Island Insider

For First Nations, repatriation is not some dusty word associated with museum bureaucracy, it is fundamental to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, says Jodi Simkin, president of the BC Museums Association (BCMA).

The We Wai Kai and Wei Wai Kum Nations want the immediate cancellation of Mowi Inc. tenure for its Shaw Point aquaculture operation and more say around salmon farm operations in their territories,, according to a statement issued by the Laich-Kwil-Tach Treaty Society Thursday.

Many communities in northern Quadra Island fall outside the fire department's protection zone. But a regional district survey on burning regulations and fire service shows there's no clear consensus about how to best safeguard residents from wildfires.

 Two Quadra Island residents are lucky they weren’t injured or killed after a high-calibre bullet tore into their home Friday night, RCMP say.

In a targeted effort to save people from dying while using alone at home, B.C. launched the Lifeguard app province-wide May 21.The free app, downloadable to any cellphone, prompts users to check in 50 seconds after dosing, Neil Lilley, senior provincial executive director of BC Emergency Health Service, said on Friday.

“Lots of small communities might not fall under the BC Transit umbrella due to a combination of politics and community priorities,” said community planner Ericka Amador. “So, alternative transit options are often born of necessity and by grassroots movements ..."

“I, too, am going to just exercise my right to say how disappointed I am with this (decision). I think we have done our constituents over on Cortes Island a disservice," Strathcona Regional District chair Michele Babchuk, after three rural directors postponed public hearings in their areas until September, putting the funding application for a 20-unit affordable rental housing project at risk.

Small communities in B.C. turned out over the weekend to protest police violence and racism against Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour locally and nationally.

B.C.'s minimum wage bump is inadequate, especially as low wage workers suffer the greatest impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, says economist Iglika Ivanova, of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “Grocery store workers, cleaners or people working in the restaurants or food service are at increased risk when they go to work. And when they earn such low wages, it’s profoundly unfair."

The Mobile Outreach Unit for Health and Support Services (MOUHSS) is a brightly coloured RV bringing much-needed services to the community's most vulnerable. But it only has funding until August.

Discovery Island residents navigate the challenges West Coast commutes and ferry service delays with calm.

Restaurants, pubs, businesses, resorts and marinas in the Discovery Islands off the west coast of B.C. are tentatively taking the first steps in expanding services in their communities to locals and tourists alike.

Fatal drug overdoses are on the rise, with more than three people dying every day as the province deals with COVID-19, data from the BC Coroners Service indicates.

“I feel this is my home because it’s mine…other people have to cart their stuff around place to place.I’ve live here now for six years. I’ve been happy and comfortable here.” says 87-year-old Douglas Butt of his rental unit at Cortes Island Seniors Village, which is expanding its stock of stable, subsidized housing to meet older residents' housing needs.

This spring, Quadra Island's historic May Day celebrations are undergoing a metamorphosis due the COVID-19 crisis.