Cortes Currents

Roy L Halesd/Cortes Currents - It has been nine months since Katia Sol took over the helm as Hollyhock's CEO. She has also had more than two decades of experience working with nonprofits, starting as a volunteer in a Bolivian Indigenous community and going on to co-direct the Ecology of Leadership at the Regenerative Design Institute, founding her own coaching and leadership development business, and teaching at Stanford University. In today's interview she talks about this past year at Hollyhock and what lies ahead in 2026. 

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - The second party of an interview with Regional Director Mark Vonesch about whether Cortes Island should incorporate. As Mark says, “The worst that can happen really, if we bring this to the Province and it's approved and we start this process, the worst that can happen is that we'd learn a lot about local governance. We'd have opportunities to have conversations and speak to each other and explore the options. And in the end maybe we would vote it down… but this is a petition just simply saying, Hey, let's see if there's a better way. Let's explore it and let's decide for ourselves what makes sense.” Since the Province would fund the consultation and research process, Mark feels there is no risk to Cortes residents in pursuing it.

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Cortes residents may have noticed a petition available in paper form at our post offices and grocery stores, or received an email update from our Regional Director inviting them to consider signing the online version. The petition mentions governance and incorporation: what's it all about? I interviewed Regional Director Mark Vonesch to get a better understanding of the issues and why he's chosen this moment to launch a petition regarding our governance model. As Mark is quick to point out, signing this petition doesn't indicate that the signer wants Cortes to become some kind of municipality rather than a Rural Area. The petition is intended to find out if there's sufficient local support to initiate a process of research and discovery (with Provincial support and funding) to figure out whether incorporation is — or isn't — a practical or desirable alternative to our current system of government.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - With 2025 coming to a close, it seems like a good time to get an update from the Cortes Island Fire Department. Currently, there are about 38 people working out of the island's two fire halls, with another 20 enrolled in the wildfire brigade. Chief Eli McKenty noted, "I haven't totalled this year's call volume yet, but last year we had 105 calls. This year, we're likely slightly higher at around 110.” “We had one significant structure fire, which was fortunately not a total loss. Two factors likely contributed to that. It was a reasonably modern building that was tightly closed.  If you have a tightly sealed building and the doors, windows are closed and you have multi pane windows that don't break from the heat, you can actually have a fire that fully starves of oxygen and goes out. A landscaper working next door noticed the smoke and got a garden hose on it. We were able to mop up the rest.” “We had one minor fire onboard a boat and a few hydro lines sparked minor brush fires, but nothing significant on that front this year." In response to a question about the nature of the call-outs, McKenty explained, "They make up the bulk of our call volume. Of our 105 calls last year, 64 were medical first responders, which is similar to what most first responder departments in the province. We had a reasonably high number of motor vehicle incidents this year.” "We received numerous burning complaints and duty investigations in the summer. It's fairly common for someone to smell smoke for one reason or another, leading to calls for investigation. We even received a call for a suspected lightning strike." When asked about the extensive training and upgrades the Fire Department has been undergoing, McKenty shared that near the beginning of Mac Diver's term as chief, the province recognized that the existing fire service training model was very challenging for small rural departments to achieve. They established a system with three declared service levels. “Most small rural departments provide exterior operations fire service. We're not currently allowed to enter a burning building like they would in larger cities such as Vancouver.” “The next level is interior certification, which is what Quadra Island currently has. It's half way to full service. They're allowed to enter simple structures and commercial buildings with a pre-plan in place, but not into high rises.” Then there is full service. Campbell River is fully staffed with members present at all times, and an additional volunteer crew that steps in as needed. The Cortes Island Fire Department has traditionally been an exterior operations department. However, in the last two years they have been discussing moving toward interior certification. “There's not a huge advantage to us going interior on Cortes because response times are longer than they are in the city since we're only two halls and we have a lot of drive time. So there are not too many situations where an interior attack would make the difference in saving a structure, although there have been cases where it would. What really keeps me up at night is we are not currently allowed to go into a building to rescue somebody if the building's on fire. That would be a really nice piece to be certified for.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A new study found that Northern Resident Killer Whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins have formed a cooperative hunting relationship to catch Chinook salmon in the Johnson Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The dolphins utilize echolocation to locate fish at depth, but their small teeth are designed primarily to grip prey, and they cannot swallow large species like Chinook salmon whole. Instead, dolphins locate the fish, and then wait for the killer whales move in to tear them apart, scattering bits of tissue and flesh into the water. Dr. Andrew Trites, a professor and director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, explained, “The dolphins are getting leftovers, but that seems to be reward enough, so there's no competition for what is ultimately killed. Everybody comes out a winner.” This was the first time Customized Animal Tracking Solutions Tags (CATS) were used on whales and allowed the researchers to collect 3D kinematic data with video and acoustics, continuously recording high-resolution dive data, along with vocalizations and feeding-related sounds. “ This tag has got a video recorder. It's got a hydrophone. It's listening for all the calls that are being made by the killer whales, but it's also recording dolphin calls as we discover. It has a depth sensor so we know what depth the whale is at. It's got three-dimensional accelerometers. So we can reconstruct all the swimming movements of the whale, whether it turns or heads down or heads up. It does water temperature as well. So it's a very sophisticated fitbit that was designed to be put onto marine life, such as Killer Whales.” “All of my life I've seen whales from a boat, with a camera in hand or binoculars. Here we're getting a bird's-eye view with a drone, which others have used before, but for the first time, we got the orca eye view of what's really going on, and that changes everything, to see the world as the killer whales experience it.” Trites suspects but does not know if killer whales and dolphins cooperate in the same manner around Cortes, Read, and Quadra Islands. “ I don't know how frequently you see white-sided dolphins around Cortes. There is a resident population of white-sided dolphins living in the Salish Sea. I don't know much about their distribution and whether or not those dolphins behave the same as the ones that are up in Johnson Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. Certainly, the northern residents that are going to your area know how to work with dolphins. The question is whether or not the dolphins in your area know how to hang out and work cooperatively with northern residents.” Initially, the research team believed these dolphins were harassing Southern Resident Killer Whales, but this perception changed after Keith Holmes, a drone pilot with the Hakai Institute, observed their interactions. He noted, “From above, you could see this incredible amount of activity. It was clear that there was some sort of communication happening, and they were actively foraging together,” as stated in the UBC press release. Dr. Sarah Fortune, the lead author and Canadian Wildlife Federation Chair in Large Whale Conservation, emphasized the significance of these observations by saying, “We've long known that resident killer whales interact with Pacific white-sided dolphins, but seeing them dive and hunt in sync with dolphins completely changes our understanding of what those encounters mean.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Tune in on December 12, 2025, for a pre-recorded episode of FolkU with author Ruth Ozeki, who sits down with the Cortes Island Academy for a deep, generous conversation about her book A Tale for the Time Being. Ruth shares how the novel emerged from Zen teachings, natural disasters, and we chat about the mysterious voices that spark creative work.   Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts. 

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -In yesterday's broadcast, Jennifer Lash, a former senior advisor from Environment and Climate Change Canada, explained that  the Prime Minister had to make an MOU with Alberta in order to bring that province on board to initiate further climate initiatives. The potential cost was building a pipeline across BC, but she believes the opposition in BC is too strong for this to become a reality. She also talked about other past and present Liberal environmental policies. Max Thaysen from Cortes Island's Climate Action Network responds in this morning's interview. 

