Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Discovery Islands first homestay program will start on up Cortes Island this September.

Rhonda Teramura, the Homestay Coordinator for International Student Programs within School District 72 explained, “I think it's amazing that we're finally able to broaden out wider than the Campbell River core of the city. It'll be a wonderful experience for our district, our local Campbell River students and for internationals alike to expand and explore and connect with folks that are out in the Discovery Islands.”

While School District stretches from the Oyster River to Sayward, and includes both Quadra and Cortes Islands, all of the 56 students currently enrolled in the homestay program are staying in Campbell River. A Quadra Island family almost agreed to host, but ‘life changes’ brought this possibility to an end.

Now Teramura is looking for 15-20 placings for students wanting to participate in the Cortes Island Academy.

The homestay program is offering $900 a month to Cortes Island families willing to take a student into their homes. This is meant to cover food and lodging. Almost everything beyond that comes from the student’s personal money.

One of the exceptions is a change in diet. For example: if a vegan student boards with a meat eating family, the School District will provide an additional $125 a month so the family can provide vegan meals.

Students will be looking for either 5 month or 10 month accommodations, depending on how much of their course load is on Cortes.

Two families have already applied to be hosts and a third has indicated they are interested.

“I'd like to have as many as possible because I will also be helping to place Campbell River kids in homestays,” said Teramura.

Most of the students are in grades 10 and 11, so will need the same guidance, nurturing and support that any teenager does, ‘especially considering they've traveled abroad on their own.’

Potential host families will have to go through a criminal record check, a driver’s license clearance and an interview process.

“We talk about all the various kinds of things that they can offer a student, and why they want to be part of the program,” said Teramura. “Then we really look at matching the personalities of what the student puts on their application, what they're interested in doing and the kind of family structure they're used to. We try to make the best possible fit.”

They want students to fit into the host family’s day-to-day chores, activities and social engagements.

“We really hope to see that a connection is formed so that the student is orienting to the host parent as an extension of their own family - and the majority of our students are,” explained Teramura. “Our homestays are expected to provide three meals a day plus snacks. They're expected to provide a bedroom with a door that closes obviously, a bed, some storage for clothing, access to bathroom and hygiene facilities.”

Max Thaysen/ Campbell River - Cortes Currents was in attendance at the March 12 “Just Transition Day of Action” event in Campbell River.

Approximately 25 people attended the event, promoted and inspired by the international climate organization 350.org and hosted locally by the Campbell River Chapter of Council of Canadians, a national justice, democracy and human survival organization.

The event was facilitated by MC Rich Hagensen from the Council of Canadians. Hagensen began his presentation by acknowledging the traditional territories of local first nations.

Hagensen then indicated that he had a box full of election promises made by Justin Trudeau. From the box he pulled out a folder call Just Transition Act. He pointed out that the folder was empty – referring to the fact that the government has not yet written the act nor fulfilled the promise.

There was a petition circulated at the event that listed the demands of the demonstrators. It read:

“Canada must address the climate emergency NOW! NOW is the time to call on the Prime Minister and Government of Canada to pass a just transition act in parliament that:

winds down the fossil fuel industry and ends fossil fuel subsidies


creates good green jobs led by and including affected workers and communities


expands the social safety net through new income supports, decarbonized public housing and fnding for affordable and accessible public transit


expands public ownership of services and utilities


reduces emmissions by at least 60% below 2005 levels


pays for the transition by increasing taxes on the wealthiest and corporations and financing with a public national bank


protects and strengthens human and worker rights and respects indigenous rights, sovereignty and knowledge by including them in creating and implementing the legislation”


Presenters from the Council of Canadians read out the Just Transition Act demands and discussed the important role of government in transitioning to a clean and green economy.

Rachel Blaney, member of parliament for North-Island/Powell River, was in attendance for the presentation. She then spoke to the crowd expressing support for the demands.

Blaney stressed the importance of a local approach to the transition and ensuring that people have jobs in the new green economy.

She has presented similar requests to the Liberal government in the past. In November 2020, she introduced a private member's motion that called for principles for pandemic recovery spending that included equitable distribution, supporting the United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the prioritization of projects that sequester or mitigate carbon emissions and the storage of ground water, and the prioritization of projects that support local small business and economic diversification.

350.org Day of Action events were held across the country, in 47 communities.

