Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Eric Denis grew up in Quebec and is the technical operator of machines at Island Sea Farms. Melissa Steblyk comes from Alberta, is a substitute teacher at the Cortes Island School, and also manages the Gorge Marina. Last May, they launched a moped rental business called Cortes Cruiser in the Gorge.

It didn’t start out that way.

Melissa Steblyk: “Eric’s got three kids, and his oldest is almost 16. We were thinking a scooter would be a great option for him when he gets his license.”

Eric Denis: “In March, we bought that first bike. It was one of those Yamaha BWS—just a little bit of a beater. It was for my kids, so it was like, ‘We’ll fix it up.’”

The Vision for Cortes Cruiser

Melissa Steblyk: “We bought one, and then we were like, ‘Why don’t we buy another one? Maybe we could rent them out.’ People are constantly asking, ‘How do we get around the island? We want to see Cortes. We want to experience this.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what you can do. You can hitchhike, if you’d like.’ Then the idea dawned on us. We’re at the Gorge—we have a setup here. I work at the marina, I can promote it through word of mouth right there, and we can really see it going somewhere.”

Cortes Currents: They approached Marco Bedetti, manager of The Gorge Harbour Marina, with the idea of renting out their mopeds at the resort.

Eric Denis: “Marco’s a good friend. I’ve known Marco since I moved here, when he was working under Bill Dougan and Tammy Allwork back in the day. I worked at Island Sea Farms as well. I’m a liveaboard—I've been living here at the Gorge for the winters. I’m out of the dock for the summer, but I come back for the winter.”

Melissa Steblyk: “I’ve been working at the Gorge. I’ve been at the marina for the last two years—this is going to be my third year. I have a good working relationship and friendship with Marco, and I understand the need people have, especially coming in on a boat.

“He said, ‘Okay, if you guys want to do this, you need to come up with a business plan. You have to sell me on this a little bit if we’re going to bring you into it.’”

Eric Denis: “For people who come by boat, it gives them a good opportunity to visit the rest of the island.”

Melissa Steblyk: “Go to Squirrel Cove, check out the food truck there. Drive over to Manson’s, enjoy the beach, check out the lake, and then go to the co-op—Bertha’s—and have a snack. And maybe take that down to Smelt Bay. Those are the main things we recommend.”

Eric Denis: “So we came up with a good plan, and he set me up really well at the Gorge.”

Melissa Steblyk: “I’m not saying we’re tied to the Gorge—we’re still a separate entity—but we’re located here.”

Getting Started

Cortes Currents: They decided to purchase five mopeds.

Eric Denis: “We started researching, and we went for some 49cc automatic Honda Ruckus scooters. They’ve got Honda reliability.”

Melissa Steblyk: “We wanted something that still looked great, ran well, and we knew it could handle the island.”

Eric Denis: “We set up a trailer close by the Gorge staff area. I have the five bikes over there and a little bit of a shop so I can maintain them.”

Cortes Currents: When did you rent the first moped out?

Eric Denis: “The May long weekend during Seafest. A couple from Campbell River came by jet ski, wanted to do some house hunting. They just went, ‘Oh, this is easy.’ Then they went on a cruise for a couple of hours.”

Melissa Steblyk: “We hadn’t even posted yet—we were still trying to figure out how they found us. They might have just been walking by. We didn’t have everything fully organized, but we were close enough. They saw us, and that was our first rental.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -  At their May 27 meeting, the Strathcona Regional District Board approved a motion to provide the Cortes Island Food Bank with close to $24,000 for its new outlet in Manson’s Landing.

Mark Vonesh (Regional Director, Cortes Island): “I’d like to move that a financial contribution of up to $23,425 be approved from the Electoral Area B Community Works Fund to the Cortes Island Food Bank Association to support construction of a food security hub, subject to finalizing a funding agreement between the association and the regional district.”

The minutes state that Michael Lott of Gold River seconded the motion, but the voice in the audio sounds more like Robin Mawhinney, Regional Director for Area C.

Mark Baker (Chair of the SRD): “Discussion? All in favor. Motion is passed.”

