Opinion
The Island is growing faster than the care it needs
Vancouver Island has added nearly 137,000 people in a decade. Family-doctor waitlists and crowded hospitals show that care has not kept pace.
Archive
November 2026
A third-generation garden centre on Hammond Bay Road
Green Thumb is a family-owned Nanaimo nursery, open 9 to 5 daily, with mid-Island stock and a sister wholesale farm next door. Staff are there to talk new gardeners and old hands through Island conditions.
The Crow and Gate, B.C.’s first neighbourhood pub, still stands in Yellow Point
Opened in 1972 and family-owned since 1987, the Tudor-style pub on Yellow Point Road is 19+, takes no reservations, and keeps daily hours from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
A downtown gallery, by donation, and a winter exhibition about the land
Nanaimo Art Gallery at 150 Commercial Street is open six days a week, admission by donation. Haunting the Undermined Zone is on view through January 10, 2027.
Island Roots keeps the Nanaimo farmers’ market going all winter
Nanaimo’s year-round Wednesday market, 3 to 6 p.m. at Beban Park, is inside the Centennial Building from October 21 to May 5, with a Sunday holiday market on December 20.
Leaves, drains and a shovel: what Nanaimo asks of households in a rainstorm
The City’s stormwater guide is simple: keep ditches and catch basins clear, leave culverts to staff, and pick up free sandbags at the Labieux Road yard if your lot floods.
Where Nanaimo’s community gardens and food forests are — and how to join
From Beaufort Park to Beban, Forest Drive and Lost Lake, the City lists the public gardens already growing, who runs them, and how a neighbourhood can start another.
Flu and COVID-19 vaccines this season in Nanaimo
Free flu shots are available now for everyone six months and older, and a COVID-19 vaccine can often be booked at the same time. Here is how the Get Vaccinated system works this fall.
How to book Central Nanaimo’s Urgent and Primary Care Centre
The Norwell Drive clinic is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day for problems that should be seen within 12 to 24 hours. It is appointment-only: call 1-833-688-8722 when the clinic opens.
Four libraries between the harbour, Hammond Bay and Gabriola
VIRL’s Harbourfront, Wellington, Nanaimo North and Gabriola Island branches share a catalogue and a card, but not the same hours. Here is where they are and when they are open.