When I was a teenager, I joined my local air cadet squadron and participated in the drill team, carried a rifle in the squadron’s colour guard and took an aircraft maintenance course at CFB Borden in Ontario. Cadets taught me valuable leadership skills at a young age and while poor eyesight dashed my hopes for a career as a pilot, I was able to take what I learned and apply it to other areas of my life.

Here's a photo I dug up today of a much younger version of myself in my Air Cadet uniform:

This Sunday, the Rotary Club of Nanaimo is holding a poker tournament fundraiser for the Royal Canadian Air Cadets 205 Collishaw Squadron and I plan to be there to help support our next generation of leaders as well as have a good time playing some cards.

Shuffle up and deal!

Mick Sweetman

P.S. We are also shifting our newsletter’s publishing schedule starting next week. You will still get them in your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we are shifting The Hub, our arts and culture newsletter, to Thursday while our community-news focused Nanaimo This Week will come out on Tuesdays with our featured news story.

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Community spotlight

The Rotary Club of Nanaimo is holding a poker tournament on Sunday, Sept. 14 to benefit the Royal Canadian Air Cadets at the Brigadier D. R. Sargent Armoury on Nanaimo Lakes Road. A $50 donation to the Air Cadets will give you double the starting stack of chips while all buy-ins, re-buys and top-ups will go to the prize pool.

Council corner

Nanaimo city council returned from its summer break with a meeting on Monday.

In the meeting, council approved a 60-year lease of city-owned land at 354 Haliburton St. to BC Housing for the construction of an outdoor amenity space and two parking stalls for a supportive housing project at 355 Nicol St. 

Council also discharged a covenant and issued a development permit for the six-storey supportive housing project at 355 Nicol St. 

Council changed the conditions of a Temporary Use Permit for 354 Haliburton St., removing language that would have allowed a social service resource centre on the property. It then issued a permit approving office use on the property for three years. Council also approved a development variance permit for the same property that reduced the required number of parking spaces from four to zero.

Joan Brown, CAO for Snuneymuxw First Nation, told council that the intention is for outreach workers who are based in Cedar to be closer to the supportive housing project to provide support to Snuneymuxw members.  

“It’s really administrative, so not direct services from there, but just an outreach office so they’ll be moving [there] with our relatives that are on the street, but not providing any kind of services from 364 [Haliburton].”

Development permits for a mini-storage operation at 1044 Old Victoria Rd. and a permit for a multi-family residential building at 529 Terminal Ave. N. was amended for parking.

Council passed an updated bylaw that regulates the city’s officers and authority as well as a policy on how it considers requests for variances. 

A letter from the South End Community Association asking the city to close the drop-in hub at 55 Victoria Rd. was received without a motion.

In the letter, South End Community Association chair Sydney Robertson wrote that while she’s empathetic to the need for services for people experiencing homelessness, she no longer believes that “enough mitigation is possible” citing an “alarming increase in the number of people congregating around the site and the rising intensity and frequency of dangerous incidents in the few weeks.”

An email to Robertson asking for details of those incidents was not returned. 

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said council is “well aware of the concerns” about the drop-in hub. 

“[It] continues to absorb a fair bit of council and staff time, and tonight I won't say anything further with respect to it,” Krog said at the meeting.

Board of variance seeks new member

The City of Nanaimo is seeking applications for a member on its board of variance for a three-year term. 

Successful applicants will have a basic understanding of building and zoning regulations such as the city’s Zoning Bylaw and BC Building Code, as well as familiarity with interpreting architectural plans and documents. Board members cannot be elected officials, employees of the local government that appoints them or on an advisory planning commission.

Applications can be filled out online or picked up at City Hall (455 Wallace St.). Interested residents can submit a completed application form to the Legislative Services Department by 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.

On the Island

🌊 A partial rejection of a plan to remove a dike along the Cowichan estuary raises questions about the province’s commitment to reconciliation. Cowichan Valley reporter Eric Richards has the story.

🌊 From water meters to lawns, residents and experts agree more can be done to conserve water. Reporter Madeline Dunnett has the story.

In other news

👉 Construction is underway on an affordable seniors housing project near the Nanaimo hospital. The 62-unit building will have 70 per cent of units that are rent-geared to income while 30 per cent will be market rent. Nanaimo News Now has the story.

👉 Hullo Ferries has applied for mediation with the BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union which is in bargaining for its first collective agreement with the company. The union claims Hullo is trying to “avoid meaningful talks until after the busy travel season.” Hullo workers voted 91 per cent in favour of strike action earlier this month.

In a statement sent to the Nanaimo News Bulletin, Hullo CEO Ryan Dermody said he remains confident that a “fair and constructive agreement will be reached through good-faith bargaining with mediation assistance.”

👉 The Old City Arts Hub Board is no longer working with St. Andrew's United Church to develop an arts hub at the location. In a statement the Old City Arts Hub board announced that it was unable to “establish clear and beneficial terms” with the church. Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story

Have your say

📣 Residents in Area F of the Regional District of Nanaimo (Coombs, Hilliers, Errington, Whiskey Creek and Meadowood) will be able vote in a referendum authorizing the district to use long-term borrowing $824,000 to purchase the former French Creek School site in October. 

There will be drop-in information booths and sessions at the Errington Farmers’ Market on Sunday, Sept. 27 and the Coombs Fairground on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Advance voting days are Oct. 15 and 22 and the general voting day is Saturday, Oct. 25.

In your words

Re: Nanaimo council ask for ‘dry’ supportive housing dismissed by province

With so many different supportive housing locations operating and proposed, it makes sense right now to designate some “wet” for active users of substances, and some “clean” or “dry” where no drinking or drug use goes on. Then, if people who are living in one location go into treatment and recovery, they have a hope of maintaining sobriety and abstinence if they can go directly from treatment into the “dry” housing.  

Going back to housing where they used to use, and where people actively use, guarantees they will fail, which is crushing for all involved. Why not have separate housing buildings and designate them to meet these two different needs that have been clearly expressed by residents themselves?

Thank you, 

Debby Keith

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