Cortes Currents

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U Radio - In this Folk U Radio show Former Newfoundland Premier, the Honourable Brian Peckford, gives part history lesson and part current update on the state of Canadian civic life on Folk U Radio. Friday April 15th at 1 p.m.

Peckford is the only surviving drafter and signatory First Minister 40 years after the Canadian constitution was first patriated and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms created and adopted (in 1982). He was the drafter of the Newfoundland proposal which became the basis of the current Charter of Rights and sat at the table to negotiate. Ever heard the story about the Quebec minister not being there and wonder what really happened? This and much more revealed.

The history lesson leads up to today and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms lawsuit that Peckford and others have filed in federal court seeking to strike down the federal government's mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirements for air, train, and other travel. Peckford discusses more about the formation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, why these laws set a dangerous and possible irreversible president that ought to concern all Canadians.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 and Mondays at 6:30 @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As we get closer to June 30, when the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has to decide whether to reissue the licenses for 79 British Columbian salmon farms, independent biologist Alexandra Morton points to yet more problems.

A recent Global and Mail article revealed the existence of a decade old Department of Fisheries (DFO) report about the ‘transmission of the PRV virus from farmed to wild salmon.’

Morton said the fish farm industry has exceeded the three lice per fish threshold every week since the out-migration season began on March first. Two to five active farms have exceeded that limit every week, for the past five weeks. Morton claims that no sooner had the industry brought the lice on one farm under control, than another exceeds the limit.

“DFO recognizes that sea lice breeding on salmon farms is a threat to young wild salmon because in the conditions of license, they asked the industry to stay below three adult lice per farm fish to protect the young wild salmon,” she said.

A spokesperson for the BC Farmer’s Association emailed,” During the out-migration window, sea lice counts must be conducted within the first week of the window – and once every 2 weeks thereafter. The results of each counting event must be submitted to DFO by the 15th of the following month. If the sea lice count exceeds the threshold of 3 lice per fish, DFO must be notified within 48 hours – and a plan must be presented describing the sea lice management measures that will be undertaken to reduce sea lice levels below the threshold level within 42 days.”

Morton says this 42 loophole effectively eliminates the 3 lice per fish limit

Much more

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Regional Director Jim Abram appears to have pushed through an earlier public hearing date for the Quadra Island Golf Club (Quadra Links) rezoning proposal than the proponent wishes. Quadra Links wishes to rezone a portion of their property so they can develop a 30 spot RV park, but requested that the meeting be delayed so they could analyze some technical issues raised in recent public submissions. SRD staff recommended the hearing be scheduled for Wednesday, November 23, 2022. A number of Campbell River directors voiced their support, but do not vote in rural matters. The only Regional Director to oppose Abram’s wishes was Noba Anderson, and the public hearing will be at 7 PM on May 18, 2022 at the Quadra Community Centre.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - At their last meeting, the SRD Board approved a motion to keep the wood chips created by it Residential wood debris pickup in rural areas, but have yet to decide how they will be distributed

This pertains to the wood debris collected from local residences.

Nine organizations on Cortes, Quadra and Read Islands, have submitted applications for woodchips that have a public use component.

A second motion, “THAT the Regional District allocate woodchips to all applicants in accordance with the proposals received except applicants who are considered private entities.” was also approved.

Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson was concerned that there is not sufficient chips, “probably any of those applications could probably take all of the chips offered.” She preferred the idea of “giving fewer applicants, more chips to do more with.”

Three directors opposed the suggestion that staff talk to the applicants about volumes,

Regional Director Jim Abram explained, “Every organization will most likely say they will take all of them.”

He said the proposal was inappropriate and the wood chips should be divided equally among the applicants.

The board decided that staff board will talk to the applicants about volumes, but all applicants who are not private entities will receive some wood chips.

The five Cortes applicants are:

The Cortes Community Housing Society’s trail initiative

A community compost proposal from the Cortes Island Garden Club

“to suppress weeds and invasive plants, prevent erosion, and help maintain soil moisture which will benefit the native plants” in the Dillon Creek wetlands restoration project

And to increase the productivity at two community gardens, which will also increase the local food supply: The Cortes Island Garden Club

and Gaia Tree Gardens

All of these projects have a public use component

The three Quadra Island Applications are all for composting projects:

Terra Nova Farm isa 100 acre farm which is classified as a ‘private entity’ but intended to use the chips for composting and public education.