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Justin Trudeau's environmental policy is often either purchasing the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) or expanding Canada's LNG sector. Yet Jennifer Lash, a former senior advisor with Environment and Climate Change Canada, speaks of his accomplishments in the fight against climate change. In this morning's interview, she explains the rationale behind Liberal environmental policies. As it is actually quite simple once you get the underlying theme, Cortes Currents is calling it ‘Liberal Environmental Policies for Dummies.' Jennifer Lash: “There's two ways that you can address climate change. One is through the policies that reduce the emissions here in Canada, and the other is by taking action to leave fossil fuels in the ground so that they're not even extracted.” “Both approaches have merit, so I'm not here to just say whether one is right or wrong. Both are out there, and there is a substantial part of society that's very concerned about how much fossil fuels we're taking out of the ground. When TMX was purchased, that provided space for the oil sands to expand.” “When LNG is approved, it obviously increases the extraction of LNG, which is then burned in other countries. We're all trying to meet our Paris targets; that doesn't count emissions burned in other countries. So with the Paris Agreement, we are responsible for the emissions that we generate here in Canada. When the LNG is exported and burned in China, China has to account for those emissions. It's just the math of how the system works. As a major oil and gas supplier globally, Canada has a moral responsibility for how much fossil fuels we put into the system.” “There is also the argument that at this moment in time, if we leave our LNG in the ground, another country is going to take it. So it's not like global emissions are, or the global supply of LNG is going to go down. It's going to go up. It's just that we leave it in the ground and don't have the economic benefit, and another country does. That's just the lay of the land of the issues that surround the climate debate.” “When Trudeau came into power, he and his various environment ministers—Minister McKenna, Minister Wilkinson, and then Minister Guilbeault—all played a part in delivering these policies. They put together the first national climate plan, which was designed to reduce our emissions. We call it the PCF, the Pan-Canadian Framework on Climate Change and the Economy.” “The ability to get all the provinces to sign onto that—namely to get Alberta to sign onto that—required a pipeline. So that was the first grand bargain that the Liberal government did with Alberta. You can say it was really bad to get TMX, and I'm leaving out all the ocean risk issues—that's a whole other interview as a threat to the ocean—but in terms of climate, the pipeline was approved in order for us to get a national climate plan, which we did get.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - On Saturday, December 6, more than three dozen people gathered for the grand opening of ithe Cortes Wood Makerspace, in Mansons Landing. Shopmaster Hannu Huuskonen explained,   “A lot of people need to do stuff in a woodworking shop and not everyone needs to build themselves a shop, especially big enough to do certain things with it properly equipped. It's a big outlay of money. So it makes total sense to have people be able to come to a common space.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Work on the Heriot Bay and Whaletown ferry terminals is proceeding faster than expected, and the much-anticipated shutdown of service on the Cortes to Quadra run has been shortened to three weeks. Cortes Island's new hydroelectric ferry could arrive as early as late spring or summer of 2026. The Cortes and Campbell River ferries could both be fully electric earlier than previously expected. The key word for both of those last items is ‘could' because they are possibilities, not promises. In this morning's interview, Sheila Reynolds from BC Ferries gave Cortes Currents an update on the scheduling for our area.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) needs to raise $15,000 for core operations, and is also inviting the community to their Annual General Meeting on Tuesday, December 9, at 5 PM, at Manson's Hall.  FOCI's Executive Director, Helen Hall, explained, “We all live on this beautiful island which has rich forests, a stunning coastline and a host of endangered species, and  I think that's a big reason why people choose to live here -the natural beauty of the island. FOCI has a really important remit to protect and nurture that natural beauty for future generations.”  Cortes Currents:  FOCI has just published its 2025 Annual Report—a look back at a year full of on-the-ground conservation and community projects. What have you been doing? Helen Hall: 2025 was a very busy year for us. We have been doing everything from doing a whole island beach cleanup in the spring to maintaining all the regional parks and trails. We've helped create a really amazing wetland at the Cortes Island School. FOCI has been continuing to work on the Dillon Creek Wetland, which is helping to reduce the nutrients going into Hague and Gunflint Lakes.  We've also been doing some important marine work. FOCI just launched a program protecting the vital eelgrass beds around Cortes. We've been also working to try and prevent a very invasive species getting hold in Manson's Lagoon, which is the European green Crab.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the conclusion of a series about Canada's MOU with Alberta, four local leaders delve deeper into specific issues: the pipeline itself; whether Canada needs British Columbia's support; the proposed lifting of BC's tanker moratorium; and an Angus Reid poll suggesting a slim majority of British Columbians may be in favour of the MOU. 