The money comes from federal gas tax revenues, which in BC are administered by the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM). A similar motion was turned down on October 2, 2025, because the funds would go to a third party.

As Chief Administrative Officer David Leach explained at that time:
“The challenge is, again, these are UBCM resolutions. It’s not an SRD asset. So is this a priority within the regional districts? Do you have any other regional deficiencies that you could use this money for yourself? That’s the challenge. It qualifies, but it’s to a third party.”

Some directors were concerned that granting money to a third party could be interpreted as meaning the SRD did not have any applicable projects of its own.

The Union of BC Municipalities later advised the SRD that funding for the Cortes Island Food Bank be eligible as cultural infrastructure if it was included in board-approved planning documents. This interpretation is based on the precedent set by communities using gas tax funds to enhance community centers that host programs such as emergency shelters and food services, thereby contributing to food security outcomes. SRD staff responded by incorporating the project into their 2026 to 2031 financial plan.

Beatrix Baxter, president of the Cortes Island Food Bank, emailed, "We were thrilled to get the news that our funding request was approved. This was funding we were hoping to get last year as we faced the loss of our former food storage location and needed to make emergency renovations to the shipping containers at the Village Commons. Unfortunately, due to questions about whether a nonprofit can count as a beneficiary of that particular infrastructure funding, we weren't able to access that funding last year. We're so grateful to our regional director and to the SRD board, C-CAO and CFO for their work in negotiating an effective strategy so those funds are available to, so those funds are available to us this year."

"We hope other nonprofits on the island will work with the regional director to use this strategy to fund future projects. We're continuing to work on the shipping containers, adding a roof between the structures and improving accessibility. We're excited to show the public everything that we've been working on at our open house later this summer. It's been a huge effort, and we couldn't have done it without the support of the SRD, our regional director, Food Banks Canada, and our amazing local donors who consistently show up to support our work. The need in our community is growing, and we're very glad to be working on eradicating hunger with the support of our local government."

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - On May 3rd, Sarah Rosen from the Strathcona Regional District came to the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall to talk about emergency preparedness… and there were about eight people in the room. As Sarah herself said, the biggest emergency preparedness risk on the island might just be that so few of us are thinking about it.

[I’ll admit that I’ve been procrastinating — not getting around to producing this story — and it might be because the subject is a little uncomfortable when you know that you yourself are not prepared. But avoidance and procrastination are exactly the problems that Sarah came to address, and she says being prepared might not be as daunting as you think.]

Sarah Rosen speaks at the Pioneer Room, May 3rd 2026 — photo by Roy Hales

With just three questions: should I stay, should I go, how do I know? I’m gonna walk you through how you could prepare for everything.

Three Essential Questions

In the first week of my job, I was given an amazing insight by one of my former coworkers, the basis of these three questions: Should I stay? Should I go? How do I know? And what I learned from her is that basically there’s only two types of disaster and emergency in terms of how you actually wanna prepare for them: situations where you need to stay put or shelter in place, and then situations where you need to evacuate (and typically you need to evacuate fast).

Sarah works for the Emergency Services section of the Strathcona Regional District. She travels to communities across the region to offer these workshops, and her job is to make emergency preparedness feel manageable rather than overwhelming. So she structures everything around those three core questions.

My sense is that some people feel so overwhelmed by the scope of all the disasters that can happen that they choose consciously or subconsciously to just not even kind of open their minds up to the preparedness process, and I really understand that.

Like if, if you have this sense of like, you know, a wall of fire bearing down on your home or a catastrophic earthquake, and that’s what’s in your mind when you’re thinking of preparedness, it’s pretty easy to feel powerless in the face of that.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - After serving at the Quadra Island Medical Clinic for eight years, Dr Steve Hughes will soon be retiring. That puts the island in a difficult spot and inn this morning's interview Marc Doll, Chair of the Quadra Island Foundation, explains how his organization and the clinic have teamed and raised more than $50,000 towards finding Hughes replacement.

Marc Doll: "Dr. Hughes, who I believe is the doctor for several people on Cortes as well, is retiring. He's stretched out his retirement as far as he can. Come September, he will be doing the official retirement, which puts that clinic, which is anchored by a doctor, in a stressful position."

