Cortes Currents

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Students at Cortes Island Academy recently welcomed Nelson and Xochitl of Nomadic AlterNatives, an artist collective dedicated to curating public art and collaborating with artists, scholars, and storytellers. Through murals, music, and interactive technology, their work beautifies public spaces while amplifying underrepresented voices. As guest facilitators, Nels...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - After a long heated debate, the SRD Board approved a Grant in Aid so that a non profit, wanting to build affordable housing in Quathiaski Cove, could hire a consultant to do the pre assessment work needed. This is not the request Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney brought to the Board. The Discovery Islands Affordable Housing Society already has the land. At the Wedne...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Have you ever wanted to find specific statistics about a community? Not just the population, but also details like the employment rate, number of police calls, or how welcome visitors are. RIEP's Community Economic Dashboard attempts to put all of the relevant data in one place.  Statistics for Cortes, Quadra, and Campbell River are currently being uploaded. Jennifer...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The last meeting of the outgoing SRD board was on Wednesday, October 28, 2026. Directors Mark Baker of Sayward, Doug Chapman of Campbell River, Julie Colburn of Zeballos, Martin Davis of Tahsis, Ron Kerr of Campbell River, and Michael Lott of Gold River will not be returning this next term. A spontaneous thank you session broke out when the board was considering new...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - After close to two years of arguments, which have reached the point where lawyers are now involved, the Strathcona Regional District Board is not going to force Quadra Island residents to pay for Campbell River's Recreate Strathcona Gardens facility, at least not at the moment. The vote was 8 to 6 against the proposed bylaw. The SRD board's Oct 28, 2026 meeting start...

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Campbell River-based Wilderness International Canada recently purchased 1,250 acres of forest on Read Island.  Tobias Huerten (Managing Director, Wilderness International Canada):
“We’re really involving the local community in this because we, as an organization, are based in Campbell River - not on Read Island. The people living there are the caretakers of that fores...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Chris Hatch, who writes the column Zero Carbon for Canada's National Observer, lives here on Cortes Island. He is periodical's former executive editor, has been a key figure in the environmental community for decades, and is the former Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network.  Thanks to some generous donors, you can receive Zero Carbon as a free Sunday e-mail...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Normally when a politician describes some of their party's problems, they tend to deflect or make excuses. That is not what happened when Cortes Currents asked NDP candidate Sara Lopez for an update on her campaign. She seems to revel in the difficult conversations and seeking solutions, but also had some criticisms of Anna Kindy's performance as an MLA.   Cortes Cur...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Hollyhock hired an Indigenous woman named Ńíkiki to take pictures of the recent Social Venture Institute. She photographed people at the sessions, the oyster bake and the closing dance party. One day Ńíkiki came as a speaker. Some people may find parts of the interview that follows disturbing. In particular, there have been repeated allegations that colonial auth...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Green Party candidate Benjamin Olsson kicked off a three-day tour of rural areas in North Island riding, by visiting Mansons Landing on Friday October 16. He did a quick visit to the downtown Mansons area, from Marnie's Books to Rainbow Ridge, and finally met with a group of local residents the Pioneer Room of in Mansons Hall. Cortes Currents: Why should people in Co...

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - Best selling author Catherine Bell led a Workshop Breakout called 'The Enneagram as a Leadership and Cultural Roadmap' at the 2016 Social Venture Institute Hollyhock. She is the founder of the Awakened Company, which helps organizations create healthy corporate cultures through awakening the self, relationships, and team dynamics. Her first book, 'The Awakened Compa...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - One of the case studies at the recent Social Venture Institute Hollyhock was a Vancouver based firm called GetGranted AI, which helps small and medium sized businesses securegrants. They developed their own AI technology and, for a higher fee, also offer the additional insight and guidence provided by human advisors. According to Stephanie Sang, the founder and CEO o...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - SHARE Family & Community Services originated as a clothing exchange in someone's basement. Over the years they added a drop-in for men and women, a Mother’s Club, a crisis line, a recycling program, and food and toys for those in need. in 1990, SHARE established its sister organization, 43 Housing, which now operates 388 units of affordable housing across six locatio...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Island - Benjamin Olson, a social worker from Campbell River, is the Green Party candidate for North Island Benjamin Olsson: "The voters of North Island deserve and should have the right to choose another party and have another choice in this coming election. I really feel that we don't need a two-party system like the US does, and that we need to have another option. "I have t...

Unedited audio fOct 10 All candidate's meeting Cortes Island

De Clarke / Cortes Currents - On October 17th, Cortes residents will be deciding whether to re-elect incumbent Regional Director Mark Vonesch, or to vote for one of two challengers, Sandy Keith and Jade Jordan [we are currently unable to find a campaign web site for either of the other candidates]. On Saturday October 10th, CKTZ sponsored an all-candidates’ forum at Mansons Hall, at which candidat...

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - Theresa Rowsell was one of the many participants at Social Venture Institute Hollyhock. She originally came seeking direction and returned this year as one of the co-founders of a Vancouver-based nonprofit with a great deal of insight to offer. She was also feeling vulnerable, having recently lost two loved ones, but found some healing too. Theresa Roswell: "I hope...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Sara Lopez is the NDP candidate for our riding. A lot of people may have heard of her stand against the City of Campbell River when she was Executive Director of the Campbell River Art Gallery in 2023, but few know that she comes from a political background. Her father, Ricardo Lopez, was the MP for Chaudière, Québec, from 1984 to 1993. Sara Lopez: He was an MP under...

Laurel Dault: The Culture of Problem Solving at SVI by Cortes Currents (https://cortescurrents.ca/)

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - The radio version of this story opens with Brenda Hanson and Tiffany Moses leading the singing at one of the sessions of Social Venture Institute Hollyhock. Brenda is a well known singer from the Klahoose village, but Tiffany also has several connections to Cortes Island. Tiffany Moses: My original connection with Cortes was through Mark Vonesch and Reel Youth. I ha...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - As the second week of the 2026 local election campaign drew to a close, Mark Vonesch talked about his bid for re-election as Regional Director of Cortes Island. He has put up his first signs, is receiving encouragement from the community and wanted to discuss some of the specific issues. Mark Vonesch: “We’re now well into the campaign. Since we last talked, a provinc...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Shilpa Jain at SVI: The Language of Play Shilpa Jain was the lead facilitator at Social Venture Institute 2026 at Hollyhock, Sept 23-27. She greeted everyone at the opening ceremony, for the morning grounding before sessions began and at various times during the day. This was often in conjunction with a song or game.  As she usually seems so bubbly and full of joy, I...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Social Venture Institute Hollyhock took place on Cortes Island last week. 115 entrepreneurs, representatives of social-purpose organizations and other interested participants from across North America and as far away as Germany, converged on the remote island retreat centre. The energy was electric. Speaking as someone who has lived on Cortes for 16 years, I had no i...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In this morning's interview, Mark Vonesch talks about the challenges, challenges and lessons during his first term as Regional Director of Cortes Island. There was only enough time to briefly touch upon his hopes for the future, if reelected on October 17, which means a second interview will soon follow.  Mark Vonesch: “We’ve got three people running for regional dir...

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents: About 200 Campbell River residents turned out to the ‘Rally for Our Community’ outside of city hall at 5 PM on Thursday, September 24, 2026. City council met an hour later. With an election a little more than three weeks away, they suddenly pivoted and announced that staff is looking into the possibility of 'saving' Simms Creek. The crowd had five concerns: Stopping W...