Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Nature Trust of British Columbia wants to purchase 35.7 acres in the Mansons Bay Forest for a land conservancy. They have already raised about half of the necessary funding and have until December 31 to rise the remaining $408,000.  “One of the landowners has come forward, and they're interested in selling the land for conservation. They've never developed the lan...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The faint stench of rotting salmon greets visitor’s nostrils just beyond the Squirrel Cove Store. Further down the rocky beach, at the mouth of Basil Creek, clouds of seagulls feasted upon the corpses. A few of the dead Chum Salmon were reduced to skeletons, but most have been left to rot. The only body part missing is their eyes, a delicacy among sea gulls. Nothing h...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Current - There were a number of next steps connected to last summer’s Cortes/Quadra Transportation survey. Kate Maddigan, Economic Development Officer of The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) explained, “I haven’t publicly said the final report is complete because I really wanted to put some attention into just making it shorter, like a briefing on that...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - According to the United Nations, global diversity loss is one of the world’s most pressing emergencies. “Intense human activities, such as land-use change, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and the introduction of invasive species, is causing an extinction acceleration that is at least tens to hundreds of times faster than the natural process of extinctions....

CKTZ/Cortes Currents - Two live theatre productions are coming to Mansons Hall this weekend Cortes Radio sent over five audio tracks. A lot of Cortes residents are going to recognize the voices of the two people who conducted the interviews that follow but as they chose to not introduce themselves, they are labelled CKTZ in the written version of this story. This is their show and it starts with t...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Part of Tiber Bay may soon be included in the Southern Cortes Protection Area. This matter was brought up at the Wednesday, November 6, Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC) meeting, where a motion to recommend it with no dissenting votes. Regional Director Mark Vonesch remarked, “This is great to see happening. I know it's been a lot of years in the works and cer...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Are Cortes property owners paying more taxes because their assessments went up? The topic came up at the Wednesday November 7, Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC) meeting. Mike Harmston, Chief Financial Officer for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), wanted to correct three widely believed myths. “The first one is the assessment increase automatically trans...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - In previous years, bits of Quadra and Cortes Island data have been incorporated in Campbell River’s Vital Signs Reports. This is the first year that both islands are collecting their own data. Cortes has already published its 2024 Vital Signs Report. The Quadra Island Foundation is about to start accumulating the baseline data that will enable it to produce a report f...

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On Friday, November 1, host Manda Aufochs Gillespie was joined by Rebecca Kirstein Resch, to chat about magic mushrooms, chronic pain, and healing. Tune in for a discussion about the power of psychedelics. 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 r...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) has partnered with several local sports to build a multi-use sport court beside the Cortes Island Skate Park. The proposed facility would consist of two courts on a 60 foot by 60 feet concrete or asphalt square. It could be used for pickleball, basketball, volleyball, badminton and tennis. According to Cora Moret, Execu...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) will be meeting with the Cortes Housing Society to discuss the possibility of making a short term loan to help bring power, water and sewage to some lots in the Rainbow Ridge affordbale housing project. While the SRD created a Housing Service earlier this year, it has yet to requiistion any funds and the request prompted some disc...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - In 2020, the Strathcona Regional Regional District SRD entered into a core funding agreement with the Southern Cortes Community Association  (SCCA) and Whaletown Community Club to support Mansons and Gorge Halls. Up to $80,000 a year could be used from Cortes Island’s property taxes. This agreement is due to expire on March 31, 2025. Staff is proposing that the new ag...

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - In September of this year, Currents reported on a proposal from Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ [pronounced Lee-gweeth-dowkh] Nations (We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum and Kwiakah) for the formal renaming of various locations in the greater Campbell River/rapids area. The new names would be drawn from First Nations language and tradition. Three of these place-names are local to the city of Campbell...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The cell phone reception in Village Bay Lake is sketchy.  Up until this summer, the little Quadra Island community’s only reliable telephone access was a pay phone in the Village Bay Lake parking area. Then TELUS removed it.  When Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney raised this issue at the recent SRD Board meeting, it turned out she was not the only Director dealing wi...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There are more Chum swimming up Basil Creek than we’ve seen for years. According to Matthew Clarke of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Cortes Island isn’t the only place where the Chum run is good this year.  “As a general rule this year things are looking much better for Chum than they have looked, albeit with a couple of places that are not quite as strong as we would h...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There has been a colourful addition to the Tyee Mall. The four brightly coloured boxcar-like units are a remembrance of Campbell River’s old logging railroads. They are also part of an innovative project designed to have cottage industries make the transition to brick and mortar stores. The Rail Yard Market has been open for about 3 months. "The project is fantastic....

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On Friday, October 25, host Manda Aufochs Gillespie was joined by musician Ruby Singh and musician and principal of the Cortes School Michael Datura, to chat about biosonification, technology, and their collaborative projects kraKIN and Polyphonic Garden. Tune in for music, philosophy, and lively discussion. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1...

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - The conclusion of an interview with Gabriel Dinim about his experiences building and driving an

De Clarke/Cortes Currents -In 2019 and 2020, Cortes Currents ran a series of articles about e-bikes on the island, interviewing owners about the pros and cons of their electric-assisted rides. One of the featured bikes was quite unusual: an electric sidecar cargo trike, designed and built by local resident Gabriel Dinim. It’s now four years later, and Currents checked in with Gabriel about his DIY...

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - Part two of an interview with Gabriel Dinim about his DIY e Trike

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Chum started returning to Basil Creek a week ago. To an inexperienced eye, the water levels seemed too low on the 16th, but dozens of large salmon were progressing upstream beyond the culvert. Christine Robinson said that she and her husband Cec had seen them the previous day. That was when we agreed to do this interview.  “We know it's the big year in their four...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Community Foundation just published Cortes Island’s Vital Signs report.   “ When I started with the Community Foundation a few years ago, I  was already in the community, trying to make things happen. In particular, I tried to make things happen in the most grassroots  small nonprofit ways possible, but often in the area where I saw that there was a...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A day before the election 338Canada is predicting a slight NDP majority. 338Canada is a campaign website that uses available polling data, each riding’s history, and population data etc. It predicts the outcome of the election for every riding and has been used in 13 elections. They have been right close to 90% of the time. They were wrong, but still within the margin...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There has been a lot going on at the Cortes Community Housing Society. They are starting to provide housing for the community, are supporting changes to the island’s bylaws and are acting as a matchmaker for potential renters and landlords. However the first story I want to cover this morning is about the aquifer study that is about to begin.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Community Foundation is helping to review Grant-in Applications again. As in the past, the Strathcona Regional District Board will be dispersing a pool of approximately $25,000 to Cortes Island Social Profits. The average grant award is in the range of $1000 – $5000 and will be dispersed by end of 2024. This year’s Grant-in-Aid funding will prioritiz...