The Quadra ICAN and the Quadra Island Community Garden Cluba are both to distribute wood chips to local growers to help increase the island’s food security.

The Read Island application comes from the Surge Narrows Parents Advisory Committee Application which intends to resurface the children's playground.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A lot of heat pump systems have installed in Campbell River and Quadra Island homes recently. Several companies offer this service, but Aerotherm Solutions also made close to 30 installations on Cortes Island last year. Tyler Woodward, of Aerotherm Solutions, was on Cortes recently.

He explained that Aerotherm is a relatively small Campbell River HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) business that also installs furnaces, natural gas, custom sheet metal and duct work, ‘and do any type of service work on that type of stuff and commercial refrigeration as well.’

“Everything is handled in-house from the design to the installation and we've also got a sheet metal crew. We're involved in any sort of duct work, custom sheet metal, residential commercial, and some light industrial,” he explained.

“We've been installing heat pumps now in Campbell River, with this company, since 2016. In terms of new construction, the most common type of system that we're putting in would be a heat pump for the primary source of heat, but also the retrofit market is quite large as well. That's specifically folks that are looking to improve the efficiency of their home.”

As the summers continue to get warmer, there has also been more interest in air conditioning.

Woodward said heat pumps are catching on in the islands, as people move away from burning wood as their principal source of heat.

In terms of environmental impact, he said wood stoves ‘can be a pretty harsh contributor to the particulate matter in the air’ and in some neighbourhoods there are problems with smog.

It is difficult to compare the cost of wood heat versus heat pumps because some people cut their wood, but it can be expensive for those who purchase wood by the cord.

While electric heat is relatively clean, heat pumps produce anywhere from two to four times as much heat per kilowatt (depending on the technology). Woodward pointed out that this translates into a similar reduction in your heating bill.

Oil heat is very common in Campbell River, less frequent on Cortes, and roughly twice as expensive as a heat pump.

The price of propane fluctuates, but is similar to oil.

Natural gas is more efficient and comparable in price.

There is a significant capital investment in acquiring a heat pump system. In the podcast, Woodward explains that systems can cost anywhere from $4,000 to more than $10,000, depending on the size of the area to be heated. In time, homeowners will recoup this through reduced energy bills.

“If you're comparing it to an electric baseboard, depending on how much electricity you're consuming, you could see payback in as little as three or four years,” he said. “Typically a new system that's installed by a certified contractor, should have a warranty of around 10 years and, with proper maintenance, I would say 20 years would be a reasonable life expectancy.”

The federal and provincial governments are promoting heat pumps and offering rebates to reduce the cost.

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Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Klahoose First Nation conducted grizzly bear tours in Toba Inlet for five years before their economic development arm, Qathen Xwegus Management Corporation (QXMC), purchased the former Homfray Lodge in November 2020. Many of the packages are already booked for the Klahoose Wilderness Resort’s second season, which starts May 12th.

“This year, we have a full season ahead of us. We’re really happy with the number of reservations. We’re welcoming guests from all over the world and September is mostly full. We’ve got a couple of rooms left for the grizzly bear viewing season, and then May through August is filling up,”explained Chris Tait, the resort’s Tourism Manager.

“We’re a hundred percent Indigenous owned and the activities that you’re going to do will be Indigenous led. The most authentic tourism in Canada is Indigenous tourism and our Klahoose Wilderness Resort allows people to have that connection. We could tie it back to reconciliation, especially for Canadians if they want to have that piece of reconciliation, support Indigenous business and meet local people who live there.”

Tait explained Quathen Xwegus’ decision to purchase the lodge in terms of controlling the narrative:

“Not just having people in the territory, but actually guiding guests in the territory. Leading those tours, having the guests know the place names, having guests know the culture that they’re visiting, that’s really important as a business,” he said.

Guests come from Europe, Vancouver and the surrounding local communities like Powell River and Campbell River to ‘experience the Klahoose First Nation, the Indigenous people that live in this area that have always lived here.’

Many are picked up in Lund by the Klahoose catamaran ‘Goat1.’ Their experience begins with the trip up Desolation Sound, where they may see marine life like humpback whales, orca, sea lions and/or eagles.

Their arrival at the resort starts with a traditional Klahoose greeting on the dock.

“It’s a three or four nights stay. They’re going to be on the land or on the water with an Indigenous guide. They may go on a boat tour to Toba Inlet to visit the waterfalls and watching for more marine life, pictoglyphs that we see along the way in,” said Tait. “Back at the resort, they can go kayaking, they can do stand up paddle boarding, ocean swimming. We have nature walks into the rain forest where we even have some old growth forest tucked back behind the lodge.”

