Tag Archives: Matt Jack

Politics

SRD Municipalities wanting control of the Electoral Areas Planning Service

In the past, Rural Directors have not always appreciated Campbell River ‘interference’ in their affairs. An initiative coming out of the Strathcona Regional District’s (SRD) Municipal Services Committee could result in a lot more interference from Campbell River and other municipalities. A planning service typically manages zoning and land use rules, reviews development and building applications, prepares community and regional growth plans, protects environmentally sensitive areas, and coordinates public input on land use decisions. They would like to take control of the Electoral Area Planning Service.

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Cost of Climate Change, Indigenous Nations History

Salvaging the sacred from climate disaster

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The floodwaters rose swiftly and silently inside Nicole Norris’s family home and other residences of the Halalt First Nation on Vancouver Island when a storm unleashed a furious deluge of rain in November 2021. 

Her brother, asleep in the home’s ground-floor suite, awoke when his leg, hanging off the side of the bed, became submerged by overflow from the Chemainus River, said Norris, an Indigenous planning officer for the B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. 

“Our home took on four feet of water in the basement. There was no sound to it,” said Norris, also known as Alag̱a̱mił. 

“Instantly, he yelled for my daughter and they were able to start pulling things from the basement.” 

Not everything of value escaped unscathed, said Norris, a regalia maker, weaver and cultural knowledge holder. 

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