Nanaimo news

• Smaller BC Hydro watersheds at near-record lows amid drought conditions

  13-10-2022 14:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Low water levels not enough to threaten provincial power delivery, but do warn of climate change
  
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• Sentencing set for former B.C. massage therapist with ties to Surrey, Penticton

  11-06-2026 22:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The sentencing hearing for a former Surrey massage therapist convicted on multiple counts of sexual assault is to take place this fall in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster.
  B.C. Prosecution Service officials confirmed the proceedings for Leonard Krekic – who also has ties to both White Rock and Penticton – have been scheduled for Oct. 15-16, 2026, in front of Justice Lance Bernard.
  Krekic was found guilty in May of 12 counts of sexual assault; a decision that followed a 35-day tr
  
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• Wildfire documentary born in Kelowna nominated for 4 film awards

  11-06-2026 21:45 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A Kelowna-made documentary looking into the growing challenge of wildfires across the province has been nominated for multiple film and televsion awards.
  BC is Burning has been nominated in four short documentary categories in the 2026 Leo Awards.
  The 47-minute film has been nominated in the categories of Best Short Documentary, Best Direction, Best Picture Editing, and Best Sound.
  “We are very honoured by this recognition from the B.C. film community,” said producer and director Mur
  
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• LIVE: FIFA World Cup kicks off with Mexico vs. South Africa

  11-06-2026 21:39 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The FIFA World Cup has officially started, with Mexico and South Africa kicking off the tournament on Thursday (June 11) in Mexico City.
  Julian Quinones opened up the scoring in the ninth minute for Mexico and scored the first goal of the tournament.
  South Africa’s Teboho Mokoena was issued a yellow card in the 17th minute, followed by Mexico’s Brian Gutierrez in the 23rd minute.
  The referee has added 4 minutes of stoppage time to the first half.
  Mexico held possession for 57 per cen
  
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• Security needs to be higher financial priority: BC Watershed Security Coalition

  11-06-2026 21:15 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  There is a lack of financial commitment to a strategic approach from the provincial government to help communities counter the drought conditions experienced across B.C., said the chair of the BC Watershed Security Coalition.
  Coree Tull said as the Okanagan watershed enters its fourth consecutive year of high-level drought rating, the provincial response has largely been what she calls “ad hoc,” reactive rather than pro-active to the climate change realities we face today.
  Tull added
  
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• Highly contagious parvovirus outbreak threatens Okanagan dogs

  11-06-2026 21:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  An outbreak of canine parvovirus in the Okanagan and Downtown Eastside of Vancouver has prompted a warning from the Humane Societies of BC, urging dog guardians to take immediate precautions.
  The coalition of independent animal service nonprofits across the province made the announcement on Wednesday, June 10, stating that canine parvovirus, commonly known as “parvo,” is a highly contagious and potentially fatal viral disease that primarily affects puppies and unvaccinated dogs.
  Chan
  
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• Crews transforming Kelowna’s Apple Bowl for CFL games this summer

  11-06-2026 20:15 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Kelowna’s Apple Bowl looks a little different than usual.
  ​The City of Kelowna and Tower Scaffold and Events are currently transforming the 2,300+-seat track-and-field space into a full-sized Canadian Football League (CFL) stadium that will host the BC Lions as they prepare to take on the Calgary Stampeders (June 27) and the Edmonton Elks (July 4).
  ​Construction crews on site have started installing temporary seating that will give the Apple Bowl a completely new look while exp
  
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• Nanaimo Correctional Centre supports dry housing in the community

  11-06-2026 20:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Having dry supportive housing programs available in the community is essential for many of those with substance-abuse issues at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre to reintegrate into society upon release, according to a centre official.
  Katlyn Tolton, the deputy warden of programs at the centre, was one of a number of individuals and groups who spoke to the need for dry-housing in the community, where no drugs or alcohol use is permitted, at the City of Nanaimo’s special governance and priori
  