Grizzly Bear Viewing tours in Toba Inlet are included from late August to mid-October?

Guest all-inclusive packages start at about $2,895 per person for a three night stay, based on two guests sharing a room. This includes accommodation, meals and all activities (including passage on the Goat 1). A four night package is about $3,795 per person. (These rates do not include taxes.) Beer and wine are provided with meals, but guests will have to pay for extra alcohol.

“We’re really happy to have hired up to 15 staff, which are all Indigenous, from the Klahoose community, Tla’amin, Homalco or other nearby Indigenous people. They will lead our tours, serve food, work in housekeeping, as boat drivers and grizzly bear viewing guides.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Learn some of the stories of the biodiversity and resilience on the Pacific Edge as author and Hakai Institute chronicler, Tyee Bridge joins host Manda Aufochs Gillespie Friday at 1 p.m. to discuss the research and writing of Heart of the Coast.

Learn more about this region in Deep Time, the archeology and geology, all the way to present day sea stars and kelp to subsidies, science, and students. And do you know how many viruses can be found in seawater? Learn all this and more.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Cst. Rebekah DRAHT of the Quadra RCMP, which also serves Cortes and Read Islands, emailed an incident report for the week ending on Sunday April 10.

There were no major incidents. Police responded to four calls and conducted checks of vehicles on land and water. Some warnings were given, but no arrests made and the only unresolved situation was an unclaimed paddleboard.

On Monday April 4th, a male customer at the Heriot Bay Pub, on Quadra Island, refused to pay his tab. He then passed out and did not respond when staff attempted to waken him. The RCMP were en-route when they received word that the man was awake, had paid his tab and departed with a sober friend.

On Tuesday April 6th, the RCMP were asked to make a well being check. The man’s brother explained that he was having some mental health issues. Upon arrival at the male’s last known location, police were advised that he has moved to another town.

On April 8th, a SUP paddle board washed up near the Topcliffe Road area of Quadra Island. There was no serial number and the paddle board remains unclaimed.

That evening Quadra RCMP conducted a roadblock on Friday, April 8th. Numerous vehicles were checked and three warnings given. The officers were happy to report that all drivers were sober.

During a patrol of Open Bay and Drew Harbour, on Saturday April 9th, RCMP stopped a fishing boat which was not registered in the occupants name. The owner of the boat was given a CSA violation notice and informed that this offence could incur a $288 fine. The owner said he would register his boat right away.

On Sunday April 10th, Quadra RCMP received a report of an abandoned 911 from multiple locations. The phone was traced to a bicycle, whose owner said the multiple dials were accidental. The cyclist was very apologetic, but thankful for the officers quick response.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Wild Waterways Adventures officially launched last year but for Jenefer Smalley it is part of a lifelong pursuit.

“My whole entire life, I've had an affinity and a connection with wildlife. I thought I would go to college to become a wildlife biologist or a fisheries biologist. Then when I finally went to college, I realized I wasn't really into running statistics and mathematical models, I wanted to be out in the field with wildlife. So when I graduated, just on a whim, I got a job in the field of ecotourism out of Campbell River,” explained Smalley.

That was sixteen years ago. She went on to become a guide in Haida Gwaii, and found it difficult to leave that electric beauty.

“I remember people saying ‘you're going to Campbell River, that’s not a very nice place.’ Then when I got here, I was just absolutely blown away. I'm like, ‘Well, these people don't know what they're talking about. They'd obviously never been in the Discovery Islands.’

Smalley and her partner Reuben Buerge met in Campbell River five years ago.

“We actually met at the fuel dock in Campbell River. He had one Zodiac for one company and I had a Zodiac for another company,” she said.

They were contracting a boat out to other tourism companies in 2018/19, when they decided it was time to start their own business.

The North Island Employment Foundation Society (NIES) helped them bring this dream into fruition.

“They work with you from your initial vision and your ideas all the way through to launch and they give you a little bit of funding. It's not much, but they give you funding so that you can support yourself and pay your bills while you're in the program,” explained Smalley.

She and Buerge originally intended to launch Wild Waterways Adventures in 2020, but waited another year because of the pandemic.

Five tours are described on the Wild Waterways Adventures website.

