In October 2012 Nanaimo council chose to remove the two coal-era dams in Colliery Dam Park, after the provincial Dam Safety Section rated both at the highest consequence level in British Columbia. The dams are still there. The Colliery Dam Park fight ran three years, ended with a 2016 spillway on the lower dam and, by the city's own count, cost $7,070,000. Crews are now patching the spillway of the middle one.

Other park decisions went the other way. Council bought 177.5 acres in Linley Valley in 2014 and 50 more in 2018. Most of the city's 12 off-leash dog parks began as one-year pilots, and Maffeo Sutton Park, once foundry land, is now what the city calls its busiest park.

Ferries are the argument that never ends. Departure Bay had most of the coast's longest BC ferry waits in 2016, and since October 2025 every vehicle sailing there from Horseshoe Bay must book; the Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo ferry schedule shows how little slack two ships leave. The foot passenger ferry to Vancouver disappeared when HarbourLynx folded in 2006 and came back with Hullo in 2023. Downtown parking went free for 17 months, and Qualicum Beach once ran a free Shop to Shore shuttle.

Schools close and come back. School District 68 runs 28 elementary and six secondary schools from Lantzville to Ladysmith. Cedar Community Secondary closed in June 2014 and reopened in September 2016, and Rutherford Elementary lost a 5-4 vote in 2015, shut in 2018 and reopened for 2025-26.

On the waterfront, the Nanaimo Port Authority runs Duke Point, the Assembly Wharf, a cruise dock and the Boat Basin, and the Duke Point terminal expansion is lengthening a cargo berth from 182 metres to 325. A Hilton tower beside Georgia Park was approved and then shelved. Voters backed the Vancouver Island Conference Centre by 52 per cent in 2004, and its hotel took until 2023; in 2017 they rejected an $80 million events centre. Behind all of it sit property taxes, up 6.4 per cent for 2026.

Garbage has its own file: a unanimous 2014 vote against a Duke Point incinerator that left the heavy industry zone open, a Parksville plastic bag ban killed 6-1, and seven tonnes of illegally dumped waste hauled off Little Mountain in 2019.

Services fill out the section: BC Housing in Nanaimo, the Ravensong pool and its $13.5 million renovation, the paid-on-call Ladysmith fire department, the CatNap Society's work with feral cats, and artificial intelligence rules that have reached Vancouver Island University. On September 3, 2026, the province said the building planned for 250 Bryden Street would open as substance-free recovery housing, the model council had asked for and been refused.

All stories in Civic Nanaimo

Questions

Why are the Colliery Dam Park dams still standing?

In October 2012 council resolved to remove the Middle and Lower dams, after the provincial Dam Safety Section rated both at the highest consequence level in British Columbia. Residents organized to save them, and the dispute ran three years. It ended with an auxiliary spillway on the lower dam, completed in 2016. By the city's own count, a total of $7,070,000 was spent on the dams from 2012 onward.

Do you need a reservation for the ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo?

For a vehicle, yes. Every vehicle sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay, motorcycles and commercial trucks included, now needs a booking. BC Ferries said on-time performance on the route was 9.5 per cent higher from October 2025 to April 2026 than in the same months a year earlier.

Is there a passenger ferry from Nanaimo to downtown Vancouver?

Yes. Hullo, operated by the Vancouver Island Ferry Company, has sailed between the Port of Nanaimo facility and the Coal Harbour waterfront in downtown Vancouver since August 16, 2023. The crossing takes roughly 75 minutes.

Is downtown Nanaimo parking free?

Not any more. For 17 months the 255 street stalls downtown were free for up to two hours, and paid parking returned on March 2, 2026, at $0.25 for 12 minutes and $1.25 an hour. Drivers can now also pay through Hotspot by scanning the QR code at the stall.

How many schools does School District 68 run?

It runs 28 elementary and six secondary schools, from Lantzville to Ladysmith. Its boundaries grew out of mergers: the province folded the rural districts around Nanaimo together in 1942, and the Ladysmith district voted in 1972 to merge into its neighbours.

How did the vote to reopen Cedar Community Secondary go?

In April 2015 the school board voted 6-3 to reopen Cedar as a secondary school in September 2016, with three trustees opposed. One of them said the board was doing things backwards by fixing one piece before seeing a revised facilities plan. The school had closed at the end of June 2014, and during 2014-15 up to 60 Cedar students were bused to John Barsby while about 250 attended Ladysmith Secondary.