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• Lumby murder trial: Stefanski denies inflicting stab wounds, but can’t account for them

  11-06-2026 19:09 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  WARNING: this article contains content related to a domestic violence murder trial which may be distressing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know has been harmed by domestic violence (gender-based violence), contact Archway Society for Domestic Peace at 250-542-1122 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).
  Vitali Stefanski appeared unable to explain the various stab wounds identified on his ex-wife’s body as his second-degree murder trial saw the end of a length
  
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• Impaired driving believed to have caused Nanaimo head-on collision

  11-06-2026 19:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Nanaimo RCMP responded to a two-vehicle head-on collision believed to be the result of impaired driving.
  The incident was reported just before 5 a.m. on Thursday, June 11 in the 5100 block of Hammond Bay Road.
  Three individuals, the two drivers and one passenger, were assessed by emergency services and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
  As a result of the collision, a portion of Hammond Bay Road between Dunn Place and Entwhistle was closed to allow investigators to safely examine the sce
  
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• High-speed internet coming to 4,000 rural homes in B.C.

  11-06-2026 19:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  High-speed internet is coming to 50 rural and Indigenous communities in the Thompson Okanagan region.
  Soon.
  B.C. Minister of Citizens’ Services, Diana Gibson, was in Vernon Wednesday, June 10, at Civic Memorial Park to announce the provincial and federal governments will invest $63 million as part of a larger investment to extend fibre-optic internet to as many as 4,000 households in the region.
  The new fibre will connect communities like Falkland, Kingfisher, Silver Creek, Rock Creek, Oka
  
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• Grant to Nanaimo school to be spent on restocking library shelves with books

  11-06-2026 18:35 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A newly-opened school in Nanaimo now has $25,000 with which to restock its library shelves.
  Rutherford Elementary School re-opened in 2025 after being shuttering in 2018 and has been granted $25,000 from non-profit Indigo Love of Reading Foundation Literacy Fund Grant, which will be used to rebuild the book collection.
  According to Lene Rounis, school librarian, work has been ongoing.
  “We started last spring,” said Rounis. “One of our local teacher-librarians curated our collec
  
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• Road resurfacing projects underway in Nanaimo

  11-06-2026 17:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Road resurfacing projects are getting underway in Nanaimo.
  Highway 1 to the Duke Point Ferry Terminal as well as 33 kilometres of side roads in the Nanaimo area are being resurfaced, according to a press release by the province.
  The work, which is part of a $56.5 million investment across Vancouver Island to improve driving surfaces, will repair surfaces worn by traffic and weather, giving people smoother rides and safer driving conditions on key routes being relied on every day, according to th
  
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• Firearms seized in Northern B.C. as part of Ontario murder investigation

  11-06-2026 17:22 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The Terrace area continues to play a role in the ongoing investigation into the April 12, 2026 murder of a man in Ontario.
  Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigators had at first identified the Terrace area as one place where one of the two men wanted for the second degree murder of Ontario’s Christo Allison Richards could be found.
  Now, OPP indicated in a June 10 press release that officers from the OPP and RCMP have seized two firearms following a search of a rural Terrace property.
  &
  
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• WORLD CUP DAILY, June 11: Game #1 today in Mexico, another tonight

  11-06-2026 17:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Daily soccer match updates and more as the 2026 FIFA World Cup continues until July 19.
  Game on.
  The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins today (Thursday, June 11) in Mexico City at noon Pacific time, when Mexico takes on South Africa in the tournament-opening game, first of two today.
  It’s the first of 104 World Cup matches over the next 39 days, in June and July.
  “Almost eight years to the day that Canada, Mexico and USA were appointed co-hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2026, this record-breakin
  
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• Flow reductions begin as Cowichan River braces for dry summer

