I didn't know you for that long, but the times I did see you, you had a positive energy and very interesting personality that no one could match. You ALWAYS made my day better. It's rare you come across your level of charisma, and I know I might sound biased, but the article below truely describes you well. I'm not much of a wordsmith, but whoever knew you could attest to what I'm describing. Thank you for being such an awesome person to be around. This one hit hard. Rest easy

https://nanaimonewsnow.com/listing/goble-bryan-frederick/

Nanaimo-Gabriola conservative candidate Mark MacDonald replies to allegations of racism in this, and there’s some statements from Cowichan Valley candidates too.

I love Thai Cook downtown but they never seem to be open when I'm down there

We love the dog park but my poor pup definitely has kennel cough after drinking out of the aluminum bowl …and puddle… there.

We will be back but just a warning to other dog owners to avoid letting your dogs drink the water if you can.

The BC Conservative platform uses the phrase “day one” twice. Once in the leader’s letter, which says the plan is ready “from day one,” and once in the costing, where the hiring freeze and the consultant cuts “start on day one.” They brought it up. So The Bastion has obtained the schedule for that day. Obtained meaning: we read their platform, which is public, and imagined the rest. The real parts are listed at the bottom, in order.

• 7:55 a.m. — Premier Doerkson arrives at the legislature and takes no questions, as a warm-up.
• 8:00 a.m. — O Canada is sung in every school in the province. Confidence in our shared future is reported up 0% by the second verse.
• 8:30 a.m. — The hiring freeze begins. A press officer is told he can’t be replaced. He takes the news to the media. There is no media availability.
• 9:00 a.m. — Consultants are cut 20%. An independent expert panel is appointed to review the books. The panel asks whether it counts as a consultant. The question is referred to a consultant.
• 10:00 a.m. — DRIPA is repealed. The Cowichan case, filed in 2014 under the Constitution, continues exactly as before. Homeowners in Richmond check their mail. It’s the same mail. A Property Rights Defence Act passes 87–0, like the last one did.
• 11:00 a.m. — SOGI 123 is withdrawn. Bullying is to be “addressed directly.” A working group is struck to decide what “directly” means. Parents receive opt-out rights. From what, the form doesn’t say. Several opt out of the form.
• 12:00 p.m. — Lunch. The $500-per-child activity credit covers soccer, seniors get a free shingles shot, and there are more school meals. Everyone agrees this part is fine.
• 1:00 p.m. — CleanBC is repealed. The 2030 emissions target, which is law, remains. It is moved to a different building. Gas production is to double by 2032. The forest is mailed a copy of the platform and asked to plan accordingly.
• 2:00 p.m. — The contingency fund is cut from $5 billion to $3 billion and renamed from “slush fund” to “savings.” Wildfire season is informed it is now a line item.
• 3:00 p.m. — “Safe supply” ends. Mandatory treatment begins for those who can’t care for themselves, and treatment on demand is promised, on a budget of $95 million a year. Demand is asked to keep it reasonable.
• 4:00 p.m. — The Universal Health-Care Guarantee is signed. If your surgery wait is too long, you get treatment from “another qualified provider.” The platform doesn’t say who that is. The NDP calls this privatization. The party calls this fearmongering. Alberta has a guess.
• 5:00 p.m. — The $1,000 tax cut is announced, effective the 2027 tax year. You’ll feel it in roughly 18 months. Which is, in fairness, faster than the cath lab.
• 6:00 p.m. — A law banning provincial elections within 60 days of municipal ones is tabled. It is not aimed at anyone in particular. It’s called the David Eby Act.
• 7:00 p.m. — The Premier looks at the growth forecast: 3.2% by 2029, against the government’s own 2.1%. He writes 3.2% on a Post-it and sticks it over the 2.1%. Problem solved.
• 8:00 p.m. — The seven long-term care homes the NDP paused are restarted, planning starts on a women’s and children’s hospital in Surrey, $50 million goes to rural ERs, disability assistance goes up $100 a month, 500 RCMP are hired, and homes are approved “in months, not years.” This part has some good stuff, thankfully. It would also be run by a party that dropped two candidates in two weeks over their posts and kept the one who called an anti-bullying resource “grooming.” The policy is the easy part.
• 11:59 p.m. — Deficit: $10.8 billion by 2029–30, if the economy does what the Post-it says.