De Clarke & Mike Moore/ Cortes Currents - Mike Moore reads out a presentation he gave to 30-35 Cortes Island residents on Saturday March 26, 2022.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - One of the founding directors of the Cortes Community Forestry Co-operative says Mosaic is proposing to harvest its lands on Cortes at a rate that is roughly six times greater than what the island residents are used to.

This contradicts the Mosaic brochure released at the end of January which stated quote, ‘Our planned activities will look similar to the other forest managers activities on the island.’’

During the ZOOM conference it held with islanders earlier that month, a senior planner for Mosaic’s north island operations said their cutblocks on Cortes would be quote ‘similar in size and scope’ to those island residents are used to.

“No, it's not true. I do grant them the somewhat correct interpretation of the way that they're going to lay out their cut blocks, but their cut blocks individually are larger than what we have been doing except for this last one in Von Donop, where there was a lot of root rot,” explained Bruce Ellingsen.

The Community Forest’s normal annual harvest rate, on a land base of 3,800 hectares, is about 3,000 cubic metres. That is less than one cubic metre per hectare every year.

Mosaic is proposing to harvest between 6 and 8 cubic metres per hectare

from its lands.

Expressed in percentages of the average annual incremental growth, the community Forest is taking about 16% - so they are actually adding to the forest timber base. Ellingsen suggested Mosaic is probably taking roughly 100% of the annual growth.

If the Community Forest continues to cut at its normal rate, he calculates the next harvest cycle will start in 500 to 600 years. That first cutblock will be full of ‘old growth’ trees.

Mosaic’s brochure states, “Each years planned harvest is <1% of our private managed forest lands on Cortes.”

At that rate, Mosaic’s next harvest cycle could start in 100 years.

(Ellingsen goes into these statistics in much greater detail in the podcast above.)

“I suspect that are testing the waters over here on Cortes, just to see what the community is willing to accept or go along with. If they get an agreement on what they're proposing now, whenever they come back to do some more they'll probably want to see if they can nudge [the cut rate] up a little higher,” said Ellingsen.

He added, “For them to claim that they're mimicking what the community forest partnership is doing is, I would say, grossly incorrect.”

Ellingsen suggests people look at what satellite images say about the forest loss in the part of eastern Vancouver Island where the two companies Mosaic is managing have been logging for the past 20 years.

“I would say it's well over half of the land base is coloured in,” said Ellingsen. “It's a vivid display when you look at it about how little is left and consequently, what relatively that's done in 20 years. So I'm guessing that it'll be, they'll be back to do it again in another 10 years or so.”

He said that after a clearcut, it takes 50-80 years for the epiphytes, that take nitrogen out of the air and into their tissues, to start up again.

“And it might take as many as 250 years for their full range of up to 400 different types of fungi and epiphytes to read properly reestablish themselves and put all that in free nitrogen into the system that they do in an old growth forest system.”

While Ellingsen has not seen any related studies, he suspects it may take just as long for Mycorrhizal fungi and lichens to recover.

“Those are the sorts of natural inputs that we missed totally miss out on with relatively speaking, short term harvest rotations,” he said.

Photo of a Vancouver Island clearcut courtesy the Wilderness Committee

De Clarke/ Çortes urrents - On February 9th 2022, Whaletown neighbours near the Robertson/Whaletown intersection were alarmed by an unusual sight: the old “Trude’s Café” building was on fire.

Trude’s Cafe Fire was Intentional

Currents contacted Cortes Fire Department Board Chair Chris Walker, who confirmed via email that the fire was intentional, not accidental. However, the Fire Department was not notified in advance and received a call from a concerned neighbour. A fire truck was sent to the scene, but took no action after the situation was explained.

The site has subsequently been cleared, as part of a plan for expansion of the Gorge Harbour Resort facilities.

Cleared site where Trude’s Cafe once stood

Trude’s Café has not been open for a few years now, but it played a central role in the social life of Whaletown for two decades (from the late 1990’s to the early 20-teens) and is fondly remembered.

Trude Allbright-Sweeney, Baker and Queen of Cortes

Master baker Trude Allbright-Sweeney was trained in Austria and produced world-class pastries and cakes. She and her husband Sedley were longtime members of the Cortes community, active in local affairs and much loved. A potluck in their honour in 2005 was one of the biggest social events of that year…

… and served as the launch of the “Centre for Cortes Self-Sufficiency,” a coop dedicated to cultivating and preserving local skills and knowledge. This cooperative volunteer organisation managed the café for several years.