  11-06-2026 14:45 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Pumps will likely be required to sustain the river if dry conditions continue through the summer, according to Brian Houle, environment manager for Domtar Crofton Mill.
  Though the mill has shut down, Domtar remains the licenced operator.
  As of a June 4 report issued by Houle, Cowichan Lake has dropped to 80 per cent capacity and the below-average snowpack has already fully melted.
  Updated modelling for the remainder of the year was analysed at a meeting of regulators and Cowichan Tribes on June
  
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• Your dog is not broken; it’s a teenager

  11-06-2026 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Many guardians breathe a sigh of relief when they make it through puppyhood. House training is progressing, basic manners are developing, and life seems to be settling into a comfortable routine. Then, seemingly overnight, their sweet, attentive puppy transforms into a distracted, impulsive teenager.
  Welcome to canine adolescence.
  Most dogs enter adolescence between six and twelve months of age, depending on their breed and size. This stage can last up to eighteen months of age, or even longer i
  
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• Nanaimo community association wants to see supportive-housing projects dispersed

  11-06-2026 14:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  The chair of Nanaimo’s South End Community Association would like to see supportive housing and related services dispersed through all the neighbourhoods in the city.
  With her neighbourhood hosting a large proportion of the city’s social housing and services, Sydney Robertson said, at the city’s special governance and priorities committee meeting on June 8, that the association’s theme for many years has been that supportive housing needs to be distributed throughout the
  
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• B.C.’s Jenn Gardiner re-signs with Vancouver Goldeneyes

  11-06-2026 03:37 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Surrey’s Jenn Gardiner is staying in Vancouver for the next couple of seasons.
  The team annouced Wednesday (June 19) that Gardiner signed a three-year contract through the 2028-29 season.
  She turned down an offer from a PWHL expansion team during phase two of the league’s expansion distribution process. Since it was a foundational player offer, that means she was required to sign with any of the league’s 12 teams during Phase 3, which began at 9 a.m. PT on Wednesday (June 10).
  
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• BC Prosecution Service approves driving charge for Interior Mountie

  11-06-2026 03:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A Revelstoke Mountie is facing a careless driving charge for an incident that happened last year in Sicamous.
  The BC Prosecution Service (BCPS) shared on Wednesday, June 10, that it’s charging Cst. Rachel Mandel of Revelstoke RCMP with one count of driving without due care and attention on June 15, 2025.
  This would contravene Section 144.1 of B.C.’s Motor Vehicle Act, with supporting information sworn on Wednesday through Salmon Arm’s provincial court.
  READ: Revelstoke jail gua
  
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• Nanaimo District Secondary girls’ soccer achieves B.C. soccer supremacy

  11-06-2026 02:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Nanaimo District Secondary School’s girls’ soccer team has achieved provincial soccer supremacy for the first time ever.
  The NDSS Islanders won the B.C. School Sports AAA provincial soccer championship in Kamloops, defeating École Argyle Secondary School 2-1 in the title game on May 30 at McArthur Island Park in Kamloops, the first time an NDSS girls’ team has taken a B.C. title, according to a Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools’ social media post.
  Darby Moen was nam
  
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• 1 person taken to hospital after vehicle crash in Nanoose Bay

  11-06-2026 02:30 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  One person was taken to hospital after a motor vehicle crash in the Nanoose Flats area on June 10.
  BC EHS was called to the incident in the 2800 block of the Island Highway shortly after 2:45 p.m.
  Janet Irvine was one of the first people on the scene, and had been driving northbound with her husband two cars behind the vehicle that crashed.
  They went to check on the car, which landed on its roof.
  “It was completely upside down, right in the ditch,” Irvine said. “She was stuck,
  
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• Forests minister talks saw mills, old-growth and caribou in B.C. Interior

  11-06-2026 02:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  On his first visit to Revelstoke, B.C.’s minister of forests got comfy in the rain Tuesday afternoon while speaking about his hopes for local saw mills, old-growth and caribou protection.
  Ravi Parmar, also the province’s deputy government house leader, had just arrived to town on June 9 after a visit to the Pacific Woodtech mill in Golden and a cloudy-but-scenic drive through Rogers Pass.
  One of his first stops in Revelstoke was the Downie Street Development, where the Revelstoke Com
  