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Canada's MOU with Alberta, a proposed new pipeline in British Columbia, and the possible lifting of the tanker ban have been hot news items over the past few days. Steven Guilbeault resigned from cabinet over his opposition to the way Prime Minister Mark Carney is handling these issues. In the first episode of a two part series about the MOU, Cortes Currents asked two politicians and two environmental leaders for their take on these events. Green Party leader Elizabeth May; Jennifer Lash, a former senior analyst with Environment and Climate Change Canada and the 2025 LIberal candidate for North Island–Powell River. Shelley Luce, Associate Director and Campaigns Director at Sierra Club BC; Max Thaysen, a leader of the Cortes Island Climate Action Network and  regional representative for North Island on the BC NDP's Standing Committee on Economy and Environment.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Cortes Community Mapping Project recently launched its Cortes Island Map Series in Linnaea's Lakeview Room. This morning's program consists of gleanings from the three speakers: Sabina Leader Mense, David Shipway and Eve Flager.  Sabina Leader Mense: “I want to give you a little bit of background on how we got this project started. In a nutshell, the project is best described as putting community maps into community hands. That's been our goal. I'm just one of the team members working on this project. Eve Flager, whom you'll be hearing from shortly, is our GIS (Geographic Information System) analyst. David Shipway is the keeper of maps on Cortes and has been a big part of this project. Sonya Friesen, ground-truther extraordinaire, has been working with us. Maya Buckner, who is not here, was born and raised on Cortes and is a newly accredited GIS analyst through Vancouver Island University. So we have our own resident analyst mentored by Eve. We're in a really good position to move forward with our maps.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A growing number of countries are experimenting with ways to integrate electric vehicle batteries and rooftop solar systems into their energy grids to enhance stability. While BC Hydro is conducting trials with EV batteries in the Lower Mainland, the utility's current emphasis is on rewarding customers who reduce their energy consumption during evening peak periods. In today's interview, Brandon Young, Director of Energy Efficiency and Innovation at BC Hydro, discusses the Peak Saver program and possible next steps for integrating residential customers into grid-stability initiatives.  Brandon Young: “There's two main avenues for customers to participate:” “They can participate behaviourally. What we do over a course of generally a winter period, is ‘call events.' We send them an email or text message prior to an event, which generally takes place during the evening for about four hours. If those customers are able to reduce their usage by 20% over the four hours, they redeem a $3 reward. Over the course of the season, those rewards add up.” “The other avenue is they are also able to automatically enrol devices. Most of those are smart thermostats for baseboard heaters and during those events that allows us to automatically turn down the thermostat a couple degrees achieving the savings we need. For a thermostat, they'll receive $50 a year. We also have seasonal amounts for level two chargers if they have electric vehicles as well as batteries. Batteries can be up to $250 per season.” For BC Hydro, the program reduces peak demand and helps defer or avoid capital investments needed to meet growing electricity needs. Brandon Young: “W e have almost 150,000 customers participating across the province. The majority of those are behavioral, but definitely a growing number of customers on the enrollment side and a really high satisfaction rate. Less than 1% of customers that enrol choose to no longer participate.”  Cortes Currents:  What about people with solar and batteries? Brandon Young: “Self-generation and net metering are designed to reduce a home's reliance on the grid, and battery storage can help during peak periods. Eligible home batteries can be enrolled in Peak Saver whether or not a customer has solar panels. By allowing the home to rely on its battery during the four-hour event window, customers can earn $250 per season.”  Cortes Currents: Residential battery customers (with or without solar) are assured that peak saving events will not exceed four hours, during which their batteries will not go below 20% of capacity. They will retain manual override of their batteries throughout this period and at the end of the four hours the device will return to its normal settings. “BC Hydro also offers incentives of up to $5,000 for residential battery installations. If a battery is eligible for Peak Saver enrolment, a customer may receive a $500 enrolment bonus and $250 each year thereafter. Over ten years, that could total $2,500, helping to offset bills or initial installation costs.”  Germany's path toward a net-zero grid is expected to include leveraging parked EVs whose batteries are often unused during the day. BC Hydro has not yet scaled two-way, vehicle-to-grid energy flows for mass market use, but the utility is running trials—particularly with short-range commercial fleets.  Young explained,  “Right now we have a pretty substantive trial with Lynch bus line school buses in the Lower Mainland, where they charge in our off peak periods and then again can inject power back to the grid during peak, reducing that peak demand.” “We do have a number of shorter range distribution cargo companies as well. Longer term, one of our bigger pieces is for sure looking at scaling to mass market or residential customers as well.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -In 2015, the year Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister of Canada, more than 5 million Canadians were living in poverty. This number came down every year until 2020, when Canada reached its goal of cutting the number of people living below the poverty line by 50%. However, a new report from the Auditor General of Canada states this was ‘mainly due to the emergency benefits the government temporarily provided because of the COVID-19 pandemic.' Thanks to inflation and the phasing out of these benefits, close to 4 million Canadians were once again living in poverty by 2023. According to the 2025 Hunger Count, put out by Food Banks Canada, the situation has deteriorated since then. In today's story, Angelica Raaen from the Cortes Food Bank described what poverty looks like on a remote island.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The recent Investigative Journalism Foundation exposé on lobbying, prior to Mark Carney's first budget, fits a familiar pattern. Industry logged hundreds of hours of consultation with government officials. By way of contrast, the environmental sector has little representation. They are not even mentioned in this report! What does this mean? Cortes Currents asked Jennifer Lash, who has been both the founder of a non-profit society and a senior government analyst, for her insight into why the system is important and how it works. Jennifer Lash: “The term lobby comes from the area around the House of Commons where the different parties gather when they're not actually in the House. That's where people used to go and meet with them to share their perspectives on things. They were meeting in the lobby, so these people became known as lobbyists. That's where the term comes from, and anyone is lobbying if they're meeting with an MP or a bureaucrat and advocating for something.” “If I was working for a not-for-profit organization and went to meet with the Minister of the Environment and was advocating for certain policies, I would be lobbying them. Quite often we use the term lobbyists to mean people who are paid to do this. Large lobbying firms specialize in government relations; they know all the people to meet with, and they often have relationships with people in government. Organizations and companies will hire these firms to help get access to people.” “It's a very common thing that's done. Anybody can hire a lobbyist. Not-for-profit organizations will hire lobby firms, and companies will hire lobby firms.” “Where it gets a little bit more controversial—and where people have concerns—is the fact that hiring lobbyists can be expensive. Usually the only entities that can afford to hire lobbyists are companies, such as oil and gas companies, where they have a lot of profit and there's a lot at stake financially. So they'll invest a lot of money in hiring a lobby firm to advocate for what they want, whereas not-for-profit organizations like climate advocacy groups don't have that budget and can't afford to hire lobby firms. They have less time and capacity to be able to advocate for what they want.” “Quite often it's interpreted that if the government has met with far more people from the oil and gas industry, they are going to reflect the position of the oil and gas industry. I'm just picking on the oil and gas industry in this example. It could be mining companies; it could be any companies that have more money. Quite often we'll see reports that say the government met with lobbyists from natural resource development companies far more than they met with environmental groups; therefore, they're leaning that way.” “That's, of course, very possible. Ultimately, it's up to the politicians and the bureaucrats to make the right decisions and to listen to the information and make the decisions that are right. In a perfect world, it wouldn't matter if you meet with one company 10 times and another organization one time; that shouldn't shift the weight of the decision. You should still be making the decision in the best interest of Canadians. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. Sometimes, if you have had more time with some groups over others, you will tend to lean in that direction. It gets a little bit more difficult.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -The Strathcona Regional District Board passed the Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw. Regional Director Mark Vonesch gave an overview of the process: “We're at the last stage of potentially passing the Cortes Island zoning bylaw. It's been almost a two year process of community consultation, both online and in person. It's gone to the advisory Planning Commission on Cortes, and it's gone through a public hearing at the beginning of September. We had 140 plus folks attend that hearing, which is amazing. The reason I deferred it a month was that you have 200 pages of comments on this, and I wanted to take the time to read them all and to really assess what people's challenges and also what they like about the bylaw before making my own personal recommendation.” “I think overall, people appreciate that there will be increased density allowed for the Cortes Housing Society on their Rainbow Ridge property.” “Again, not everyone's in complete agreement, but I'm really excited about that part of the housing needs on Cortes is increasing our nonprofit housing. I'm excited that they're moving forward with 24 units on part of their property. I think that's obviously doesn't cover every concern or every comment that everyone had, but it covers a lot of the bigger comments.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Mark Baker is once again acclaimed Chair and Mark Vonesch was selected as the new Vice Chair of the Strathcona Regional District Board. These offices are yearly appointments and were made at the board's inaugural meeting on Wednesday November 19, 2025.   This will be the fourth consecutive year that Mark Baker has been chosen Chair.   Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott and Regional Director Mark Vonesch ran for election as Vice Chair.  When neither candidate was able to obtain the necessary 8 votes after two rounds, they were asked to give a short speech.   Director Vonesch was first: “Thank you, this is fantastic: democracy in action. I think you've all seen the vigor and the passion that I brought to this board table , working for my community and working together to, to move the priorities of this board forward. That's something that I would bring to this leadership position. When I'm in meetings at UBCM, I'm speaking loudly and strongly for the needs of this entire district. I believe deeply in the power of government to have an impact on people's lives and the decisions that we make here are important. As the Vice Chair, I would be a candidate for all of you. I'd be a candidate for Campbell River. I'd be a candidate for Zeballos, Tahsis,Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k'tles7et'h' First Nations, Sayward and all the areas. Gold River, of course, Michael. I'm honored to be nominated and I appreciate you considering your support for me. I promise to hold this position with integrity and passion.” Director Sinnott stated,  “Thank you. So everyone knows I have been vice chair and it's not very often that you serve, but the most important event I felt very special about was what Director Rice did this year, which was represent the SRD at the Remembrance Day, which I think was a really nice thing to be able to do because our current chair is in his own community. The other thing is I can run a meeting very quickly and efficiently, I think, and make sure that we get through our business promptly and as well as represent the interests of the region as a whole because I'm very much into the regional approach.” This was followed by a third and once again inconclusive round of votes, after which they drew lots.  Thomas Yates, Senior Manager of Corporate Services, declared,  “Director Vonesch has been elected as Vice Chair.”  Chair Baker closed this segment of the board meeting:  “Well, congratulations to Director Vonesch. Thank you all again for electing me chair for the fourth year. I appreciate that very much. I will try to make you proud.”

