Courtenay / Comox Valley Record

Police are seeking the public’s help to identify a woman found dead at a waste disposal facility in Central Saanich on Tuesday morning (Oct. 13). Central Saanich police responded to a report of a deceased person at the facility, and the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit has taken over the investigation with assistance from local officers.

NDP, Conservative and Green Party candidates vying to be Premier of B.C. presented their competing visions for the province’s economy to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade on Tuesday. NDP Leader David Eby continued working to assuage concerns about the recent contract to build four new BC Ferries ships in China, promising that if his government is re-elected, he will work with Ottawa to build a new shipyard in the province.

The plight of the endangered southern resident killer whales remains in the balance despite a rise in their population. The annual photographic census of the killer whales, conducted by Washington-based Center for Whale Research, found that as of July 1, there were 76 living individuals, up two from last year’s 74. During the census period, four calves were born, with only two surviving.

A catastrophic sediment dump into Shawnigan Creek on Friday, Oct. 2 has killed an unknown number of spawning fish that had been set to be moved from a fish trap the following day by members of the Mill Bay and District Conservation Society. For decades, MBDCS volunteers have been trapping and then physically assisting a run of Coho salmon during their migration above a series of waterfalls on Shawnigan Creek where it enters the Salish Sea near Mill Bay.

Voters across British Columbia – from Greater Victoria to Nelson – can now read about their 2026 local election candidates’ positions on climate and environmental issues. Climate action groups across the province have posted positions at a new website: Vote4Tomorrow.ca. The survey platform was developed by My Sea to Sky with input from the South Island Climate Action Network.

B.C. NDP Leader David Eby says that when his children’s YMCA childcare centre became one of the 10 per cent in the province to offer its services for $10 per day, he and his family decided it was best to donate the difference to the centre. “We made that decision because we didn’t feel that we needed that benefit,” he told reporters in Vancouver on Tuesday. “We wanted other families to benefit.” But he dodged questions about the donation amount, or whether he received a tax write-off.

The Comox Valley RCMP are seeking the public’s help in locating a missing woman, Ashlynne Patterson. Patterson, 37, was reported missing on Oct. 1 and was last known to be in the Courtenay area. Police say Patterson was last in touch with her family in August. Patterson is also known to frequent several communities on Vancouver Island, including Nanaimo and Victoria.

BC NDP Leader David Eby promised what he called “some of the toughest rules in North America” around AI data centres and watershed protection at a Comox Valley campaign stop over the weekend. “Rural communities in the province understand very intimately where their water comes from. It comes from the watershed,” Eby said.

Comox Valley RCMP has made arrests after a series of incidents involving youth operating high-powered electric dirt bikes and scooters dangerously in Courtenay. Some drivers even fled from police and allegedly engaged in other criminal behaviour. The RCMP say they received reports of riders performing stunts on Highway 19A and Dingwall Road on the evening of Sept. 25. One report said that an object had been thrown from one rider at a passing vehicle, causing damage.

Dozens of people filled the court room in Kelowna the morning of Oct. 13 to hear Brandon Kazakoff plead guilty. The defendant pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death and to the lesser charge of assault for events that resulted in the death of Kelowna teenager Tristan Seeger. The court heard an agreed statement of facts in which, on Oct. 21, 2023, Kazakoff reacted to an incident in which family members, including his father, had been bear sprayed by a group of teens.