Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Whaletown may get its name from an old whaling station, but Europeans really did not settle in the area for about 15 years. In today’s program Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, traces the modern community back to a logger named Moses Ireland.

First Nations people were using Whaletown Bay before that and a fish trap is believed to have once stretched across entrance of the lagoon.

The whalers came for 18 months, in 1869 and 70.

“It wasn't very many years after the whaling station left, in the mid 1880s, that Moses Ireland moved into the area as a logger and set up camp where the whale station had been,” explained Jordan.

That is where the ferry terminal is today and Ireland also preempted a number of other properties around Whaletown Lagoon. He stayed there until about 1893, then relocated to what was then called Camp Island and now the Subtle Islands. Ireland was in his 50s when he married a widow and they built a hotel on the Northern island.

“His saloon was very popular. Loggers often stayed there when they were between jobs or on a holiday from a camp. There was not a wharf to start with, but a float where the Union Steamships could stop. They often were dropping loggers off, or picking loggers up and taking them to other places,” said Jordan.

A lot of little camps and communities were starting up all around the Discovery Islands.

Whaletown’s post office made its official debut around 1894. William and Laura Drinkwater had bought the property across the bay from Ireland.

“There was a little dock, and at the top of the dock was a small building. That was a store that had not too much in it, just small items and the post office. it wasn't officially a post office until I think it was 1894. Mail was being delivered on the Union Steamship,” said Jordan.

“Post was very important in those days. There was no other communication, no telephones, no radios back then. People ordered things to come up on the boats by mail. They, kept in touch with their families and friends. When you got a letter, you kept it and you reread it many times in many cases. So there's actually a lot of saved handwritten letters, business letters too, that were typed on the old typewriters.”

The Drinkwaters house became a community centre, where there were dances and other events.

Meanwhile Ireland sold the Subtle Islands to Charlie Strange, who came out from London with his two sisters. The two women were used to an urban lifestyle and brought trunks full of fancy dresses for dances, teas and going to the theatre. They also brought hats, matching purses, fancy shoes and magazines from England, like Vogue and The Ladies Home Journal. Most of this remained in their trunks when they moved into the old building in the Subtle Islands.

Charlie Strange pre-empted 160 acres, at the bottom of Sawmill Road, around 1902. He ordered a big round saw, which came up on a Union Steamship.

Whaletown had spread out from Von Donop Inlet to Gorge Harbour by this time. A lot of people lived in float houses. The loggers used to move their house from bay to bay, as they were working. They sold a lot of logs, but at that time most buildings were log cabins.

“When that saw arrived, it was big news that spread over the whole island because now people could come to Strange and have lumber made for them to build their houses,” said Jordan.

“Charlie Strange built one of the largest houses at the time on Cortes, it had three stories.”

Sawmill Road was named after his mill.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “One of the core messages and core reasons that I am running for Regional Director is because I want decisions to be centered on island values. To me, island values are respect for First Nations, long term sustainability, also the rural nature that we all love. That's why we live here. Quadra Island has a rich history of volunteerism. The role of the director is really to be an advocate for the majority of the community at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD),” said Robyn Mawhinney who hopes to be elected Regional Director of Area C (Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets) on October 15th, 2022.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The fish farm industry does not want to leave British Columbia’s coastal waters in 2025.

In a recent press release Andreas Kvame, CEO of Grieg Seafood, said, “Our industry is in continuous development with new technologies and innovations, and in Grieg Seafood we are committed to improvements that strengthen biological control and reduce interactions with wild salmon.”

David Kemiele, Managing Director of Cermaq emailed Cortes Currents, “Our new protocol extends to the end of 2025 and we are using that time to refine what our operations will look like moving forward beyond 2025 and definitely innovation plays a critical role in that plan.”

Dan Lewis, executive director of Clayoquot Action, explained, “They call it an SCCS semi closed containment system and what we're seeing with the consultation that DFO is running is the wording the ministry is using is things like we want the industry to leave the way with technological change and is becoming more and more clear that what they're talking about is these semi-close containment systems in the water.”

Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, added, “There aren't any proven semi-closed containment projects that I know of anywhere that work. I know a few of the companies have been trialing that technology in British Columbia over the last several years and all I've heard about are failures. If they're talking about it, I honestly believe having worked on this issue for so long that it is just talk to maintain the status quo, which is open nets."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is in the midst of consultations about the immediate future of fish farms in the Discovery Islands and transitioning the open net pen industry out of coastal British Columbian waters by 2025. But DFO approved the expansion of Cermaq's farms at Bawden Bay, Millar Channel and Dixon Bay in Clayoquot Sound.

Interviews with Dan Lewis of Clayoquot Action, Stan Proboszcz from Watershed Watch, Robyn MaWhinney and Marc Doll, who are both in the race for Regional Director of Area C in the upcoming October 15 election, and an email from David Kiemele, Managing Director of Cermaq Canada.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Squirrel Cove was much more important during the first part of the 20th century. Union Steamships tied up at the long wharf twice a week. There is still a Squirrel Cove General Store and post office, but there were once log boom, a sawmill, boatyard, machine shop, community hall, church and a school. Much of this infrastructure disappeared during the years that steamships were supplanted by motor boats and floatplanes. However Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, has another explanation for Squirrel Cove’s decline.

It starts back in the years when there were no roads on Cortes Island.

“For the longest time, there was no connection from anywhere in Whaletown to the other side of the island. There was a wagon road to where Robertson road is now, then it became a walking trail. You went up over the hill and down into Squirrel Cove on a very rugged rocky trail that more or less follows Whaletown Road,” she explained.

There was a road connection from there to Mansons Landing, but anyone travelling between Whaletown and Mansons had to pass through Squirrel Cove.

Jordan explained that this changed during the late 1950s, when the Hansen brothers started construction of what is now called Gorge Harbour Road.

“Everybody could bypass Squirrel Cove and go to Manson's Landing if they wanted to, rather than the long way around. That made a big difference to Squirrel Cove, because it was a major place that people went to from both Mansons and Gorge and Whaletown,” she explained.

Jordan believes the Squirrel Cove route was still important when BC Ferries arrived in 1969.

“In the first few years I think you had to drive all the way around to get to Mansons. You had to drive through Squirrel Cove. When they put the shortcut through, Squirrel Cove kind of died.”

Construction of the Gorge Harbour Road also changed the face of Whaletown.

“Between where the post office building was and the library, there was actually a little tiny bay. When the connector road was built from Gunflint over to whale town road, the loose rock was used to fill in that bay. Also just below the church on that road, above where the library, is that road had on both sides, rock that kind of narrowed the road. They blasted and all that rock went into that to fill in that bay. It's now a parking area between the old post office and the library.”

You have been listening to part of an interview with Lynne Jordan, who is writing a history of Whaletown for the Cortes Island Museum.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Food security is very important to Marc Doll, a candidate for Regional Director in Area C during the upcoming election.

“Climate change is here. Its effects are here and they're getting worse. When it comes to our food production, the things that we've depended on for the last 40, 50, 60 years are just not there anymore,” he explained.

“We're in a world of climate crisis. We're in a world where the food systems that we have relied on for at least since the end of the Second World War are in big trouble. Look at Lake Mead and the irrigation that supplies the California Central Valley. If you follow the news at all, you're realizing how in jeopardy that particular water source is, and that's not just limited to that. We can go to the groundwater that feeds and irrigates most of the Great Plains. That's where our food comes from.”

Prior to the Second World War, Vancouver Island grew about half of its food. Now Doll believes this statistic is closer to 4%-5%.

“We need to really focus on getting ourselves together. We have the ability to do that and we definitely have the people here with the knowledge to do that,” he said.

“The change can come very, very quickly. The culture of gardening, self sufficiency and independence is present in our [Discovery Island] communities. That's what we can draw on. The percentage of the people here that have started gardens or have had gardens for years is well above what would be the average of a major urban center? Our desire to pay for the value of food isn’t there yet, but that is changing.”

Doll and his family are the stewards of a 40-acre parcel of Quadra Island called the ‘Foot Forward Forest Farm.’  