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - On October 31st, the Cortes Climate Action Network (CCAN) hosted an EV forum at Manson's Hall, attracting over a dozen people. The event began with a prepared presentation about the carbon/energy profile of EVs vs internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, followed by general Q&A in which local owners of EVs answered questions about their cars, usage patterns, and overall experience. The last EV discussion and demo event to be held on Cortes was pre-Covid, on Earth Day in 2019. Since then the number of EVs on the island has grown considerably and many more brands and models are now available. E-bikes have become more common on our local roads than pedal-only bikes, and interest in “going electric” for our transportation needs seems to be growing.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Five years have passed since the provincial government's Old Growth Review panel published its report on BC's old growth forest management. Sierra Club BC recently commissioned two of the panel's three scientists to do a study on how their recommendations were carried out. In today's interview, Karen Price talks about their report ‘Closer to the Brink.' “We need to shift the paradigm because we all depend on the Earth and we need to start putting ecosystems and human communities ahead of industrial profits. To do that, we need to protect big tree forests. That's my bottom line. That means supporting nations in their planning and it means working towards protecting 30% of each ecosystem by 2030 and 50% by 2050,” she explained. The 30% by 2030 goal was adopted by the 188 nations that signed the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022. Canada was one of them. While the Kunming-Montreal Framework did not specifially endorse the 50% by 2050 goal, it does state we need to “substantially increasing the area of natural ecosystems” by 2050. One of the better known advocates of a 50% goal is the late Edward Osborne Wilson, a foundational figure in modern biology. Wilson stated the next big thing will be global biodiversity loss. “If we protect half the Earth's land and sea and manage sufficient habitat to safeguard the bulk of biodiversity, living Earth can continue to breathe.”  Karen Price: “The forests in BC play a really important role in both the climate and the biodiversity crises. People have probably heard about nature-based solutions. Our forests are some of the world's best options for nature-based solutions to both climate and biodiversity crises.” “Our trees in BC and particularly our big tree old growth are the best carbon bank that we have. Terrestrially, we need to be storing carbon and some of these ecosystems can store more than a thousand tons per hectare.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Monday November 17, 2025 - Prime Minister Mark Carney's government is expected to face another non-confidence motion today. This will be the third non-confidence motion this month, which the opposition parties have made in regard to the 2025 budget. In this morning's interview, Jennifer Lash, the liberal candidate for this riding during the last election, explains why the budget is good for North Island Powell River, and why it's good for climate action.   Jennifer Lash: “Budget 2025 can be looked at in two ways, and I'm going to use some economic language here. There's both the macro approach and there's the micro approach. So the macroeconomic approach is, what does it mean for Canada?A thriving economy within Canada benefits everybody in terms of just having a healthier economy and generating more tax revenue for the government - which can result in more social services.” “What the Prime Minister did with this budget is he really looked at how we can invest in major industries so that we can see the economic development we need to see in this country to make our economy stronger. A lot of that's through infrastructure, through capital investments, really trying to attract up to a trillion dollars of private investment so the economy at large across Canada is healthier. When our economy is stronger, we have more revenue for the social services that we all benefit from so many times. This, in general, will benefit North Island- Powell River, but there are some specific things that also develop that also benefit this area.” “There is support for the forestry industry, which was announced before the budget, but reconfirmed in the budget. Money to help companies that are dealing with tariffs: how can they diversify their markets? How can they get guaranteed loans so that they can help to retool their industry or their business so that they can adjust to new markets overseas.” “There's really an influx of cash into the forest industry to deal with these tariffs. It's really important to note that this riding is not a stranger to tariffs. “These tariffs that the country is talking about now, we have been dealing with for decades from the United States on the software lumber industry. So I find it refreshing, the government's finally really supporting us through that. I hope that it continues to get the priority attention it needs that the auto sector's getting, the steel sector's getting and aluminum sector's getting so forestry's really important.” “In terms of fisheries, there's also funding for the seafood industry to also look at new markets and that would apply to wild fisheries as well as the aquaculture industry. So that's shellfish, farmed fish, and also our amazing, wild seafood industry. And again, talking about tariffs, It's not just the US tariffs that are a problem. A lot of the seafood industry is really affected by tariffs from China right now. How can we support our industry through that?” 

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Tune in on November 14th, 2025, for a conversation that explores how queer and trans zine-making can become an act of joyful resistance and connection. Addye Susnick joins host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie to chat about their PhD dissertation and their deep dive into zine culture, uncovering radical histories, underground networks, and continuing power as a tool for community and dissent in a digital age. Together, the conversation weaves zines, trans joy, and creative defiance into a reflection on how small acts of creation can ripple outward into meaningful social change. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In 2025, the Province of British Columbia funded homeless counts in 20 communities. To virtually everyone's surprise, the numbers were down in eight communities. Campbell River, Powell River, Comox and Parksville/Qualicum were among them. Port Alberni and Sechelt/Gibsons were not. In this morning's broadcast, Cortes Currents looks into the reasons why, as well as some popular misconceptions and possible remedies about homelessness.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie / Folk U -Tune in on November 7th, 2025 for a special collaborative FolkU episode, featuring Howie Roman telling stories of his life and how he got to Cortes. This is a live recording from the Cortes Island Museum and Archives Society's latest Finding Home event, recorded in October 2025. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District will not use $28,000 of its gas tax funds to help the Cortes Island Food Bank. At their October 22, 2025 meeting, 7 of the 14 district directors voted against a motion to fund the food bank. Directors opposed to the motion were concerned about the potential impact that supporting a third party organization could have on future SRD applications for gas tax funding. As Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “  I'm not saying $28,000 is a dealbreaker. I don't honestly believe it is, but moving forward, I don't think we can take the same approach when the number is $200,000 or $500,000.” “If you're giving your gas tax money to third parties, are you saying you don't have any infrastructure need yourself?” Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, responded,  “One of the challenges on Cortes is that we don't have SRD capital projects to invest gas tax lending. So we do have to take these extra steps to be able to provide it through a third party.” “I spoke with one of the folks involved with the food bank today, and they said that over the last three years, usage has gone up by a hundred percent every year. That's a lot of seniors, folks that are on pensions and really limited incomes. One of the interesting things he mentioned was that there's a mental health component to this as well, and that when folks get access to good healthy food and have some stability around food security, that really impacts other parts their life, including reducing the likelihood to need medical support and other costs to government systems. This is a grant request for $28,000 to help them finish this.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The Quadra, Cortes, and Surge Narrows communities, as well as the Klahoose and We Wai Kai First Nations, have sent the BC Ministry of Health an application for funding to set up a Discovery Island Community Health Centre.  “It offers stability for practitioners. It offers leadership stability through a joint board and a hired executive director. It offers some economies of scale in terms of practitioners being shared and supplies being shared. It offers a shared medical record between the communities. Potentially, one of the things is using video conferencing as opposed to an in-person visit, if that's appropriate. It's community driven, it doesn't involve Victoria telling remote communities what works for them, because that generally doesn't work for them,” explained Bernice McGowan, a member of the planning committee for the proposed Health Centre.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On this Folk U, the students of the Cortes Island Academy took over the radio waves to answer this question: If you were to send a message in a bottle that drifts through time and space to another “time being”: another person, species, or world, what would it sound like? These short 3 minute podcasts were the result of a week-long intensive with guest artist Ruby Singh and each captures reflections on time, place, and more-than-human life. Working with field recordings, biosonification tools, and their own creative voices, these short audio message that carries meaning beyond words. Learn more and listen to these and other podcasts at CortesIslandAcademy.ca

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island Society has raised just over 70% of the $7.5 million it needs to purchase 261 acres of forest along Carrington Lagoon from Mosaic Forest Management. Society Chair Chris Dragseth says this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the community: “We're protecting some valuable properties from an ecological point of view and from a societal point of view. The youth of the community, both residents and from afar, have benefited immensely from the protection this land has had to date. It's got huge opportunities in the future from a continued educational perspective with the youth, but also from a research perspective.” So far, most of the campaign has taken place behind the scenes. Dragseth says they'll soon be reaching out to the wider Cortes community: “We have a little more than 70% of the target campaign number. There are a few balls in the air, but we're confident that we will be able to close this deal.” The society still needs to raise about $2 million in the next few weeks. “We have a deadline of November the 19th for the funding conditions to be removed, and then the final closing date is December the 19th.” If the full $7.5 million isn't raised by then, Dragseth says there may be some flexibility. Part of the total is meant to build an endowment, which could be finalized after purchase. Discussions with Mosaic would be needed if the purchade price is not raised. In the meantime, supporters can follow updates and make pledges online at corteschildrensforesttrust.org.