"The Quadra Island Health Society, which was formed last time a doctor left that clinic, has been searching for a doctor for some time now, and it's been a rough rough ride. It's hard to find doctors willing to come to specialized clinics in rural settings. So they decided, as a board, to reach out to a professional healthcare recruiter. That comes with a pretty hefty price tag, at least from my perspective, and the decision was to go to the community to find the funds to hire a recruiter to bring a doctor, to the island to keep that clinic open."

"So about two weeks ago, they came to us to ask us if we would engage in a project for them to hire a recruiter. We sat down as a board, decided it was within our charitable purposes, set up the fund, and let it be known to the community that this was happening. We expected it would take a couple of months to find that amount of funds, and it was less than two weeks before we actually exceeded the target."

"Now the recruiter is at work, and we keep bringing our fingers crossed that this process will work and bring a doctor to the island."

Cortes Currents: Do you have any idea how long it would take through the process to find a doctor?

Marc Doll: "Well, that's the $10,000 question, right? Can you find somebody?"

"And if you find somebody, is it somebody that will be a fit for that particular office 'cause, as most people know, that office isn't just simply a doctor's office. It saves us from having to go to Campbell River for every blood test. There's a community health nurse running out of that office, and a lot of other things."

"So it's probably not as simple as just finding any first-year doctor that's willing to go there."

"We have to be optimistic. We know that we've had doctors leave this island, in the last few years. Every time, even though it, took six, seven, eight months longer than you would expect, we managed to always fill those gaps. It helps that both quadra is an amazing community, beautiful place to live, easy access to Campbell River."

"So all those things are benefits, but there are dozens of communities and probably hundreds of offices across British Columbia that are short doctors at this point."

Cortes Currents: Is there anything you would like to add?

Marc Doll: "Just a big thank you to everybody on the islands that stepped up, put their money forward to make this make this program a success and hopefully the program itself will be a success. Then I think a word of appreciation to the hard work of the volunteer board of the Health Society and the volunteer board of the Quadra Island Foundation that put in a lot of hours to get to this point."

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - On Friday, May 29, 2026, Chief Kevin Peacey of the Klahoose First Nation came to the Cortes Radio station, where he was interviewed by Manda Aufochs Gillespie.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At the May 27 SRD Board Meeting, Mayor Kermit Dahl of Campbell River accused Regional Directors Mark Vonesch, Robyn Mawhinney and Gerald Whalley of bullying Regional Director John Rice:    

“For example, when Director Rice was outvoted on a development in Area D by three electoral area Directors who wanted to show him, ‘Stay in line or else we’ll show you.’ They could stop him from succeeding in moving Area D forward.”

This is not the first time Campbell River Directors have made this allegation.

Directors Rice and Whalley also discussed the matter in the chatter from the opening of this Board Meeting's YouTube video. It is difficult to make out what Director Rice was saying, but Regional Director Whalley clearly states he was supporting Area D's Official Community Plan (OCP):

Director Rice: "The point being that ... ( his words were lost in the surrounding noise)."

Director Whalley: "Well, I don't agree with that and that's fine."

Director Rices's reply is muffled.

Director Whalley: “No, we were trying to support your community plan because it included 2 hectares and you had 1 hectare; that was wrong. Then the community plan was revised, and I said, ‘Okay, now it’s right,’ and now that’s history.”

It was relatively easy to find the application they were talking about. A search of SRD minutes found 16 applications since February 2023; 15 of these passed the first time through. In all but one of these15 cases, there were no opposing votes.

The accusation of 'bullying' arises from the rezoning application associated with Bylaw No. 519, submitted by Peter Zaschke and seven other Area D residents, which was turned down at the October 11, 2023 Board meeting. As it was held in Kyuquot, there is no YouTube recording. This was an electoral-area-only decision and far from the situation Mayor Dahl described. Directors Rice and Vonesch voted for the application, while Mawhinney and Whalley opposed it.

