Island Insider

Discovery Island residents navigate the challenges West Coast commutes and ferry service delays with calm.

Restaurants, pubs, businesses, resorts and marinas in the Discovery Islands off the west coast of B.C. are tentatively taking the first steps in expanding services in their communities to locals and tourists alike.

Fatal drug overdoses are on the rise, with more than three people dying every day as the province deals with COVID-19, data from the BC Coroners Service indicates.

“I feel this is my home because it’s mine…other people have to cart their stuff around place to place.I’ve live here now for six years. I’ve been happy and comfortable here.” says 87-year-old Douglas Butt of his rental unit at Cortes Island Seniors Village, which is expanding its stock of stable, subsidized housing to meet older residents' housing needs.

This spring, Quadra Island's historic May Day celebrations are undergoing a metamorphosis due the COVID-19 crisis.

“It’s hard to process that for first time in my life, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing in the fall, or even next month in June,” said Carihi Secondary School graduate Kailen Crosson about COVID-19's impact on her future.

“This theft, however, is in a category of its own, and is especially low. This was an epic loser move,” Cpl. Sean Bulford, Quadra Island RCMP detachment commander, on the robbery of a memorial plaque from the Quadra Legion's cenotaph during a recent spike in property thefts.

The B.C. government's announcement that classes will resume on a voluntary, part-time basis June 1 got a range of reactions from Quadra Island parents, with some outright rejecting the idea and others expressing relief. 

In the early stages of the pandemic, isolated islanders were fearful about potential food shortages from being at the end of a very long supply chain. But as the weather improved and dramatic food shortages due to COVID-19 didn’t materialize, the mood has shifted. People are more excited about the opportunity to increase food production locally.

Rural children and teens in the North Island region of Vancouver Island are facing increased mental health risks due to COVID-19's isolation protocols.

B.C. tourism operators being crushed by COVID-19 are hopeful but confused about how the critical summer season will unfold after the province unveiled its plan to reopen the economy on Wednesday.

Grocery store workers on isolated islands off B.C.'s West Coast are keeping their communities fed often with personal costs to themselves.

Some B.C. seafood processors have less immunity to COVID-19 impacts than others.

Seniors on a fixed low income, particularly in rural and remote areas, are falling through the cracks when it comes to federal response funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, NDP party whip Rachel Blaney said.

Island Health announced Tuesday it will now test for COVID-19 in anyone with symptoms of cold, flu or the novel coronavirus, even if their symptoms are mild.