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents -On Tuesday, October 14th the Cortes Island Foundation invited island nonprofit and public service organisations to attend a Social Profit Forum hosted at Hollyhock. This all-day event was well attended and featured presentations by two representatives from “local economy” projects with successful track records: Tara Janzen from the Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economics and Andrew Greer from Purppl, a consulting group that advises clients who wish to establish “regenerative enterprises.” Ms Janzen gave a slide presentation describing the successful economic re-invigoration of a small Newfoundland island called Fogo. Mr Greer offered some tools for turning social profit goals into specific business plans and strategies, using examples from the Okanagan area. Attendees were invited to come up with ideas and concepts for place-specific economic development on Cortes Island, with the goal of providing living-wage jobs that would allow — among other things — local kids to grow up and remain in their home community instead of having to leave in search of gainful employment. The theme of the day was how to create a local economy that provides employment, investment, and income to benefit the community, rather than importing labour and goods and benefiting distant shareholders. The full event title was From Edge to Opportunity: Collective Pathways for Social Impact. It attracted representatives from almost all the islands's non profit societies and projects, including CCEDA, the Fire Department, FOCI, the Housing Society, the Cortes Food Coop, the Women's Centre, the Food Bank, and more. The crowd filled most of Olatunji Hall, one of Hollyhock's larger venues.

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents -The long-awaited Rainbow Ridge housing development has passed a milestone. The foundations of the first two homes are in place. Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Housing Society, gave Cortes Currents a tour of the site and spoke about the vision, challenges, and progress to date. Rainbow Ridge is rising in Mansons Landing, the most settled community on Cortes Island. The audio version of this story meanders more than usual. It begins inside the community building and ends at the freshly poured foundation of the first duplex. Along the way, the track is filled with construction noises: hammering, lumber being stacked, the warning beep of a backing vehicle, and occasional voices in the background. At times our own voices echo through the empty community building, while outside the steady crunch of footsteps on earth runs through segments. The recording also includes a series of questions and answers that are not repeated in this summary

