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.
|
|
|
As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, I have been working this month on a story looking at the City of Nanaimo’s Community Safety Officer program in the downtown core.
The program is hiring additional officers this year, bringing the total number to 20 full-time officers and two senior officers.
I wanted to get a better understanding of how the program was working and what people downtown thought of it.
I spoke with city councillors on the city’s public safety committee, downtown business owners, service providers and unhoused community members. To my surprise, a request to go out with a team of community safety officers was approved and I got to see firsthand how they are working with people who are unhoused in Nanaimo. I also got a slice of the challenges that they face every day.
You can read my story about Nanaimo’s Community Safety Officer program below.
Thank you for reading, Mick Sweetman
|
 |
|
|
| Community Safety Officer program in Nanaimo an alternative to police
|
Community Safety officers are responding to Nanaimo’s homelessness crisis but councillors and experts say more supports are needed.
|
| Read the full story
| | I support The Discourse because... |
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "I love the ‘point form’ headlines."
— Kim, from our newsletter survey.
|
| I support The Discourse
| | Council Corner |
Monday evening saw the first City Council meeting of the year. Council received reports on Phase 2 of engagement about the Woodgrove Area Plan and the results of the petition against process for Downtown Nanaimo Business Improvement Area bylaw, which passed with 21.83 per cent of downtown property owners holding 8.99 per cent of the assessed land value petitioning against the bylaw.
Council also approved resolutions for the 2026 Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities (AVICC) Annual General Meeting and Convention. The resolutions titled “Streamlining MRDT Renewal Process” and “Updates to the BC Motor Vehicle Act” passed unanimously. A third motion by Coun. Paul Manly on raw log exports was also approved with Coun. Tyler Brown opposed. Council voted unanimously for Mayor Leonard Krog to send a letter to the Minister of Housing on increased library funding.
A housing agreement for a 49-unit affordable rental housing development at 3425 Uplands Dr. passed unanimously.
Council voted to approve a site-specific zoning application for a Cannabis Retail Store at 1100 Maughan Rd. in the Duke Point area. Staff were directed to hold a public hearing for the rezoning and secure approval by the BC Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch before adoption of the bylaw.
Council voted to adopt a bevy of bylaws, including the Financial Plan Bylaw.
Manly’s motion to send a letter to the provincial and federal government asking them to “fully engage in a comprehensive four pillar approach of harm reduction, prevention, treatment, and enforcement to tackle the illicit drug poisoning, mental health and addictions crisis in our community.” The motion also asks senior levels of government to work towards “effective long term solutions” in a “unified strategy.”
The motion comes weeks after council voted down a motion by Coun. Ian Thorpe to send a letter to the province asking it to “reexamine its philosophy regarding the ongoing drug addiction crisis and resulting mental health and street disorder issues.”
Manly’s motion failed 2-6 with councillors Thorpe, Sheryl Armstrong, Tyler Brown, Hilary Eastmure and Janice Perrino and Mayor Leonard Krog opposed.
A motion by Coun. Ben Geselbracht to request a meeting with the minister of housing and municipal affairs to “discuss the urgent need for funding for a daytime drop-in homelessness resource hub, as well as other housing-related priorities" passed unanimously.
| |
On the Island |
|
🌊 Three Cowichan Valley residents say their removal from a town hall event in North Cowichan for messages that were on their shirts should worry people of all political stripes. Cowichan Valley reporter Eric Richards has the full story.
|
| In other news |
👉 Gabriola Island Trust opting in to the provincial Short Term Rentals Accommodations Act has boosted business for Gabriola Island’s Page Resorts Group during the slower winter season. Island Trust has also seen a drop in applications for Temporary Use Permits for short-term or temporary use of housing on Gabriola Island. The Gabriola Sounder has the story.
👉 The mystery of who was behind falling water levels in Nanaimo’s Witchcraft Lake has been solved. The City of Nanaimo said it acted on advice from the province to remove fallen logs and debris that was blocking water from draining from the lake, posing a flood risk to the nearly 100-year old dam originally constructed for an abandoned hydroelectric project. CHEK News has the story.
👉 Three Vancouver Island companies have been fined a total of $33,633 in connection with the death of a construction worker in the Diver Lake area of Nanaimo two years ago. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.
👉 Two new medical office buildings are planned near Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. The buildings are proposed to be five-storeys high and total over 5,000 square metres of floor space. One of the buildings will have a surgical facility on the building’s top floor. The Nanaimo News Bulletin has the story.
👉 Data from Statistics Canada shows that Nanaimo’s population growth slowed last year to a 1.17 per cent increase since mid-2024. As of July 1, 2025, the Nanaimo Census Metropolitan Area, which includes Lantzville, Cedar and Yellowpoint, is estimated to have 129,750 people living in it. Nanaimo News Now has the story.
|
| Community photo |
 |
A calm, clear and reflective day at Swy-a-Lana Lagoon in Nanaimo's Maffeo Sutton Park. Photo courtesy of Maracle JT.
Do you have a great photo from the community? Share it with us for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter. We’d love to see Nanaimo through your lens.
|
| Be part of it!
|
Keep an eye out for more posts about our reporters' extraordinary work at @thediscourse.ca on Bluesky. You can tap the bell on our profile to get a notification when we post a new story.
You can also now follow us on TikTok and YouTube.
You can also follow our journalists and sister publications in the Discourse Community Publishing network by clicking “follow all” in our starter pack.
|
| What did you think of this newsletter? |
⭐ ⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
|
|
|
|
