NANAIMO - Local growing and improved food security are key messages behind a new event. Coinciding with Earth Day on Saturday, April 20, a trio of local organizations are combining to create an exhibition of local food production and food security at the Park Avenue Farm. Co-organizer Jennifer Kemp told NanaimoNewsNOW ...

Editor's note: This story contains graphic details which may disturb some readers. Discretion is advised.VANCOUVER - A full day of final submissions are on deck in the murder trial of a Nanaimo woman accused of the high-profile slaying of her former boyfriend.Paris Jayanne Laroche, 28, pleaded not guilty to first degre...

NANAIMO - Despite multiple public awareness campaigns, local residents and contractors are still damaging underground infrastructure.Data from Fortis BC shows Nanaimo recorded 20 gas line strikes from digging activities in 2023, the most by any one city in the region and 15 per cent of all reports on Vancouver Island.F...

NANAIMO - Spray treatments for an invasive moth species will be happening across eastern Vancouver Island this spring.Attempts to eradicate the invasive spongy moths, also known as Lymantria moths, will occur in Nanaimo, Qualicum Beach, Salt Spring Island, Cowichan Bay, North Saanich and the Greater Victoria area from ...

PARKSVILLE - The Independent Investigations Office of B.C. (IIO) have cleared Oceanside RCMP officers of any wrongdoing after a body was discovered near Little Mountain. Mounties were called to an unmarked trail area south of Parksville around 12 p.m. on March 24 after a passing hiker noticed a man lying down in a gras...

NANAIMO - A new educational campaign has been launched at the Nanaimo Airport (YCD), hoping to help shine a brighter light on human trafficking in Canada. The airport's new awareness campaign,#NotInMyCity, calls for collective action to be taken to "prevent, disrupt, and end sexual exploitation and trafficking,&qu...

NANAIMO - A long-awaited project scope and budget is now clear for a pending new cancer centre at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH). Health Minister Adrian Dix announced details of the project during a Tuesday, April 16 news conference at NRGH, confirming an approximate $289 million dollar project will proceed a...

UPDATE - Oceanside RCMP report John Mathers was found, deceased, by search crews on Wednesday, April 17. "The cause of his death is not considered suspicious. The RCMP offers its condolences to the family and friends of the deceased," the detachment said in a statement. EARLIER, PARKSVILLE - A search resumes ...

NANAIMO - A vulnerable man sleeping at a bus stop awoke to a woman stabbing him several times in the head. Kimberly Anne Lewis, 53, pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for aggravated assault for an Aug. 14, 2022 incident at bus stop adjacent to Port Place Shopping Centre. The attack between two Indigenous people known ...

NANAIMO - Funding from the provincial government is increasing the number of complex care facilities for those with mental health or addiction challenges.As part of a 240-unit addition province-wide, Nanaimo will get 20 new spaces. Other beds will be added to existing facilities in Abbotsford, Burnaby, Kamloops, Kelown...

NANAIMO - It was triumphant return to a national television audience for a local singer. Lauren Spencer-Smith returned to American Idol, not as a contestant, but as a guest performer during the Sunday, April 14 episode of the show's 22nd season. Spencer-Smith sang "Fingers Crossed", a single she released in 2...

NANAIMO - It's almost time once more the rubber to hit the road. Registration for the third annual Hub City Soap Box Derby opens Monday, April 15, with carts set to roll down Franklyn St. in downtown Nanaimo on Aug. 18. Thousands are expected to line the course and cheering racers on. Event spokesperson Jay Clayton sai...

NANAIMO - A local non-profit hopes they've stumbled upon a golden idea.Nanaimo Women Helping Women are kicking off a fundraiser which runs through April 30, to collect unwanted gold and silver jewellery, which can then be converted in to cash for vital programs and supports.Founder Kerri Isham said they're hoping to co...

NANAIMO - Dan Maertins has never had a hard time finding work, and it's easy to see why. While the 78-year-old Nanaimo man has technically been retired for years, he devotes much of his free time performing volunteer clean-up jobs throughout his neighbourhood and around Nanaimo. This time of year Maertins is constantly...