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -The Cortes Forestry General Partnership held its public meeting on October 9th, 2025. In today's interview, Operations Manager Mark Lombard talks about leadership transitions, plans for selective logging, the Forest Stewardship Plan review, and other topics from the meeting. He also shares his personal opinion about how climate change is affecting our forest. “We try to have a public meeting every year and we cover whatever topics are relevant at that point. There's always the year in review, so what have we done in the last year since the last public meeting and what are we planning in the coming year,” explained Lombard. “In this case, we had the Forest Stewardship Plan Review, which the Forest and Range Practices Act states must be updated every five years. We had a draft to present to the public and there was a 60 day public comment period, and we wanted to have the public meeting during that time. While the document is really thorough and detailed, and it wasn't something that you could just put up in a PowerPoint slide, we had our registered professional Forester, Kate Roth there to answer questions and discuss the objectives and how it relates to how we operate in the community forest. That was the first and foremost part of the meeting.” Cortes Currents: What were the most significant events this past year?  Mark Lombard: “There's been some change in the leadership of the Community Forest Partnership.” “The Klahoose have had chief council elections and they came out of a period of uncertainty with the change in chiefs midterm. Kevin Peacey, who has been the chief in the past, is now on the board of the Community Forest again.” “We did an interview with Kevin. Bill Weaver is doing a mini documentary about the community forest for us.” “There were some changes on the co-op side. David Shipway has stepped in to replace Aaron Ellingson.” Cortes Currents: The United States slapped a new 10% tariff on top of the existing duties, which brings the combined total to 45%. Mark Lombard: “So the outlook isn't great for log markets. That's probably one of the bigger challenges as it relates to the upcoming year.” “We would like to do some logging. Our partners would really like to see some logging, and generate some opportunity for economic reconciliation and doing what we set out to do.” “We have to set up the log dump. A storm had broken maybe one or two of the anchor chains, so there will need to be some divers that go and set new anchor chains and bring in some boom sticks, set up a dumping ground and then bring a machine in to push logs off the truck.” “So there's a pretty big upfront overall cost that needs to be amortized over a reasonable amount of volume. We've never had to pay to set up the log boom fully. It isn't viable at today's below-average prices, though it might work once prices return to normal. We probably can't make it work for under 4,000-4,500 meters, and the goal is to log around 6,000 meters. It's going to be challenging to do that if prices don't come up.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U -Tune in on October 10th for a special episode of FolkU radio, where we listen to an episode of another talk show, Chatter That Matters, by Tony Chapman. This episode features a conversation with Zita Cobb about the story arch of her home in Newfoundland, Fogo Island. This is a discussion about tourism, circular economies, community, and rurality. Introduction by Manda Aufochs-Gillespie. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 3 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Shane Berg, BC's Chief Forester, has a message he is taking to trading partners around the world. On Thursday, October 2, 2025, he made a presentation to the Strathcona Regional District's Natural Resources Committee. In today's broadcast there are select clips from that presentation, including reactions from the committee. Also Bruce Ellingsen, one of the founding directors of the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative and a local thought leader on forestry matters, gave his opinion about the presentation and what he believes it lacks. Berg claims that the amount of old growth forests is increasing. According to Ellingsen what is not clear is that he is talking about the 80% of relatively small old growth trees growing in less productive areas, not the ‘big tree old growth' that the environmental community is concerned about.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U -On October 3 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Kate Maddigan, Bruen Black, Amy Robertson, and Genevieve Cruz, for a special group discussion on revenue diversification for rural non-profits. Tune in for talk of circular economies, transportation, a brainstorm on creative revenue solutions, and updates from the Cortes Natural Food Co-op, CCEDA, and the Cortes Housing Society. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 3 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Campbell River wants to take control of the Strathcona Regional District's Electoral Areas Planning Service away from rural directors. They are thinking of joining the service, which would cost Campbell River tax payers close to $500,000 a year for their resulting share of the assessments, and have asked other municipalities to do the same. This morning's story consists of interviews with the Regional Directors of Areas A, Cortes Island and C, who issued a joint press release against this on Wednesday, October 1. Mark Vonesch, Regional Director of Cortes Island, began,  “For folks that are learning about this, for the first time, I'll give some background information. The four electoral areas at the Strathcona Regional District. That's Cortes Island, that's Quadra and the Discovery Islands, the Seaward Valley area, which is area A and then area D south of Campbell River. We currently have a planning service that we all pay into. That's where all our land use decisions happen and currently the four of us are the votes on those decisions. Campbell River has the right to be able to join this planning service, but it means they have to pay for it.” “So right now, Campbell River is considering joining the electoral area planning service that would cost them $500,000 a year. That's $5 million over the next 10 years to be able to control land use planning decisions in the rural areas of the Strathcona Regional District.”  Gerald Whalley, Regional Director for Area A explained, “My concern is based on the fact that if Campbell River joined the electoral area planning service, they would have total control over all land use issues within the rural areas, within the electoral areas. That is because Campbell River has five votes, the other electoral areas only have four votes, so they could potentially outvote us on every issue.” Robyn Mawhinney, Regional director for Area C added, “This could mean that an application which has not received community support could be pushed through despite community feedback. It could potentially mean a building service could be implemented, costing residents not only increase tech, do tax dollars annually, but more and more fees for every stage of construction. It could really mean that the wishes of rural residents are not considered in land use planning decisions, and to me, that's unacceptable and why I am really so concerned with this proposal.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As of September 30th, 2025, Raincoast Networks serves the 347 remaining customers in what was once the Twincomm service area on Cortes Island. Mascon by Telus acquired Twincomm in 2022. “I come from Savary Island. We provide internet to those who have decided to live off grid and in remote communities and cannot be served well by other telecom providers, majors and things from space, explained Oliver Linsley, owner of Raincoast Networks “We've been doing this for eight years and we service areas from Howe Sound all the way to Cortes. It has been a wonderful adventure, mainly because I get to meet some fantastic people in places I didn't even know existed. We've helped communities up and down the coast, and that's where we got our pride from. It's not from a paycheck (laughs), I can tell you that, but it definitely is from the fact that I can go to someone's house and they have baked cookies for me. They're just super happy that we came in a boat and we've driven across a whole bunch of crazy oceans and we're at their house and we're going to fix it.” Cortes Currents: How did you get into Cortes Island? Oliver Linsley: “Into Cortes was a interesting situation. I have been dealing with major telecom companies since we started. In the beginning, it was a very positive situation where they were very interested in working with people like me as last mile providers, so they did not have to extend their networks out at a cost they did not like. Telecom likes density because it maximizes their investment. So they partnered up with me and we began working at these remote places. As COVID hit, the demand skyrocketed and the government came around and gave them monies, and we began competing with Major Telecom (Mascon by Telus).” “Major Telecom decided that they had gotten too far. They had purchased Twincommm from Mark Torrance on Twin Islands. After two years of owning that, it had served its purpose to them, and they no longer wanted the asset and the customers here on Cortes. They approached me and asked me if I wanted to take over the network. Over the course of about a year and, for various me reasons me saying 'no I don't think so,' in the end, I decided that Cortes was a wonderfully remote community with demand that I wanted to be a part of. So after a long, long period of negotiations, we ended up picking up Cortes, about 350 customers on the island and we just acquiring it as of today, I believe.” Cortes Currents: What are you offering? Oliver Linsley: “We basically offer the same service that Twincommm did. We are very community based. We are looking to pick up a tech here on island. We like to keep customer service, which is something very rare in rural places, as fast as possible. So if your system goes awry one day, perhaps we can actually get to you in one day or the next day as opposed to some of the situations where you get with other providers where they just don't have a presence in the community. We really pride ourselves. in being there to keep people online, because most of the time it's quite an easy fix.” “So we are offering fixed to wireless services that most people are already hooked up to are already operating. They're operating the same way as TwinComm built them the same way as Mascon was running them. We are going to optimize the network. Essentially it's very similar to what Twincomm was, but we'll be upgrading. Pricing should be the same. The speed should be faster.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -There have been speculations about Cortes Island becoming a municipality and at the September 17 SRD Board meeting staff was instructed to prepare a report about the process. In the unedited audio that follows Cortes Director Mark Vonesch makes the motion. Mayor Julie Colborne of Zeballos seconds it twice, to some laughter, and Campbell River Director Doug Chapman points out that Municipal Affairs will not consider applications from communities with a population under 500. (The population of Cortes Island is 1,100.) The audio begins with Chair Mark Baker speaking The motion was passed with no opposing votes.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - SRD staff will prepare a staff report identifying public lands on Quadra Island that may be available for affordable housing development. This is the second time that Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney of Area C brought forward a motion asking for a report and in both cases she was opposed by Directors from Campbell River and Area D. They successfully blocked it at the August 20th SRD Board meeting, but an amended motion passed on September 17 In the unedited audio of the meeting that follows, Campbell River Director Robert Kerr stated the Director of Area C should have filed a notice of motion, rather than making a motion from the floor. Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott claimed the report will not accomplish what Quadra wants and said they do things differently in Campbell River. Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney of Area C described her relationship with the  Discovery Islands Affordable Housing Society, a volunteer organization on Quadra Island. She is not being familiar with the way  Campbell River does housing projects, but the SRD has a regional housing service and it would be great if they could support an affordable housing project on Quadra Island. Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch supported the motion, reminding the board that we are in a housing crisis and there is more than one way to get housing projects done. The motion passed despite opposing votes from Campbell River DIrectors Chapman, Kerr and Sinnott, as well as Alternate Director Browne for Area D. SRD staff will be looking for public lands within a reasonable distance from the Village Centres of Heriot Bay and Quathiaski Cove.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The Cortes Island School Wetland Project is transforming part of the school field into a living classroom that blends ecology, culture, and community effort. In today's interview, we speak to Miranda Cross from Rewilding Water and Earth, the wetland restoration specialist, and biologist on the project Miranda Cross: “The Cortes Island School Wetland Project is a wetland restoration project funded through the ministry of Environment and Climate Readiness through the union of BC municipalities and a fund called Disaster Risk Reduction -Climate Adaptation Funding. This is a partnership project between the Strathcona Regional District, school district 72 and the Cortes Island School.” “My role is to design, build, and manage the project through all the phases. We built two wetlands in the back of the school field in July, and we've been working with the Friends of Cortes Island Society (FOCI), Klahoose First Nation, True Foundation's contract team (which is Laurier Mathieu heavy equipment operation) and the Strathcona Regional District have been involved in all phases of the project, as has obviously the school.” “What we're looking towards now is planting the wetlands with native plants and working with Klahoose First Nation.” 

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents =People from 93 nations will be calling upon their governments to Draw the Line - For People, for Peace, for the Planet - on Saturday, September 20. Demonstrations are planned in major cities across Europe, Asia, Latin America, the United States and Canada. More than 200 organizations, including 350Canada, the Council of Canadians and the Migrant Rights Network are participating. On Vancouver Island, there will be demonstrations in Victoria, Nanaimo, Campbell River, Courtenay and Duncan as well as the neighbouring communities of Denman Island, Salt Spring Island and Powell River. Former North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney will be among the Speakers for the event starting at 2 PM in Campbell River's Spirit Square. Some Quadra Islanders have stated they are participating. On Cortes Island, the Climate Action Network is urging people to catch the 11:55 AM ferry so they can ‘go join the folks in Campbell River.' Cortes Currents interviewed Murray Etty and Manda Vaughan, two members of the Campbell River Chapter of the Council of Canadians, who are organizing the Campbell River demonstration. Murray Etty: “We're uniting behind five main demands of the Federal Government, but also the provinces: put people over profits, fund our families and communities; refuse ongoing colonialism, uphold Indigenous sovereignty; stop blaming migrants, demand full immigration status for all; end the war machine, stand for justice and peace; and, for Mandy and me, the most important one of all is end the era of Fossil fuels Protect Mother Earth. ” Cortes Currents: What do you hope this demonstration will achieve?

Murray Etty: “ Thousands of people across this country are involved and I think it's going to really make an impression not only the Carney government, but provincial governments too. We've got to get into action here. The time for dithering and making excuses is over, but the people of Canada have got to step up and communicate to their governments.” We've gotta have a way more sending of emails, letters, phone calls, protest movements, and so on to let the governments know we mean business. It's time for a conversion to renewable energy.” Cortes Currents: What conversations have you had locally?