Inaugural Meeting of the Centre for Cortes Self-Sufficiency

Trude still reigns as the “Queen of Cortes” during Cortes Day celebrations in the summer.

Queen Trude and Princess Abigail at Cortes Day

In the colder months, the Café was a warm and cosy gathering place for neighbours; in the summer it hosted potlucks, outdoor pizza baking in a wood-fired cob oven, and an annual music festival.

Guest chefs would cook special dinners featuring international cuisines, sometimes raising funds for community projects. Trude’s cakes and pastries were famous not just locally, but also attracted summer visitors.

A summer visitor enjoys a quiet moment at Trude’s

Remembering Trude’s Cafe

Trude’s vision for the café was all-inclusive and communitarian: “That’s what I always wanted, that’s my favorite memory too. It’s a place where people could come and just stay and talk, you know, not a place where you have to buy a cup of coffee and leave, no. There’s a place for meeting. Yeah. That’s what I wanted. That’s what Viennese cafés are like, they are places to meet; like writers and musicians, you know, they all have their own little cafés.”

Lovena Harvey remembers Trude’s in its golden era: “And the thing I think I remember the most, what made me fall in love with Trude — for lack of a better word — was hearing her singing, you know, you could just hear her singing kind of operatic Austrian songs in the kitchen, and she just took such pride and love in the creation of these really incredible Austrian baked goods. Which mostly were beautiful cakes. She’s just the premiere cake maker.”

Trude’s Cafe around 2012

Trude remains proud of her culinary creations: “I grew up in Vienna and I say, and that’s the truth. I know what a cake supposed to taste like! every morning for my birthday, I woke up and there was a whole cake just for me. My mother made it and she was a good baker, and I know exactly what they’re supposed to taste like!

“My wedding cakes, the first one… My daughter got married in 1980 and I said, Why should I buy a cake? I know how to make cakes. I made a wedding cake and I made the first layer, you know, and I said, oh, that’s boring. So make each layer of different cake all the way up to the top. That’s how I made my wedding cakes. ever since. And it tastes better, you know? Chocolate lemon walnut was the first.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been a month since the Quadra ICAN Energy Efficiency Team achieved its goal of having 14 solar panels installed on the roof of Quadra Elementary School.

According to Mike Gall, one of the participants in this project, they will only supply about 5% of the school’s needs - but that is not their purpose.

This solar array is meant to be an educational tool. Students and the general public, will soon be able to go online and monitor the performance of the solar panels that a typical house on Quadra or Cortes Island would need.

“The systems up and running. The only thing we're having to overcome right now is protocols for the school,”explained Gall. “That should be done shortly and we'll be able to release the address and link for people to be able to come in and have a look and see how well the solar panels are operating.”

While the stats are not yet available, Gall said that the solar panels should probably be performing better than originally expected at this time of the year. They had to set them up at a slightly higher tilt, which should give them an advantage when the sun is lower on the horizon. While they might receive slightly less solar energy during the summer months, that is the time of the year when sunshine is most plentiful.

“This is the first successful larger scale project that Quadra ICAN has done,” said Gall. “So I'm hoping it will be used as a catalyst to motivate people.”

Quadra ICAN partner with the Quadra Island Foundation and School District 72 to make this project possible.

Terratek Energy installed the panels.

and maintaining them will be a grade 5 and 6 science project.

Quadra ICAN partnered with the Quadra Island Foundation and School District 72 to make this project possible.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There will be no job action today in the Vancouver Island Regional Library strike, which began Tuesday.

A  BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) spokesperson emailed Cortes Currents, “We do not want to be in job action so, in order to minimize impact on communities, we are making plans day-to-day based on what we hear from the mediator and will update the community as far in advance as we can.”

A picket line went up at the Duncan Library branch at 8 AM on Tuesday and the job action at that branch ended at 8 PM on Wednesday.

The spokesperson stated that job action, including picket lines, could resume at any one of the Libraries 39 branches as early as Friday.

The librarians collective agreement with VIRL expired 15 months ago.

Negotiations are stalled around two points.

As the 46 librarians who voted in favour of job action explained in a joint letter,“Our wages are not aligned with the cost of living in our communities, yet the VIRL budget indicates a surplus for BCGEU staff. Given VIRL’s recent decisions to build and renovate branches, and to hire multiple non-union management positions, we believe VIRL is able to invest in its librarians, by allocating some of that BCGEU surplus for reasonable wage increases.”