When the topic was reintroduced at the November 8, 2023 Board meeting, Director Whalley explained that his opposing vote was cast in support of Area D's Official Community Plan (OCP):

"It says, new lots shall have an average minimum lot size of 2.0 hectares. Just that simple. Applicants wanted lot sizes of 1.0 to 1.3 hectares. In my view, that wasn't right."

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - Mark Vonesch was removed from his position as vice chair of the SRD through a non-confidence vote, and Campbell River director Susan Sinott elected in his place.

The voting followed what is becoming a familiar pattern: with the five Campbell River directors and their allies voting to remove Vonesch, while the directors from Gold River, Tahsis, and electoral areas A, B, and C supported him.

The Alleged Plot

It was preceded by a roughly two-hour-long in-camera session, after which Campbell River Mayor Kermit Dahl addressed the meeting.

Mayor Dahl: "I gotta say, Wow! I've watched the Strathcona Regional District meeting from April 29th and I think 'Wow' best describes the performances of the day. Some were Gemini Award worthy. From listening to directors talking about strategically quorum busting, Directors Whalley and Vice Chair Director Vonesh plotting a strategic walkout to collapse quorum at 3 hours and 4 minutes into the YouTube recording. I can listen to it, watch it and it's clear their intention. I encourage anyone from the public listening or watching this meeting to do the same."

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Food Bank has a new Executive Director. Filipe Figueira retired last November, and Angelica Raaen has been at the helm since then. In this morning’s interview, she responds to five myths about food banks and also talks a little about her new role.

Angelica Raaen: “I think it’s really important that the stigma around food banks and food assistance be addressed, and that everyone who needs to access the food bank—or could use help—feels comfortable doing so. We’re here if anyone needs us.”

The Myths

#1: Is it true that everybody misuses the food bank?

Angelica Raaen: “No, that’s not true. People tend to underuse the food bank. They usually exhaust all of their other resources first before reaching out, and the stigma surrounding food bank use tends to make people wait even longer. They may feel they don’t deserve it, think other people need it more than they do, or worry about what community members might think.”

#2: Why don’t they just go out and get jobs?

Angelica Raaen: “A lot of people who use the food bank already have jobs, but minimum wage often isn’t enough to cover the cost of living. Some people also face extra expenses that they can’t manage with their income alone. For those who don’t have jobs, there can be many barriers to employment, such as disability, intermittent work, seasonal work, or other challenges. You never know someone’s full story or what they’re going through.”

#3: Can’t they just learn how to budget their money?

Angelica Raaen: “Telling people to budget their money assumes they have extra money left to budget. So much of people’s income is taken up by rent, medical bills, clothing, and other essentials. For Canada’s lowest-income earners, shelter alone now consumes two-thirds of their disposable income. That leaves only one-third for everything else: food, transportation, clothing, medicine, and so on. The total ends up being 123% of their income, which is obviously more than they have. No amount of budgeting can fix that deficit.”

#4: Aren’t food banks part of the problem? If you didn’t have this crutch, people could take steps to leave food insecurity behind.

Angelica Raaen: “Food banks have a very high turnover rate, which shows that people use them and then, in many cases, no longer need them. Having that extra time or financial relief can help people free up energy to address health issues, settle into a new living situation, or earn credentials for a job. Food banks allow people to take those steps and move out of whatever difficult situation they’re in.”

#5: If we didn’t have food banks, wouldn’t society have to address the problems that cause hunger in the first place?

Angelica Raaen: “It’s part of our mandate as a food bank to recognize that food banks aren’t a long-term solution to hunger—we’re just a band-aid for a much bigger problem. We know food banks aren’t a permanent answer, but they are definitely a necessary emergency service. All the food banks I know of are working to address the underlying causes of food insecurity, mostly by advocating for government policy change.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Inspirations: An interview with Ruby Singh

Juno-nominated musician Ruby Singh recently returned to Cortes Island, both as a facilitator for the CASE Youth Leadership Conference at Hollyhock and to give a concert at Manson's Hall. In this morning's interview, he talks about his many forms of artistic expression, inspirations, and relationship with Cortes Island.

