, she sees all the buildings that have come and gone throughout the years.

After close to 30 years at the Nanaimo Archives, Meutzner is heading into retirement.

The archives are a non-profit society dedicated to acquiring, preserving and providing public access to the historical records of the Nanaimo region.

Members of the public can do on site research by appointment at their building located at 60 Wharf Street.

Meutzner stopped by the CHLY studio to share some stories from the city’s past.

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Ladysmith’s acting mayor says in her opinion, an increasing lack of civility online is the community’s greatest challenge.

Voters in Ladysmith are getting set to elect a new mayor in a by-election March 1. There are currently five candidates in the race to replace Aaron Stone, who stepped down last year to take a role as CEO of the South Island Prosperity Partnership, an economic development alliance serving the greater Victoria region.

Tricia McKay has been serving as acting Mayor in the interim, Midcoast Morning spoke with her about the political context in the community ahead of the by-election

In addition to issues with how she feels online discourse has evolved in the last number of years, McKay also cited challenges getting new commercial space, housing, and healthcare in Ladysmith.

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The BC Road Show made a stop in Cedar, looking to get more young people interested in careers operating heavy equipment.

The roadshow is a trailer that contains simulators for various pieces of heavy equipment. It visits schools in the province in an effort to promote pathways into the construction industry.

Industry groups say there’s a shortage of labour in the construction right now. Midcoast Morning examines a local pathway into heavy equipment operation.

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