According to the description on his website, “Every animal and garden system is designed to add more life to the soil:

Animals are carefully managed through a holistic intensive grazing system that emulates the patterns of bison and thereby sequesters atmospheric carbon and adds life to the pastures.  

A young food forest of nut and fruit trees, growing above berry bushes, herbs, and low growing edible and medicinal plants, models a natural forest and produces food without needing any irrigation. 

The Farm practices the principles of no-till gardening, and lots of homemade compost and Actively Aerated Compost tea add life to the soil and fertility to the gardens.  These are practices that Marc learned through his extensive studies with and visits to the farm of renowned social biologist Dr. Elaine Ingham."

“I produce sheep, goats, chicken, ducks and pigs on this farm. So we have quite a lot that we offer and our prices are going to be higher than what you have in the grocery store because we raise them with a regenerative model. We raise them without genetic modified organisms and that raises the price. There is enough demand just on this island that I can't keep up with it,” said Doll.

“As inflation is creeping into the grocery stores on our islands, people are seeing the value of food and are starting to be not just willing, but actually having to pay a closer percentage of their income towards what food actually costs to produce in a responsible way.”

British Columbia may be the only province, or jurisdiction, in North America that gives farmers the ability to legally process meat and sell it directly to restaurants.

There is also a movement to allow raw milk sales.

“We need to look at how onerous VIHA [Island Health] regulations are to food production,” said Doll. “There are a lot of policy changes that need to be made to help us move forward. We need politicians that understand what those policy changes are and who will go to the table and push for them.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Earlier this week, one of the Quadra Island candidates in the upcoming election spoke of the need for a single political organization that represents the entire island.

This isn’t the first time this concept has been expressed. Two and a half years ago, Regional Director Noba Anderson unveiled a similar vision for Cortes Island.

While she and Marc Doll both expressed frustrations with the Strathcona Regional District, they are not calling for separation from it. Their proposed community organization gives their respective islands a chance to speak at several different tables: local, regional and provincial.

“Quadra is a community in and of itself, but doesn’t operate so much as a community. It operates as a bunch of really motivated, organized people in silos. From a community development perspective, we need to bring them together,” said Doll.

“We need to have an organization where Quadra Islanders can come together and focus on the vision for our future. How do we want to deal with development? How do we want our voice to be heard at the provincial table, and at the SRD table?”

While Doll is proclaiming his vision during an election campaign, Anderson has been Cortes Island’s Director since 2008. (She is not seeking re-election.)

At the time of our interview she was about to leave for Hornby Island, which has had a functioning residents association since 1979.

“I’m just really curious what other communities like that do and what version of that might be palatable and functional here,” she explained.

“I want to built community council, really simply put. City has a mayor and council. There is a group of people that are elected by the community to discuss matters of interest to the community and make decisions that pertain to the community and communicate the city’s will to outside agencies. I’m interested in building something here that is complementary to the Regional District structure and certainly in no way would supersede or replace it.”

The way the SRD is structured, Anderson said, “I am inherently a minority. Structurally, we don’t know things about each other. We don’t know each other’s communities even with the best intentions, which aren’t necessarily always there.”

Doll describes the SRD as a board in which the 5 municipalities, 4 electoral areas and single treaty First Nation of the SRD are ‘almost in competItion,’ rather than working together. Worse, when it comes to budgetary matters, the city of Campbell River is ‘governing Quadra, Cortes and all the other rural areas on Vancouver Island.’

They both believe their respective islands would be harder to ignore if they had a single political body expressing their collective wishes.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are not enough family doctors and the shortage of paramedics has reached crisis levels. Some people would like to see better fire services in North Island. In the third of a series about the issues he will be facing if elected Regional Director on October 15, Marc Doll spoke about emergency services on Quadra Island.

“I'm a volunteer firefighter on the island and the ambulance service is currently relying on firefighters to be the driver. Any firefighter that currently has a class four license is basically being put on standby because they no longer have the ability to have two people scheduled to keep the ambulance going. Even with that, there are periods of time where there is no one scheduled and there is no ambulance available on Quadra Island,” he began. “It is as bad as I have seen, and it is getting worse.”