Ruby Singh: "I find inspiration in a lot of different ways. I feel like we are all just small tendrils of creation, so the act of creation and the act of creativity are among the most natural ways of being. Other artists really inspire me. I am deeply inspired by ancestry and futurity at the same time, so finding ourselves where we are in this timeline of inheritance from our ancestors, and what we are thinking about leaving here when we leave. Long timelines really inspire me, and deep time is a very inspirational thing. I get a lot of inspiration from my community, from the people around me, and from this more-than-human world that surrounds us."

Cortes Currents: What brought you to Cortes?

Ruby Singh: "Years and years and years ago, I think it was Mook and Monique who invited our band to come up and play. It might have been the late ’90s, maybe even ’98, and we played over at the Gorge. We had a band called Sapna. Who was the fantastic woman who ran that bakery there for a long time? Truda baked us a cake on our first arrival, and then after the gig we were shuffled off over to Channel Rock, spent some time there, and instantly felt the gorgeousness of this place. In the ’90s and 2000s, a few of us went to Carrington Bay and camped out there for a while because it was so beautiful."

"We’re looking back over 25 years now. Every August I’m usually back, because that was when we were doing the youth camps. I love coming here in August and just being here, close to the water and the forest, and having a great summertime on Cortes."

Cortes Currents: I was reading the bio the Cortes Island Academy provides for the CASE Youth Leadership Summit. Tell me how your work is at the intersection of social justice, the arts, capacity building, and systemic change.

Ruby Singh: "I have worked in social and ecological organizing and education for over 20 years—working within education systems, within detention centers, and within universities and colleges, running workshops. There’s really something powerful about being able to express our stories and have them listened to. That moves into an idea of agency and being able to move in the world. My artwork has those things at the basis of creation, but I am also just coming off working with all the young people today."

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Lately, Cortes Islanders have been frustrated by the number of large trucks appearing in the ferry lineups in both directions on the Quadra/Cortes run. In particular, the number of gravel-hauling truck/trailer rigs has been the subject of comment and complaint.

These oversize vehicles take up as many as five regular car spaces, and when combined with the usual number of food delivery trucks and Quadra Builders’ regular hi-ab flatbed runs, some feel the “commercials” are taking up more than their share of deck space. Certainly the morning lineups on Quadra, inbound to Cortes, are very long indeed and contain many heavy trucks.

When the gravel trucks head for Cortes with a full load, they also weigh so much that the ferry may reach its weight limit before the car deck is filled, thus further displacing passenger cars from much-coveted ferry space. Residents say there have been an unusual number of gravel truck/trailer trips recently due to some major construction activity on the island.

I travelled from Quadra to Cortes on Friday morning May 22nd, and (wisely) put my car in the line-up at Heriot Bay the night before. Even at 8pm on the previous night there were already two gravel haulers lined up. By 8am they had been joined by two large refrigerator trucks, a large flatbed, and two pieces of heavy earth moving equipment moving under their own power. These oversize and overweight vehicles took up at least three quarters of the ferry deck on that first inbound run, leaving a substantial overload behind.

The situation is not ideal, but some BC Ferries staff believe relief is in sight. One BC Ferries worker told me that when the new Island Class ferry takes over the Cortes/Quadra run this summer, the “truck problem” will improve: Not only will the new boat have more deck space, I was told, but it has a much higher weight limit as well.

The Island Nagalis will transition to Route 24 between Quadra – Cortes Island by summer 2026, replacing the Tachek and increasing vehicle capacity from 26 to 47 and passengers and crew space from 150 to 399. 

The unpopular gravel truck/trailer rigs making so many daily trips in recent weeks may help to win community support for the controversial Whaletown quarry expansion proposal currently being reviewed by provincial ministries. Almost all Cortes Islanders acknowledge that it makes good sense to use local gravel and free up more ferry deck space for passenger cars, yet many remain critical of what they see as the disproportionate scale of the proposal and its lack of environmental review. Most recently, FOCI has gone on record as opposing the proposal as currently submitted.

With some island builders choosing not to use Whaletown gravel due to quality issues or a preference for dealing off-island, and with construction projects apparently increasing in scope, islanders can only hope that the BC Ferries staff are right -- that the Island Class ferry will offer enough of a capacity boost to make sure passenger vehicles get their share of deck space.