West Shore This Week – Sit in some sunshine

Welcome to West Shore This Week, your source for the latest local news and events. Sign up to get this in your inbox every Wednesday.

News and announcements

• Eagle Creek Medical Clinic in View Royal will connect 5,000 residents with doctors and nurses over the next year, The Discourse reports. It’s part of a joint effort between Island Health and the clinic. 
• Amid calls to action from community members asking for more and better access to mental health services on the West Shore, The Discourse connected with some local leaders to talk about what’s available and what people can do while waiting for support. Find the story, with a link to a companion guide that lists available services, here.
• Twenty-three new cases of COVID-19 have been identified on Vancouver Island, CTV News reports. There are now 272 active cases of COVID-19 on the Island, including 22 people in hospital and seven in critical care. Island Health counts 162 active cases in the Central Island region, 64 in the South Island and nine in the North Island region.
• On Feb. 8, Langford’s Planning, Zoning and Affordable Housing committee moved to bring the Western Speedway development to council. The motion went unopposed. The plan is to turn the property into small lots of residential homes and a business park, CHEK News reports. The owners are also looking at building a hotel and film studio on the property. You can listen to the Feb. 8 committee meeting here.
• Youth and young adults transitioning from government care will be able to stay in their living arrangements for up to one more year as COVID-19 measures have been extended, the province says.
• Wild Wise Westshore is asking cat owners to consider keeping their pets indoors or secured outdoors using safe options like catios. The organization says free-roaming pets are at risk of predation when not secured on a leash, in a catio or in a home. On Feb. 2, the Goldstream News Gazette reported that a conservation officer shot and killed a cougar in Sooke following reports about sightings and dead house cats.
• Rugby Canada’s Langford-based Olympic women’s rugby sevens coach has been replaced. Rugby Canada says a complaint was received and that an independent investigator is looking into the matter. Unnamed sources told the Times Colonist that the “complaints are not physical in nature, but ‘technical’ in terms of style and coaching approach.”
• School bus registration with the Sooke School District for the next school year takes place between Feb. 16 and April 30. There will be a $25 safety fee per rider, in-catchment school bus service only (with some exemptions) and a $100 late fee per family if registering after Aug. 31. Click here for more details.
• The Sooke RCMP is requesting the public’s assistance in locating Steven Grant. He is a Metchosin resident who has been missing from his home since Jan. 30. Grant is described as a Caucasian man who is 53-years-old and approximately five-foot-nine inches tall with a slim build, blue eyes, brown shoulder-length hair and a brow/grey full-face beard. For photos of Steven Grant, click here. Anyone who sees Steven Grant or his black 2008 Toyota Tundra is asked to contact their local police department.
• The Royal BC Museum announced that its chief executive officer, Jack Lohman, will be stepping down on Friday amid concerns about systemic racism at the museum, CHEK News reports. 
• The province of B.C. bought a $13 million piece of land in View Royal that it plans to give back to the Esquimalt and Songhees nations, the Goldstream News Gazette reports. The plan is to return the property after negotiating a reconciliation agreement with the federal government. The agreement is expected to take three to five years to negotiate.
• Daily protests are taking place outside the OK Industries quarry site in the Highlands. Residents have formed a group called Not OK in opposition to the mine and have launched a petition to stop work at the site. As of Tuesday evening, the petition garnered almost 9,000 signatures.
• There are three confirmed COVID-19 cases at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Esquimalt, the Goldstream News Gazette reports.

Community events

• Thursday, Feb. 11: 🕊️ Participate in a day of action, inspiration, ceremony and fasting for the online Moose Hide Campaign, a movement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous men and boys who are standing up against violence towards women and children.
• Friday, Feb. 12: 📚 Join Kelly Black and Vancouver Island University for a free lecture called The Rooms Where It Happened: Practicing Public History at Victoria’s House Museum.
• Friday, Feb. 12: 🚲 Commit to riding your bike on Feb. 12 for international Winter GoByBike Day. Participants can enter to win a $50 gift card to a bike shop of their choice, a bike helmet, locks, lights and more.
• Wednesday, Feb. 17:  Join a Symposium on Black migration and British Columbia, presented by the BC Black History Awareness Society.
• Weekends until Feb. 28: 🎨 Visit Metchosin ArtPod for its new exhibition, About Face: A Portrait Show. The show’s feature artist and guest juror is Noah Layne, who will be exhibiting several of his pieces and will do two online drawing workshops. More information can be found on the Facebook event page.
• Saturday, Feb. 20: 👟 The Coldest Night of the Year, a family-friendly walk to raise money for charities serving people experiencing homelessness, will take place on Feb. 20 this year. Participants will self-organize their own walks due to COVID-19. Register online as an individual or a team.

If you’re planning an event that I should consider for an upcoming list, send me an email and let me know.

In your words

Wendy shared The Discourse’s story on youth mental health supports on the West Shore on Facebook and said:

“Thank you for keeping the conversation on mental health and youth in our community going.”

Thanks for sharing the story, Wendy. I’m glad I can report on important topics like this. [end]