Doll knows three people who have ceased to serve Area C as paramedics or Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) during the last three years. One was a female paramedic who worked in the Outer Islands, but unless there was an emergency she only received $2 an hour standby pay. This was not enough to meet her family’s needs, so she reluctantly moved to Vancouver where paramedics are better provided for.

“We're in a crisis situation and you couple that with our ability to get off the island when the ferry isn't running. There's solutions that are being worked on right now, but it has been over the last number of months where there have been people that just couldn't get off the island in a respectable period of time,” said Doll.

“The Regional District doesn't have ambulance services under its purview, but there is influence. There is storytelling. There are relationships that need to be built and that is the role of a Regional Director to get those stories out there.”

The Strathcona Regional District Board can collectively lobby for better wages at the provincial level.

Doll’s family is among those that have been touched by a related issue, the island’s shortage of doctors. Their doctor left Quadra and they have not been able to find a replacement.

“One thing that we can do as a community is focus on our housing question. When you look at communities that have been successful in attracting family doctors and have been successful probably in keeping ambulance attendance working, it sometimes comes down to their housing options,” he said.

“There is work that we can do through the SRD as a regional director and through community organizations. I'm proposing to ensure that we have appropriate housing available for people who are making wages of an ambulance emergency service worker, or even doctors, to have that housing availability there.”

The suggestion that fire protection be extended over North Island is more problematic. It is currently served by BC Wildfire Service, whose mandate is to protect forests but not buildings. In 2019, the Quadra Island Fire Department made a proposal to extend their coverage over the island — but they would need two additional fire fighters and a truck. Quadra’s Fire Depart is separate from the SRD, and in 2020 the SRD sent out a survey to find out of North Island residents wanted it to provide fire service. 50% of the respondents said they were not willing to pay any additional taxes to support this.

“The cost of another fire hall serving a wide area with few people, makes that an untenable choice,” said Doll.

“However there are people organizing in the areas that are more at distance from the population centres on Quadra Island. Community organizations are making good progress getting the pumps, and getting some of the training. That's something I know that the Quadra Island Fire Department is willing to work with people, and help with training.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are only seven ‘catch and release’ aquariums in British Columbia, and one of them is in Campbell River. The Discovery Passage Aquarium is also in the first building dedicated to this purpose in British Columbia.

“This job is very interesting and engaging, but it's all a means to an end. We want to work hard to change our relationship with nature, because in its current state it is unsustainable,” explained Ricky Belanger, Manager of the Discovery Passage Aquarium.

“It's hard to get people interested in changing their ways if they don't know why they're doing it. So taking these animals out of their natural setting and doing our best to recreate their natural habitats in a captive setting, we can engage with them and learn about them while the animals are still in a comfortable setting. We're working towards healthier oceans. One of our goals is to work towards a world where aquariums aren't actually necessary.”

This is the aquarium’s 10th operating season.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - In the second of a series of articles outlining what he would like to bring to Area C if elected Regional Director, Marc Doll spoke about tackling the housing crisis.

While the issue at the top of everyone’s mind right now is housing, he pointed out the solutions are not easy.

“The principle that I'm standing on is saying that one person, me or anybody else holding the regional director position, isn't in a place to be able to say, 'okay, this is what we wanna fight for.’ Whether it be the vacancy tax, some type of licensing for air for Airbnbs, whether it be how we approach the development. These decision are more complicated than any one person sitting on a small committee can come to any conclusion on. Every one of these examples has a downside,” explained Doll.

“The only way forward is for that discussion to be had to within communities, so that the community says, 'we understand that we've examined the downsides, but this is the way that we Quadra Island, or Read Island and SNCA (Surge Narrows Community Association), or Cortes believe is the path forward.”

He added, “Having it preached from on high by any one person is not going to get the buy-in that's going to be required to take this on.”

Quadra is currently losing its workforce. According to the Rural Housing Needs Report, it shrank 16% between 2016 and 2021. Doll believes the actual number is closer to 25%.

The only demographic that is growing is people over the age of 65.

The number of people under 44 is decreasing.

“Vibrant communities, communities that function, need all age demographics. You need an active workforce. You need young families. You need kids to populate your school. You need all ages across the board,” said Doll.