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• Vancouver Island resident bilked out of $40K online via AI-generated ad

  11-06-2026 01:35 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A Parksville Qualicum Beach resident was bilked out of $40,000 after falling victim to a bogus online advertisement.
  An Oceanside RCMP report indicated on May 7, the resident was scammed after following an artificial intelligence-generated politician online advertisement for an alleged crypto currency company.
  The same day, another resident was scammed out of more than $7,000 by clicking on a hyperlink in an email alleging to be
  from a government agency, allowing remote access to their computer.
  
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• Nanaimo RCMP make arrest in shooting incident

  11-06-2026 01:05 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  Nanaimo RCMP investigators have arrested an individual in connection with incident involving shots being fired from a vehicle, which had several occupants, towards people in Knowles Park.On Tuesday, June 9, officers took a suspect into custody without incident, in connection to the shooting that occurred on Victoria Road on the evening of June 3.
  Investigators also located the suspect vehicle, described as a white Audi.
  At this time, no charges have been laid in relation to the shooting.
  The ind
  
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• B.C. man fined $6,000 for illegally transporting protected snapping turtle

  11-06-2026 01:03 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A Surrey man has been fined $6,000 for numerous wildlife offences, including illegally transporting a protected snapping turtle between provinces.
  Thai Hoang Khoi Le pled guilty on May 21, 2026, in Surrey provincial court and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for interprovincial transport of animals without the proper permits and $1,000 for unlawfully possessing live wildlife.
  He was charged under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act (
  
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• ‘Represent Canada’: Barriere woman wins custodian rights to Swedish island

  11-06-2026 01:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The people of Barriere may be surprised to learn that the Sovereign of a small Swedish island is living quietly amongst them.
  Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement.
  Bronwen Bird of Barriere is not actually the queen of the island called Storberget in the Baltic Sea off the east coast of Sweden, but she is, in fact, its custodian for the next year. That’s thanks to a program from Visit Sweden, a tourism company owned by the Swedish government.
  “The title of Island Custodian has
  
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• B.C. government straining to show World Cup’s economic benefit

  11-06-2026 01:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  As players get set to take the pitch this weekend for the first of seven World Cup matches at BC Place in Vancouver, the provincial government is continuing its effort to persuade a skeptical public of the economic benefit of being a host city.
  “It’s clear when you host major events like this, there’s an economic impact that comes from that,” said Ravi Kahlon, B.C.’s jobs minister, at a Wednesday news conference.
  Shortly after Kahlon’s remarks, the province re
  
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• CRPAWS volunteers conduct three-day stakeout to rescue cat family

  11-06-2026 00:48 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  A tiny tail poked out from a small hole at the bottom of a shed at Vancouver Island Air on the Tyee Spit in Campbell River on May 30.
  This tail inevitably launched a three-day campaign to rescue a mom cat and her kittens from underneath a shed at the float plane operation.
  “The shed is a permanent building, and they will be difficult to catch as we cannot get under it,” Vancouver Island Air’s Melissa Cuttler said in a message to Campbell River Partners for Animal Welfare (CRPAW
  
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• Nanaimo Conservatory of Music will be holding Island Notes Chamber Music Festival

  11-06-2026 00:00 via nanaimobulletin.com
  
  The Island Notes Chamber Music Festival will feature five musical acts this year, including a free concert at the Bowen Park Amphitheatre.
  Organized by the Nanaimo Chamber of Music, attends can listen to the Graham Villette Quartet, on June 11 at St. Andrew’s United Church; Cellovista, on June 12 at the Black Rabbit Kitchen Attic; Fernwood Trio, on June 13 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church; Mid-Island Chamber Music Players, on June 13 at St. Paul’s Anglican Church; then the free co
  
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