One of her favourite experiences is what some people call the ‘Eagle show’ during the hake run, between June and August every year. Hundreds of eagles dive bomb the fish when they are exposed in the rapids around Sonora and Stuart Islands.

“We literally sit in the Zodiacs and bop around in the rapids, while these beautiful bald eagles are diving for these hake all around us, all around the boat, they're all over the trees,” said Smalley. “Then when the tide switches to an app or a slack tide, the eagles disappear. You might see one or two.”

The show comes to an end in August, when the eagles start moving up salmon bearing rivers and streams.

The herring runs start in late February and early March. Sea lions and salmon follow the herring, and are in turn pursued by orca.

“It's like a potlatch for the Biggs Orca. There is an abundance of food. Some days we saw like 30 to 40 whales, that was just a couple of weeks ago. We never see Biggs Orca in these large numbers during the summer. It's just during this late winter, spring time,” explained Smalley.

“When we ID'd them we realized that a lot of them were actually siblings and sisters and cousins. They're very vocal this time of year as well. If you drop the hydrophone to listen to their acoustics, they are chatting up a storm and it is absolutely phenomenal. It literally sounds like you're on another planet when the Biggs are vocalizing. It's very metallic, very strange, so other worldly.”

In the podcast she talks about following orcas into Gorge Harbour, where they were hunting harbour seal.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Chief Bob Chamberlain, of the Kwi kwa sutin ow Howinus (one of the ‘Broughton Nations’) and Chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance.

Representatives of 102 First Nations, from across British Columbia, voiced their support for the transition of open-net pen fish farms out of BC waters yesterday.

The First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance hosted a press conference in Vancouver. Many of the attendees were on ZOOM.

“We have to be mindful that migratory nature of salmon, and so given that reality, the DFO and the crown must consider all first nations who salmon pass these farms consultation site specific in one traditional territory is not well enough.The impacts are known from fish farms have far reaching infringement on Aboriginal rights, up and down, all the major water and river systems of British Columbia,” explained Chief Bob Chamberlain, of the Kwikwasutinuxw Haxwa’mis (one of the ‘Broughton Nations’) and Chair of the First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance. at a virtual/in-person press conference in Vancouver.

“We want to ensure that the minister is clear of the first nations food security needs, constitutionally protected Aboriginal rights, Supreme court of Canada law, which gives, the minister direction in terms of allocation and we also want to be clearthat the impacts that are occurring to wild salmon is one of the, in our opinion, the major contributor to the historical low returns we've seen across British Columbia for the past number of years, the lowest returns in all of history. Given that reality, it is time that every measure is taken to protect wild salmon.”

Chief Don Svanvik of the ‘Namgis First Nation (another of the ‘Broughton Nations’) said, “We just lost the chief in this past week and one of the things he said was, we need to speak for the salmon. That's what we're doing here today. Our salmon are on the verge of extinction. It's hard to believe that there are systems now in our coast that once flourished with salmon that have no salmon and other systems are down to single digit percentages of what they once were.”

“Salmon, wild salmon. (are) intrinsic to our way of life over the millennia. The Namgis creation story speaks of the very backbone of our being is our river and that for the rest of the time, you would have salmon.”

“We talk about what we have to do. There are many impacts on the wild salmon. The impact that we can affect the quickest and efficiently and effectively is open net fish farms. We need to transition these to land. It's that simple. It's time to act.”

Tyrone McNeil, President of the Sto:lo Tribal Council, added, “I started fishing just over 50 years ago. The first twenty-five years, anybody in industry got everything they wanted first nations commercial recreational, cause there's an abundance of salmon. Then about 25 years ago, with the introduction of the first fish farms, we started seeing the numbers going down.”

He said the Stalo people haven't caught a sockeye for three years and they only caught a handful of chinook.

“I'm compelled to send out a warning to Premier Horgan, to send out a warning to Minister Murray, not to pick a handful of first nations on the coast against a hundred plus first stations that are so reliant on the salmon stocks that go by that marine space,” said McNeil.

He encouraged the federal and provincial governments to work with the First Nations that are currently partnering with the open net fish farm industry ‘because they need an economy, they need jobs.”

McNeil added, “I encourage you premier to take into account that the declaration of rights indigenous peoples act applies to all of us, not just the small handful of first nations that are partnering with the fishing industry on the coast. We all need to be engaged.

Those last statements referred to the First Nations for Finfish Stewardship's proclamation in support of the fish farm industry two weeks ago.