Cortes Currents

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On February 28, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Carrie Saxifrage, Jane Newman, and Karen McDiarmid, to chat about cold swimming. Are you curious about what cold water swimming could do for you? In this episode, we dive into the icy depths to explore the stories, benefits, challenges, and the sheer exhilaration of taking the plunge. Folk U Radio is...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) Virtual Forum is coming up Thursday and Friday, March 6th and 7th.  Two of the organizers, Francine Carlin and Kate Maddigan are my guests today. “ It's going to be a jam packed two half days, 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM.  Our virtual events are really unique because we all live on islands or coastal remote communities and do...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - After trailing far behind in the polls for the better part of two years, the Liberal party’s propects appear to be on the rise nationally, and the gap between the Conservatives and NDP is narrowing in our riding. Canada’s two leading political forecasting websites, 338Canada and CBC’s poll tracker, still show the Conservatives in the front, but no longer predict a Con...

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Roy L Hales/Cortes Island - NDP candidate Tanille Johnson recently visited Cortes Island, where 20 people were waiting to see her in the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall. The event was sponsored by Cortes Island’s Climate Action Network, which also provided lunch.  Johnson said she prefers small meetings like this,  “I've been spending most of my time going to people's houses, meeting with their frien...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - 21 people attended the Premier of the feature documentary Yintah at the Campbell River Community Center on February 20th, 2025. The movie is sponsored by the North Island Powell River (NIPR) Federal Green Party Riding Association and follows the Wet'suwet'en land defenders 10 years struggle to keep gas companies from building a pipeline through their territory. Cortes...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - While most of the Strathcona Regional District’s costs can be directly allocated to specific areas, others are labelled administration costs and need to be shared among the 10 communities. At their February 19 meeting the SRD Board discussed ways to make a more fair allocation of this expense.  Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “ To put this in pers...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A quick question just came up in regard to Cortes Island’s ongoing Zoning Bylaw Review. Cortes Island residents have up until noon on Friday, March 7, to make their thoughts known on possible limits to house sizes known.   “Do we want to put a limit on the maximum house size on Cortes?  It's a basic yes or no question.” asked Regional Director Mark Vonesch.    “If you...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On February 21, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by De Clarke for a deep dive into neoliberalism—its history, impact, and the debates surrounding its influence on economics, politics, and society. How do current trends in US and Canadian politics affect us on Cortes? Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Brian Kingzett, the Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, recently informed the city of Campbell River that:  “ We have seen a weaponization of science where industry and government have their science, industry science is always put into conflict. Then we see activist science, which is largely coming out of urban areas  being weaponized against us....

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - It is only two weeks until President Donald Trump decides whether to impose 25% tarrifs on Canada and Mexico. There is some question whether he will follow through. Trump was initially going to impose the tarrifs on February 4, but the previous day Wall Street's three main indices fell sharply over concerns about the global economy. The stock market recovered that aft...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by three beloved Cortes couples to chat about all things love. We heard their meeting stories, their advice, and we chatted about commitment, long-term love, challenges, and joyful moments. Tune in for a moving celebration of island romance and connection. Folk U Radio is taking old sch...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Frank Mottl’s latest novel, Cumberland Gold, takes us to the quaint village of Cumberland BC. This is the same setting as his first novel,  The Cumberland Tales, in which Mottl described the community he knew in the 1960s. Only now he is writing about the late 19th century, when Lord Dunsmuir (1825-89) was attempting to recruit Chinese immigrants to work in his coal m...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -According to some estimates, BC would have to double its electrical output if everyone switched to electric vehicles by 2035. Others talk about blackouts and rolling brownouts if we don’t back renewables up with LNG or nuclear power. Clean Energy Canada has just released a report that claims this is not true, the province’s electricity grid can handle the increased dem...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - After years of anticipation,  construction has finally begun on the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project in downtown Mansons Landing. “We had an open house a couple of weeks ago, and we had a lot of back and forth with the seniors village next door. We made some considerable changes to our plans based on their input. Then Monday, we started clearing the land in pr...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The energy team of Ecotrust Canada will be visiting Quadra and Cortes Islands next week. They are part of a registered charity which works primarily works in rural and remote areas and helps guide people through the process of doing energy retrofits, installing heat pumps, new windows and solar panels. They will be giving free workshops at 2:00 and 6:30 in the Quadra...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - If there were an election today, the polls show that Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party would probably form the next government. This isn’t what is necessarily going to happen. I like to think of polls as ‘point in time’ snapshots which may be 100% accurate right now, but the situation can be very different tomorrow.  One of the trends I have noticed on 338Canada,...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - On February 7, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Elizabeth Burr to chat about concussions, brain health, and nervous system regulation. This discussion shed light on the hidden impacts of brain injuries, healing resources, and the path to recovery. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) may have a nasty surprise for property owners in Campbell River and Area D. They may soon be asked to approve an additional $54 million debt to finance the second phase of the new REC-REATE Strathcona Gardens project. When they originally consented through an Alternative Approval Process (which automatically passes unless 10% of...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Around the time President Donald Trump started threatening to start a trade war, Cortes Currents reached out to Dr Kushank Bajaj from UBC’s Institute for Resource, Environment and Sustainability and Marc Doll, from Foot Forward Forest Farm on Quadra Island.  The topic was food security and Dr Bajaj is one of the developers of a website called Canada Food Flows, which...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - On January 30th, Kate Maddigan, Rose Fitcyk, and Sadhu Aufochs Johnston joined host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie, to talk about the state of Cortes Island, the recent Vital Signs survey, CHS’ Rainbow Ridge housing project, and the stories and data of “now”. This is an important community update! Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Cortes Island’s dream of having a makerspace has become a reality. The Cortes Wood Makerspace is being set up in the Orchard Village Shop, 671 Sutil Point Rd, Mansons Landing. “This idea has been around for a long time. I have heard people talking about it for at least 15 years and some old timers apparently remember even longer. We have lots of people who are woodwor...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Anna Kindy was sitting in her Campbell River office. Her assistant stood almost out of the frame long enough to wave, before handing Kindy a headset and disappearing. The thing I find refreshing about Kindy is she doesn’t sound like a politician, which is understandable because she only recently became one. She and her husband are both doctors. Anna Kindy was elected...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There is a community meal somewhere on Cortes Island every week.  “A warm bowl of soup, or a stew, that’s at the heart of it. Then there's always some sort of fresh veggies or a fresh veggie platter cut up.  Folks are getting that kind of food in them.  Then bread and butter, because that's just the  basics for everybody and usually a dessert, some sort of cookies or...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Close to 50 people turned up at Mansons Hall on January 24, for an update on the construction coming or already underway in the downtown Mansons area. The Cortes Housing Society, Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA), Cortes Island Community Foundation and Cortes Island Pickleball Society were on hand to describe what’s taking place at Rainbow Ridge, the multip...