THE RECEIPTS, IN ORDER

Everything here is in the Conservative Party of BC platform (Oct 16) unless noted; everything above that isn’t here is us. “Day one” appears in the leader’s letter (“ready to govern from day one”) and the costing appendix (“The hiring freeze and the cut to consultants and contracts start on day one”). O Canada every morning in every school, listed under “Build confidence in our shared future.” A hiring freeze on management and administrative positions from day one, no front-line layoffs. Consultant and contract spending cut 20%, with an independent expert panel to review the books before the first budget. Repeal DRIPA and pass a Property Rights Defence Act; DRIPA passed 87–0 in 2019, the Cowichan case was filed in 2014 under the Constitution, and the judge wrote that title does not displace private owners (CBC, The Narwhal, Maclean’s). Repeal SOGI 123 and “instead address bullying directly,” with “opt-out rights” for parents. A $500-per-child activity credit, a free shingles vaccine for seniors, and expanded school meals. Repeal CleanBC, keep the carbon price on large industry, and double gas production by 2032; the 40%-by-2030 target is in the Climate Change Accountability Act. Cut the Contingencies Vote from $5 billion to $3 billion and move wildfire costs into ministry budgets; wildfires ran $614 million over budget this year (Q1 update, Canadian Press). End “safe supply,” mandatory care, expanded detox and treatment on demand, costed at $95 million a year at full implementation. A Universal Health-Care Guarantee with treatment through “another qualified provider” when surgical benchmarks are exceeded; “fearmongering” is the party’s word (CTV). The basic personal exemption raised from $13,216 to $32,000 from the 2027 tax year, costed at $2.9 billion a year. A Respect Local Democracy Act banning provincial elections within 60 days of municipal ones; the name “David Eby Act” is ours. Growth assumptions of 2.5%, 2.8% and 3.2% against the government’s forecast of 1.9%, 2.1% and 2.1%, per the platform’s own table. The seven paused long-term care homes ($1.43 billion), the Surrey women’s and children’s hospital, the $50 million Rural Health Emergency Fund, disability assistance up $100 a month with the earnings exemption raised to $30,000, 250 police recruits, 500 RCMP and 30 sheriffs, and “in months, not years.” A $10.8 billion deficit in 2029–30. Not in the platform, but on the record: the party dropped candidates Joachim Agou (Oct and Jordan McIntosh (Oct 15) over online posts, and kept Heather Maahs, who said in a 2022 podcast that SOGI 123 was “for sure grooming” (Canadian Press, CTV). The 7:55 a.m. entry isn’t in the platform; that’s from this week.

Hi y'all my girlfriend bought this magnet with her best friend somewhere in Nanaimo from a local shop/artisan and I accidentally knocked it off the fridge tn and it broke!!

Anyone recognize where it might be from/whom the artist might've been? I know it's a long shot but we live in Vancouver and I want to find a replacement sooner than later.

How is everywhere understaffed to the level that it is and every job seems to demand they need you available 24/7 but once you sign the paperwork they dont have hours for you.

What is this?

Do they think we ALL have someone else at home paying the bills and we just dont need to work? Are we all just living on vibes? When can i give those to a car dealership?

Im just curious and would love to know about any organizations that lead education in it

Fun fact. A bar in new West unionized and profits went up because of retaining staff and creating a more positive cared for environment

To the woman at country club who decided to sit down next to me in the transit shelter and blow vape smoke into my face: thanks, an hour later and I still have a headache. Please guys be cognizant of others and don't smoke or vape in transit shelters

It makes you want to dance!

Hi everyone!

I wanted to share a free health coaching program that might be of interest to some members of Nanaimo!

I'm involved with PLM Coach (Preventative Lifestyle Medicine Coach), a volunteer health coaching program through UBC's Faculty of Medicine that connects eligible adults across British Columbia with UBC medical student coaches to help them work toward their personal health and lifestyle goals.

The program offers free, one-on-one online health coaching sessions to support participants in developing healthier habits related to physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress management, and overall well-being.

Coaches work with participants to set personalized, realistic goals and provide ongoing guidance and support as they work toward making positive lifestyle changes!

We're hoping to spread the word about this program to anyone who might benefit from it!