NANAIMO - Local Mounties are asking for the public's help to locate a woman believed to be in the region or potentially the south Island. Thirty-eight year old Morgan Elizabeth Blanch has 14 outstanding warrants, with charges ranging from possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, assault and theft under $5,000, t...

NANAIMO - Significant closures are coming to the city's downtown, stemming from a major television production. Work is set to focus around Diana Krall Plaza and select businesses along Wharf St., Skinner St. and Commercial St., with hundreds of cast and crew members expected to be in Nanaimo. Setup and filming will tak...

NANAIMO - While reported crime is down over the last five years, the severity of crimes being committed is on the rise in the Harbour City.Insp. Andrew Burton with the Nanaimo RCMP broke down the statistics during an April 10 public safety committee meeting, which looked at calls for police service from 2019-2023.When ...

NANAIMO - A red light means step on it for a rising number of motorists at a central Nanaimo intersection.Newly released data from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure showed 838 tickets were mailed to red light runners at the Island Hwy./Bowen Rd./Norwell Dr. last year, averaging 2.3 violations per day.Th...

NANAIMO - A group of Indigenous youth are learning life skills while building their physical, spiritual, and mental well-being through the sport of boxing. Twenty-year-old Nanaimo resident Walter Fred was a basketball player until the pandemic hit, which forced him to search for a new outlet. "Basketball was basic...

QUALICUM BEACH - Ongoing significant enhancements to the popular waterfront area in Qualicum Beach received a boost. The province announced $500,000 from the BC Active Transportation Infrastructure program is being designated toward parking and active transportation features on the ditch side of Hwy. 19. The Town's dir...

NANAIMO - A local construction company is helping to build on the success of a resurrected local lacrosse program. One season removed from players and the business community rallying behind the club's revival, Hazelwood Construction Services signed on as the Nanaimo Senior B Timbermen's title sponsor for the 2024 seaso...

NANAIMO - A standoff is brewing between the City and some local tourism operators over who controls and administers hotel tax revenue.The Municipal and Regional District Tax (MRDT) is applied to short-term rentals like hotels and is designed to boost local tourism marketing, programs and events. For years, taxes collec...

NANAIMO - Snowpack levels in B.C. mountains are at their lowest point in more than 50 years, with Vancouver Island reserves among the lowest in the province. The April 1 snow survey and water supply bulletin shows the Island at only 49 per cent, an increase of 3 per cent from March, when snowpack levels reached their s...

NANAIMO - Inequities in tertiary healthcare services north of the Malahat is the focus of a formally launched advocacy campaign. Well-known Nanaimo-based health advocate Donna Hais unveiled Faircare Alliance, formed to become the voice of healthcare advocacy in the community. "You're going to see lots of billboard...

NANAIMO - Local Mounties are working to piece together the circumstances behind an attack in central Nanaimo's Diver Lake area last month. Police say on Thursday, March 21, at around 10:40 p.m. a 15-year-old girl was assaulted on Labieux Rd. near Shenton Rd. by a young woman she knew who was armed with a baton.The girl...

SNAW-NAW-AS - A first-of-its-kind treatment centre aimed at Indigenous youth struggling with drug addiction and mental health support will be fully operational by this fall. The Orca Lelum Youth Wellness Centre in Snaw-Naw-As First Nation territory will be the first on the Island to offer detox services for Indigenous ...

NANAIMO - To nobody's surprise, the number of unsheltered people in Nanaimo has surged significantly. A final report on the 2023 Nanaimo Point-in-Time Count & Survey showed 515 people were unhoused in Nanaimo, which census coordinator Andrew Thornton said is a number that likely only represents about 60 per cent of...

NANAIMO - A young local girl is getting rewarded for the hard work she's putting in at area skateparks.Evie Pritchard, 11, recently earned a pair of top finishes at high-level events in eastern Canada and the United States, including a silver medal finish at the Canada Skateboard National Street Championships in Montre...