For more than 75 years, a tiny island in one of the most remote regions of British Columbia has served as a vital lifeline for fishers, forestry workers, adventure tourists, and residents of the primarily Indigenous community of Kyuquot. Okime Island — one of approximately 10 densely forested islands surrounding the isolated village — is a beacon of care and community in this wild west coast region of Vancouver Island.
Aerial view, Okime Island
Okime Island is the site of a Red Cross outpost health centre, and just offshore is the dock for the helicopters, planes and boats that transport patients. The dock, which is owned by Island Health, “is the only point of contact to that particular outpost hospital,” explained Island Health’s North Island Facilities, Maintenance and Operations (FMO) Manager, Tom LeMesurier. “Anybody brought in by air or boat, anybody brought in for treatment— it could be a marine incident, it could be a logging incident — they would attend to at that dock.”
The west coast of Vancouver Island is infamous for its powerful storms, so it’s no surprise that a weather event limited the dock’s functionality. “In January 2023, there was a significant storm swell that damaged the dock to a very precarious level,” said Tom. “It was determined at that time both by our contractor and by the helicopter pilots themselves and the facility that it was no longer safe to land a helicopter on that dock. It listed to a point where it was just too dangerous to land a helicopter on. We were one storm swell away from that dock entirely disintegrating.”
From that point on, with helicopters no longer able to land on the dock, access to the hospital was limited to boat or seaplane only.
Within days of the swell, the critical work of replacing the dock got underway. The team needed to find an engineer who could meet the urgent delivery timeline and work with the complex aviation and engineering requirements. “There are many people that say they can build a dock,” Tom said. “There's probably only a couple of qualified people who could build that dock.”
Fortunately, the FMO team found a Campbell River-based engineer with the specific set of skills needed to build the dock.
“So, it was constructed in Campbell River at the site of the old pulp mill and then it was broken back down again in sections and pulled up in a big rig up to Fair Harbour,” said Mark Roberts, North Island Maintenance Supervisor with FMO. “Then it was craned into the water and rebuilt in the harbour in March 2024.”
From that point, the team needed to wait for the right weather window to complete the journey to Kyuquot, and that window opened in April. By May, the dock was fully operational and once again able to transport and welcome patients by helicopter.
Fog envelops the outpost hospital
The new dock sits further from the shore, making it safe to land helicopters again. Where the old dock was built from wood and Styrofoam floats, by contrast the new dock has a galvanized steel structure with new state-of-the-art floats and pressure treated decking and railing. A new reinforced and stable 40-foot ramp now connects the dock back to Okime Island and gone are the boom-sticks that once had to be used to orientate the dock — the dock is now held in place by chains and adjustable galvanized stabilizers mounted to concrete foundations on the shoreline above the high tide mark.
Looking back on the whole experience, Tom was appreciative of the support and dedication Island Health showed for the remote community, and to all the people who helped make it happen. “It is more than just a dock,” he said. “It serves a medical purpose, an aviation purpose, and absolutely a vital for life purpose.” Tom, who lives on the North Island and understands how interconnected the communities and people are in the region, said it took a village to make it happen, “and we just happen to live there.”
If the new dock is keeping access to healthcare afloat, the Island Health medical professionals who serve the community are critical anchors of care. Take Jennifer Vass, an emergency and ICU nurse who cut her teeth in the urban hospitals of Metro Vancouver and the Okanagan. Jennifer has worked at the outpost hospital in Kyuquot for nearly four years. “I was probably running away from home,” she said, when asked what brought her from the large teaching hospitals of the mainland to a community only accessible by air, water, or a precarious two-hour drive on a logging road.
Members of the Canadian Coast Guard with Jennifer Vass on a warm summer day
“You become very creative out here,” she said. “You get to practice to the full scope of your abilities.” Some of those creative interventions have included removing an earring embedded inside an ear, unhooking untold fishhooks pierced through fingers and nails, and dressing head lacerations and illnesses from remote logging camps, fish farms and offshore vessels.
In Jennifer’s experience, Kyuquot’s new dock is both a symbol of Island Health’s commitment to the community and a community gathering place. “It's a place where the kids come,” she said. “I'll come home from work many a day and have all the young people lined up around the dock, jigging for fish and catching things and it's just so heartwarming to see — it's for everyone to enjoy.”
Kyuquot's new dock as seen from the water
In addition to its medical purposes, the dock is helping Jennifer build relationships and trust amongst the younger members of the community. But in a tightknit place like Kyuquot, building those relationships takes time and commitment and as Jennifer explained, trust sits at the core of remote nursing. She made sure she was out and involved in the community, getting to know people in the places they gather and making sure they knew she wasn’t going anywhere. “It's been a long road,” she admitted. “But I think Island Health and partners have worked really hard to build some bridges and I would say in the last three years I've seen some massive bridges being built out here and it shows because they'll come to me, they'll talk to me.”
Kyuquot Nurse, Jennifer Vass on her daily commute
When she thinks about how far she has come, her emotions are palpable. “People here have shared stories that have just been so humbling that they've trusted me to talk to me,” she said, fighting back tears. “It has helped me grow as a person and be just a better ally, be a better person, be a better advocate and a bigger voice. I went from just thinking I was taking a job out here to this is the hill I'm going to die on. I will fight for people here.”
While the actual cost of the new dock was approximately $355K, it’s what the dock symbolizes about Island Health’s investment in the community and wellbeing of people there that resonates with staff and community members alike.
“It’s a massive amount of trust that Island Health has gained through the services that they have allowed us to provide out here and the support financially and in every aspect of care,” said Jennifer. “It's showing, in the trust of the bigger system.”
For Jennifer, the clearest example of that trust was when she came back to the community after taking some time away. “The biggest moment when I knew I'd gained their trust is when they said, ‘welcome home.’”