Murray Etty: “We've sent out a whole bunch of emails to organizations and individuals. Sue Moen just this morning said she sent more than 80 messages to people she knows. We've also put a notice in the Campbell River Mirror.”

Manda Vaughan: “We put out a request to Aaron Gunn (MP Noth Island-Powell River), he's otherwise engaged. The message went out to Anna Kindy (MLA, North Island) also, but we haven't heard of a positive reply from her yet.” “Earlier this year Elder College hosted a class on climate change (at North Island College in Campbell River). Surveys by the Guardian and other groups show that well over 60% of people globally are concerned but the majority don't feel they can broach the subject with their friends or neighbours.” “The fact is, people are concerned. We need to come out of our silos and realize others care too. What we are hoping with this rally is to encourage people to come out because climate affects all of us.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -What does the Comox Strathcona Waste Management Service update mean to Cortes residents? Rates will go up. You may be paying more if you have a project that requires a bin to remove a lot of waste, like from a construction site or a rennovation. There may be some money for the free store. There are actually 33 proposed actions, but at this point it is not clear how many will apply to us. Sarah Willie, Manager of Solid Waste Planning and Policy Development will be at this Friday's Mansons Public Market, September 19, to talk about it. Sarah Willie: “We're a service of the Regional District and our main goal is in waste diversion and also the management of that garbage and that recycling further along. We're managing the landfills, transfer stations, the depots across the service area. We operate the Cortes Depot and recycling and transfer station and we're also a big part of the Quadra upgrades that are coming up. We've got bins there right now and we've procured some land in order to build a recycling depot.” “We're in the middle of a 10-year update of our solid waste management plan. This plan is really big-picture thinking. How are we gonna achieve that diversion increase over the next 10 years? Are we gonna preserve our landfill space? And providing opportunities for people to have input into that process. “We're in step three now of a four-step process. We've been out to community a couple times over the past few years, getting from folks the goals of this process, introducing them to what we do for their community. Sometimes it's a little bit behind the curtain. Now we're at the point where we've got some strategies and some actions that have been informed by our public and technical advisory committee, as well as our board of directors. “So we've got 33 actions and eight strategies that we've grouped together and we're bringing them to the public. We'd like to hear their input and thoughts on whether we've hit the mark. So we've got a number of events across the whole region coming up. One specifically, we wanna make sure folks are aware of, and that's on Friday, September 19th. We'll be joining the Cortes Island Farmer's Market from noon till three. We'll have a tent set up there. Myself and my colleague Lindsay will be there to introduce the concepts to folks and to answer any questions. “We've also got a lot of online opportunities for engagement. Up until October 16th, you can go to www.cssw.ca/swmp — that stands for Solid Waste Management Plan — and complete our online survey for a chance to win a hundred dollars in groceries.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - On Monday, September 15th, 2025, Anna Kindy, the MLA for our riding, visited Cortes and Quadra Islands. Cortes Currents met up with her at the Cortes Medical Clinic and then we took a quick tour of the downtown Mansons Landing area. Cortes Currents: What's it like coming to Cortes Island? Anna Kindy: You forget how beautiful it is. Just taking the ferry over, my first thought was: it's beautiful. So you guys are lucky. Cortes Currents: You've been here before? Anna Kindy: Many years ago, when my husband had a small boat. I remember docking somewhere on Cortes. Cortes Currents: What brings you to Cortes? Anna Kindy: I'm taking my job seriously, and I'm trying to find out what communities need. We've done quite a bit of traveling over the summer—we just came back from Tahsis, went to Gold River, Port Hardy, Port McNeill, different areas. This was one of the areas I hadn't come to yet. Second, with my medical background, I wanted to find out how the services were on the two islands—or all the islands around. Cortes Currents: What did you find out about the medical service? Anna Kindy: It reaffirms my thinking: the community knows best what they need. Sometimes you drive ideas from communities. The health authorities need to listen because they already have a good product that can be made better. I'm seeing a lot of dedication—staff who've been there for years and love what they do. There's a real connection between staff. Like somebody mentioned, it's a multidisciplinary approach. There are no boundaries—they all help each other, which is fantastic. I also appreciate the welcome feeling. People picked me up from the ferry. They fed us. They're excited that we're here. Cortes Currents: Tell me about your visit to Quadra Anna Kindy:  We went to the clinic. Their facility is fantastic. They're wanting to plan for the future. All of BC has a lack of primary care access and they want to make sure that they have proper primary care access for long-term. They also have a multidisciplinary team. There's a nurse practitioner and they sometimes get other parts of medical services. Long-term, they're looking at an even better model where all of the islands are serviced by one community health centre with potential outreach. I think that's a sustainable way of doing things. Cortes Currents: Our tour of Mansons Landing happened more or less spontaneously. It began at the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing project, beside the Medical Clinic, where construction on the first duplex starts today. From there, it seemed only natural to walk over to the Village Commons. We looked at the stage, the food bank sea cans, the Nook, FOCI and Cortes Radio. Standing in the parking lot at Mansons Hall, I pointed out some of the surrounding businesses. When I came to the Cortes Natural Food Co-op, Ms. Kindy asked, “How is it a Co-op?” I suggested, “Why don't you ask them?” So we went inside. After that we walked up Beasley Road, past the Cortes Market, Skate Park, Fire Department and Museum to the Cortes Elementary School. When the tour was finished, I asked Ms. Kindy for her impressions.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -One of the speakers at the September 8 zoning bylaw meeting at Mansons Hall was Maureen Williams of Cortes Island's Climate Action Network. While she welcomed the decision to increase the number of lots at Rainbow Ridge up to a maximum of 35, Williams said the proposed zoning update does little to address affordability, environmental protection, or increase Cortes Island's sense of community. The three-minute speaking limit at the meeting left little room for her to expand on these points, so Cortes Currents spoke with her afterward.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Book #4 of Gumboots series, 'Gumboots In The Straights' is coming to Gorge Hall on Cortes Island on Saturday September 20. Six of this volume's authors are Cortes residents, who will be reading excerpts between 1:00-3:00. That's free. You can purchase food and drinks between 5:00 and 7:00 followed by dancing to Cortes Island's own ‘He Said; She Said.' Tickets for that are $25 and available at Marnie's bookstore and the Cortes Island Museum. In this morning's interview, we'll be talking to Jane Wilde, who came up with the idea for the Gumboots in the Straights series and she will also be giving us some short readings from the Cortes writers in this volume.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -In the past, Rural Directors have not always appreciated Campbell River ‘interference' in their affairs. An initiative coming out of the Strathcona Regional District's (SRD) Municipal Services Committee could result in a lot more interference from Campbell River and other municipalities. Planning is one of the most fundamental and strategic activities within the SRD. They would like to take control of the Electoral Areas Planning Service. Some of the municipal directors were already discussing the idea of joining the service for months, prior to it surfacing at the August SRD Board meeting. At that point Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch asked, “ I just have a question for folks that brought this forward. My understanding is municipalities already have a planning function. I'm just confused as to why you might want to join when you already have your own planning service. Looking at this report, it's looking at Campbell River paying half a million dollars for something that they already have and given tight budgets everywhere and being conservative with our tax dollars and responsible. I'm just curious as to the sort of reasoning behind it.” Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott replied,  “The region is important to Campbell River and we are an unfortunate region where we are so dominant that what happens in the region does impact us because we're paying a good amount of money for it. So it's a consideration we have to look at, but no determination at this point.” The matter was referred to the Municipal Services Committee. The following program consists of gleanings from the Municipal Services Committee Meeting of September 3, 2025.