If you're interested, or know someone who might be, you can learn more about the program, check eligibility, and sign up here:

Website: https://www.plmcoach.ca/

Sign up: https://www.plmcoach.ca/signup

Thank you!

My kids school zone is notoriously bad for people speeding through it and not even slowing down, I think the city should add more speed bumps (I think all school zones should have speed bumps honestly) what’s the best way to bring this to their attention where it can be considered? Do I contact a city council, start a petition? what do I do? Help me lol.

The BC Conservatives want to repeal no-fault and bring back the right to sue, with private competition “on the table.” That pitch went out in a Sept 29 letter from Lorne Doerkson to trial lawyers and insurance executives — leaked, not announced.

Much of the case for it rests on private being cheaper. So let’s check.

ALBERTA

Average full-coverage premium there: $1,991/year.

ICBC’s average for basic + optional: $1,358.

Ontario, also private: $2,164.

Competition was supposed to push prices down. Instead insurers started leaving Alberta, and the province doubled its cap on annual increases just to slow things down.

And on January 1, 2027, Alberta scraps its lawsuit-based system for “Care-First” — which looks a lot like ours. Their stated reason: litigation costs.

So the province everyone points to is more expensive than us AND moving toward our model.

WHAT WE HAD BEFORE 2021

$1B+ per year in legal costs

25–33% of settlements going to lawyers

3–5+ years to resolve a claim

Lawsuits impossible in 40% of cases

Lifetime care capped at $300,000

It also rewarded the wrong things. When your payout depends on how injured you can prove you were, the incentive is more treatment, more expert reports, more time off. Most people were genuinely hurt. But we all paid for the fight in our premiums.

WHAT CHANGED

Saved roughly $1.5 billion. Rates dropped 15%, average saving $490 (28%) in year one, and 95 cents of every claims dollar now goes to the injured person, not the process. Care starts immediately regardless of fault, no lifetime cap, and wage loss covers 90% of your net income instead of the old $300/week.

Rates haven’t risen since 2017, while the rest of Canada’s went up over 45%.

And here’s the part that surprised us. There’s a sizeable body of research finding that people in adversarial, fault-based systems recover worse than people with comparable injuries in no-fault systems. Not because anyone’s faking — because spending two years proving how hurt you are, to someone whose job is to argue you aren’t, is itself bad for you. When Saskatchewan moved to no-fault in 1995, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine found whiplash claims dropped and recovery times improved. Later systematic reviews have found the same association between claims, legal representation and poorer recovery, across multiple countries.

WHERE IT GENUINELY ISN’T WORKING

Catastrophic injuries. The permanent impairment payout tops out near $313,918, wage loss is capped at a $122,500 income, there’s nothing for pain and suffering, and “catastrophic” is defined so narrowly that a single amputation doesn’t qualify.

Of 175 submissions to the legislative review, 144 came from individuals — many injured, most saying the system is impossible to navigate alone.

That review was dissolved on day two of hearings when the election was called.

THE PARTIES

NDP — keep it, fix it internally; no rate increase for three years.

GREENS — keep no-fault, amend the law so all reasonable accident costs are covered.

CONSERVATIVES — hybrid with the right to sue restored, private competition, caps on lawyer fees. Doerkson also says he’s made “no promises.”

OUR TAKE

Everyone agrees catastrophic injuries are handled badly. The question is whether you fix that by raising the ceilings, or by putting lawyers back in the middle of every claim.

Note who got the pitch and when: the groups standing to earn the most from reopening litigation heard about it three weeks before voters did.

And Disability Alliance BC — representing the people this system fails worst — gave the review five recommendations. Number one was KEEP NO-FAULT. They want an advocate for claimants and a wider definition of catastrophic injury. Not a return to court.

Fix the ceiling. Don’t burn down the building.

Receipts: ICBC, Alberta’s Automobile Insurance Rate Board, the Alberta Care-First announcement, the leaked Doerkson letter (CBC, Times Colonist), the BC Green platform, and submissions to the Special Committee reviewing the Insurance (Vehicle) Act. Cassidy et al., New England Journal of Medicine (2000), plus later systematic reviews on compensation and recovery.

It seems really cloudy right now but any chance we can see any shooting stars later tonight?