Welcome to Nanaimo This Week, your source of community news and local solutions. Did a friend forward this email to you? Subscribe to this newsletter.

Today is both the first day of advance voting in the provincial election and World Homelessness and Mental Health Day. So, it’s fitting that we are bringing you answers to your questions for candidates on how they plan to address homelessness and deliver social supports if their party forms government. 

We plan to roll out other Q&As with candidates on affordability, housing and the environment over the next week leading up to election day on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Also, be sure to check out our Nanaimo election guide for more information on what the candidates and parties are saying as well as how and where you can vote. 

For a list of advance polls that opened today, you can visit Elections BC’s list of locations organized by riding. Advance polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Thursday, Oct. 10 to Sunday, Oct. 13, and from Tuesday, Oct. 15 to Wednesday, Oct. 16.

No matter what party you support, I hope that we can help provide you with the information you need to exercise your right to vote.

7-10 Club staff hand out food to people experiencing homelessness in Nanaimo in this file photo from Oct. 20, 2023. File photo courtesy of Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM Local Journalism Initiative.

What are Nanaimo candidates saying about homelessness and social supports?

Voters in Nanaimo will be part of one of two newly redrawn ridings in the upcoming provincial election: Nanaimo-Gabriola Island and Nanaimo-Lantzville. Find out which one you live in, who is running and where to vote in our new voter’s guide. We’ll continue to update this as more information is available. Screenshot / Elections BC 

Nanaimo’s guide to the B.C. election

I support The Discourse because...

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Nanaimo news in general!"

— Michael, from our newsletter survey.

On the Island

🌊 Local business owners, law enforcement, government officials and front-line workers as well as three people with lived experience recently sat down together to talk about the impacts of the toxic drug crisis in the Cowichan Valley and how the community can respond to it. Reporter David Minkow has the story.

🌊  Quw’utsun Sta’lo’ Skweyul (Cowichan River Day) was marked this year with a gathering on the river’s banks to celebrate it and learn how to take care of it. The Discourse’s Island editor Shalu Mehta has the story. 

In other news

👉 Elections BC is re-issuing voter information cards for 500 people south of Nanaimo in the Ladysmith-Oceanside district who were mistakenly directed to drive to the Nanoose Place Community Centre to vote. The closest voting place for residents of Extension is, in fact, the North Oyster Community Centre. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.

👉 Election candidates spoke to the business community at a forum organized by the Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Home Builders Association of Vancouver Island. Candidates talked taxes and how their party would support small businesses. Find out who said what in the Nanaimo News Bulletin.

👉 CHLY’s Midcoast Morning sat down with Nanaimo-Lantzville candidate Gwen O’Mahony and Green candidate for Nanaimo-Gabriola Island Shirley Lambrecht for the first of a series of interviews with local candidates. You can listen to the full interview with them here. 

👉 For the first time, there will be polling stations at Vancouver Island University (VIU) with advance voting taking place on Oct. 16 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. as well as on election day on Oct. 19 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the upper cafeteria building 300. The VIU Students' Union has all the details. 

👉  Nanaimo city council voted down a proposal to create a registry of vacant buildings in the city. Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog voted against the idea saying it would infringe on the rights of property owners. Nanaimo News Bulletin has the details.

👉 The Bulletin’s Chris Bush was in the right place at the right time as he captured an incident of road rage in downtown Nanaimo as a white pick up truck mounted a curb and knocked down a street light before speeding away. 

👉 Construction on Commercial Street in downtown Nanaimo has stalled after voids from old coal mine shafts were found underneath the intersection of Baston and Commercial Streets, making further digging to lay new pipes under the road unsafe until further engineering work is done. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story on the delay and how it is affecting local businesses.

Community photo

Jake Buhrig tosses his daughter Emma in the air at Fall Fest in Diana Krall Plaza on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. Photo by Mick Sweetman / The Discourse

See you around town,

— Mick, Shalu and The Discourse team

What did you think of this newsletter?

⭐    ⭐⭐    ⭐⭐⭐    ⭐⭐⭐⭐    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In case you missed it