November 11, 2015 Wednesday
News updates: westerlynews.ca
Family of lost Leviathan II passenger thanks locals
Serving Tofino and Ucluelet
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To the communities of Tofino, Ahousaht, and Tla-o-qui-aht; It has come time for our family to leave Tofino. While we were here we experienced kindness after kindness, and although we cannot thank everyone enough, there are some we want to give a special thanks to: Ahousaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations; Grace Frank; the staff and crew at Jamie’s Whaling Station, John Forde and Jennifer Steven; Mollie Law; Nora Martin; Sacred Stone Spa; Savannah and Morgan Callison; Sobo; George Patterson, his staff, and the Ecolodge at Tofino Botanical Gardens; the Tofino Co-op; the volunteer counselors from HEMBC who came to Tofino; Therese Cochlin, such a compassionate police officer; Wolf in the Fog; and a really big thank you to Mayor Josie Osborne. Every shop we walked into was welcoming, every person we spoke with so kind. Nobody is to blame. We lost our son, but we only lost his physical body. His spirit is here. And we gained a family, friends, a community. We will be back. The Pillay/Hooker Family, Australia
INSIDE
THIS WEEK:
Local leaders gathered at BC Hydro’s new Long Beach substation to celebrate Hydro’s $56 million investment in the West Coast.
$56 million project doubles West Coast’s power ANDREW BAILEY
Westerly News
BC Hydro has doubled its power supply to the West Coast. Hydro recently completed a $56 million project to replace two substations that deliver power to its roughly 3,900 West Coast customers. The Great Central Lake substation near Port Alberni and Long Beach substation near
the West Coast junction were both outdated and running at capacity, according to Hydro spokesperson Karla Louwers. “For those peak winter months they couldn’t carry more load and wouldn’t be able to meet the growth in the communities,” she said. “Not only were the previous substations at capacity but they were also at end-of-life… some of the equipment in those stations dated back to 1957.”
Hydro expects the West Coast’s power consumption to grow by 2 per cent annually and the company believes the two new substations will keep the Coast humming for at least 30 more years, according to Louwers. She said the two new substations carry twice the capacity of their predecessors. “They’re new substations built to modern standards with new equipment,” she said.
“You’ve got new equipment in your area so your system is going to be more reliable and it also allows for that growth. There’s an economic benefit to the communities because there is now room for the communities to grow.” She added the two replaced substations would be torn down by the spring of 2016. andrew.bailey@westerlynews. ca
STUCK ON SEWAGE:
COAST GUARD CONCERN:
OPEN FARMING:
Tofino is tackling its liquid waste woes.
Local voice Julius Smolders pens an open letter urging Justin Trudeau to reopen MCTS TOFINO.
PAgE 3
PAgE 4
BC salmon farmers have published their first sustainability progress report. PAgE 11