This is the unedited audio from the September 8, 2025 Public Meeting about Cortes Island's zoning bylaw chaired by Regional Director Mark Vonesch. Annie Girdler, from the SRD's panning department gave an overiew of the proposed bylaw changes Cortes Island residents commented about: regulations preventing people from doing what they want on their property we need regulations to protect the community we need more Advisory Planing Committee meetings (There recently was one for zoning) people should get jobs and buy houses with their own money, not get hand-outs regulations & penalties pertaining to liveaboards support for the proposed zoning bylaws the need for more housing the need for more houses on large lots how the proposed bylaws do not help Cortes Island's climate resilience the need to protect landlords from abusive tenants Can Cortes Island's aquifers support more housing Cortes Island's Aquifer study (which was published last week) the water pollution problem in Hague Lake & how it was resolved by the Dillon Creek Restoration Project

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Cortes Island's aquifer health study has been released and in this morning's interviews we are speaking with Sylvia Barroso, of GW Solutions, the Senior Hydrologist who participated in this project, Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Island Housing Society and Mark Vonesch, Regional Director of Cortes Island.  First, there are two key questions at the top of many people's minds. Is there enough water in Cortes Island's aquifers to support further development? And why were some of the island's shallow wells not recharging during the recent drought?  Barroso's answers to both questions were complex. Aside from her reference to climate change and the fact conditions are going to get worse, you'll have to wait for her full answer to the question about our shallow wells. However one of her statements about the state of Cortes Island's aquifers is very illuminating:  “Our study showed that in general Cortes has abundant water sources and that at the current usage levels, we have not found that there's overuse. When we look at it from a water management approach, we did not find that any of the water management areas had greater than 5% of the available water being used. That suggests that there is room for growth, and it gives us an opportunity to strategically develop water sources and develop those in protected areas.”  Cortes Currents: The issue is much more complex and there are steps we should take to ensure the health of Cortes Island's water supply, but for that you have to listen to the long version.  

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Cortes Island will have a public meeting on its proposed Bylaw changes on Monday, Sept 8th, 5pm at Manson's Hall.  “This is a chance for folks to weigh in on the proposed draft. We're really looking at a ‘yes' or ‘no' decision on this zoning bylaw. There's almost two years of community consultation and input, and this is what staff have produced and the best, happy medium for what folks are asking for,” explained Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island. “The public hearing will be a chance for people to express their opinions and their thoughts. Those will get recorded and added to the public record. It's important that folks show up whether you're opposed to or in support of this new zoning bylaw. People who show up make the decisions, and this is an opportunity to have your voice heard. If you can't make the meeting, you can email planning@srd.ca and that will also be included in the public record.” Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Cortes Housing Society, added,  “The Housing Society took a number of positions that we were advocating for with the Regional District.” “The first thing we were advocating for is larger cottages and additional dwelling units on existing properties. There are lots of people on Cortes have a second or third cabin on their land, and they're out of compliance with the current zoning. That makes people uncertain in their living environments. If you're renting a cabin from somebody and that cabin is technically illegal, that creates insecurity. Many people on Cortes rely on that type of housing. “The Housing Society was encouraging what used to be called cottages in the zoning bylaw. They were only 60 square meters — about 500 square feet and really too small for a family to live in - as a second house on a property. We were encouraging for that to be bigger and the SRD has made that change. Now that secondary unit, the accessory dwelling unit (ADU), can be 110 square meters.” “The new density rules allow for multiple dwelling units on a single lot. Depending on the zoning type, more than one ADU is now permitted. That can provide passive income for island property owners, and also create additional rental units. These can't be subdivided or sold, so by nature they provide important rental housing. This proposed bylaw really addressed our concern about larger cottages and additional dwelling units on existing land. “I think the best opportunity for us to get more housing on Cortes is not to build up in the northern part if the island or to develop new sites, but to use properties that already have houses, driveways, electricity, septic, and wells — and enable them to add one or more additional homes. “The previous bylaw had a maximum of three dwellings per lot in the RR1 (Rural Residential 1) and R1 (Residential 1) zones, and they've removed that maximum. There's a new tiered system that allows up to five dwellings in R1 and RR1, and up to six dwellings in RU1 (Residential Urban 1), depending on lot size. Basically, this allows one or two additional houses on existing lots. “They didn't go as far as the Housing Society was thinking would be helpful, but they did go quite far in allowing additional houses on existing lots.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - From August 29 to September 14, the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery will host ‘How Do You Like the Underworld?—Kristen Scofield-Sweet's final large-scale exhibition.  “This is my retirement party swan song on the wall,” she began. “This is a body of work that's complete. One of the remarkable things about that is the artist doesn't usually get to see their work all hung together, obviously, unless they have a show. You're used to seeing a piece over the couch with the pillows or the throw at the back. To actually see them having a conversation with each other is really special.” “Every picture tells a story, so you can get all tangled up with how it got painted and why, how I work and yada, yada. In an exhibition like this, the work gets to speak for itself, and that's really profound.” Cortes Currents: How did you come up with the title? Kristen Scofield-Sweet: “It's just an image from walking down the road in my neighborhood, looking for something significant, clicking along, taking pictures. When I got back home and looked at them, it was like, ‘whoa!' The notion ‘How do you like the underworld?' just popped into my head, and so there it is.” Cortes Currents: I have to ask, how do you like the Underworld? Kristen Scofield-Sweet: “I think we live there.” Cortes Currents: What is the Underworld?

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Food Bank was one of the nation's first food banks to receive Standards of Excellence accreditation from Food Banks Canada. The Associations President Beatrix Baxter, explained, “Filipe Figueira, our Executive represented us at the Food Banks Canada Conference in Montreal. During the event, Food Banks Canada honoured food banks across the country that have met their rigorous Standards of Excellence. We are proud to share that Filipe was among a handful of leaders recognized. Achieving this standard takes a tremendous amount of work—especially since so many food banks, like ours, are largely volunteer-run. Few organizations have the capacity to dedicate the hundreds of hours required, which makes this recognition even more meaningful.” Over the years, Food Banks Canada has found that food banks have been pretty uneven in the types of services they offer, and their values. Baxter stressed the fact that the number of Canadians struggling with hunger is increasing. “ It's a bad situation for many Canadians who are struggling to make the decision of whether they are going to afford rent, or food? Are they going to be able to offer their children one meal a day, or no meals?” There is no government program to address this. The Standard of Excellence Program has three main goals: Raising everyone's service quality, so food banks across Canada have the same ethics, transparency and level of financial accountability. Improving transportation systems so that, for example, locally grown food can be shipped from the east, where it is plentiful, to areas like BC, which is really behind the rest of the nation agriculturally. ( “We are producing a shockingly low amount of food for the amount of farmland that's been cleared.”) Submitting all of the data into one system, so that Food Banks, Canada can go to government officials every month and say, ‘look, our numbers are going up. We don't have enough food. We don't have enough money. We need the support. We are offering frontline emergency support to Canadians. You need to deal with this.' Operations Manager Angelica Raaen said that in October, Food Banks Canada will be sending two inspectors to inspect the Cortes Island facility, ensuring they continue to meet and maintain these high standards. “ Locally we've seen donations have been going down so much, while need has been rising,” said Baxter. “We don't understand why this is happening because there's such wealth in this community. It is heartbreaking, honestly, to see this happening. We really want to understand why people are feeling less generous. Ultimately we're really hoping that if we prove ourselves to be of a high ethical standard, providing a high client care service, people will entrust us with their donations and their support”