They also stated,“VIRL management has refused to agree to many important proposals – including solutions to workplace violence and mental health impacts – without offering alternative solutions.”

Three of the librarians who signed that letter are the Manager, Customer Services Librarian and Youth Services Librarian for the Campbell River, Gold River, Sayward, Tahsis, Quadra Island and Cortes Island branches, which are all within the Strathcona Regional District.

In a press release the day before the job action at Duncan began, VIRL stated, “the British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) Local 702 has counter offered with wage increases greater than those the union had previously identified it would accept.” 

Last night, the union spokesperson informed Cortes Currents, “At this time, the union is still awaiting a response to our counteroffer via the mediator.”

photo credit: Strike by Magnus Hagdorn via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) is holding its annual broom bash, in Mansons Landing Provincial Park, from 10 AM to 1 PM this Saturday.

“We've been doing this project on the spit now for five years,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.

This project started out as an attempt to protect the sensitive coastal sand ecosystem on the west side of the spit, facing the dock. Hall said some of the native plants are quite rare in BC.  

“When we were first looking at working in the area, we saw that the broom had  pretty much invaded the whole of that ecosystem and was shading out these plants. It was really important for us to get it out of there. So that's what started the project,” said Hall. “We ended up clearing it out of the entire spit because it was also shading out a lot of the native species in the forested area , and we didn't want it to recolonize the beach habitat.

She described broom as an invasive species that is found all over Cortes Island.

“I think it's an impossible task to get rid of it everywhere. What we're looking at is  concentrating our efforts where we can have the biggest impact.  We will be working to remove the broom that has regrown since last year  and our task is to get it out of the entire spit - both the beach and forested area - again,” said Hall.

She is asking people to meet in the park’s parking lot at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning.

All of the standard COVID precautions will be in place. If you have any signs of COVID, or have been in contact with anyone who had COVID in the last couple of weeks, please stay at home. People do not need to wear a mask because it is an outdoor event, but they are being asked to socially distance. Bring your own tools and do not share tools. FOCI will be providing hand sanitizer.

It looks like it is going to rain, so bring rain gear and good boots.

Hall said the volunteers will probably split into groups. They will work their way around the outside of the spit and up the middle. While pencil sized pieces of broom can be pulled out, they will need loppers and clippers to remove the larger pieces. The broom is piled onto tarps and then dragged back into the parking lot.

“We have an agreement with BC parks that we actually stash it in the forest further up the road, as it doesn't regrow in deep shade” said Hall.

She described the broom bash as a good way, especially during COVID, to meet outside and do something really positive for the environment.

“We do have a break in the middle of the morning and we're providing lots of goodies. I've just been ordering some brownies and cookies and all sorts from the co-op. And we're asking people to bring their own drinks,” she explained.

“We are really hoping that we get a good turnout and not only clear broom out of the spit, but we can start clearing broom around the lagoon, which would be really fantastic. So the more people who turn up to the better.”

Max Thaysen/Cortes Currents - Billie Fleming runs a local waste allocation facility – processing garbage and recycling. She has been collecting garbage at the Docks around Cortes for over four years.

Cortes Currents learned that there are some changes coming to the dock garbage collection service around

Billie gives us a bit of background:

Real Dufresne was collecting the garbage for years for a very small fee. Billie started working with Real and they realized that the pay was too low and approached the Harbour Authority of Cortes Island (HACI), who collects fees and pays for collection. HACI agreed and raised the pay for collection services.

Billie adds that the Cortes community doesn't realize how much Real did. When he was at his healthiest, there were not beverage cans on the side of the road. Real did a lot of other underpaid and invisible work, keeping Cortes clean and greener.

Billie describes how much work it is to do the dock garbage collection.

“In the summertime, five days a week. And in the wintertime, one day a month”, she says.

Billie did the math on the amount of time it takes and the amount of pay the collectors get. She compared the results with the amounts of time and pay that are involved in the SRD contract to collect residential garbage and recycling from peoples houses around the island, which happens on Saturdays.

Billie says that the dock collection is nearly as much work as the residential collection, but only one-tenth the pay.

Billie wants to be clear that HACI did not know the extent to which the pay was low and when they found out they agreed that it was not sustainable. HACI realized that the fees required to cover a fair wage for collection would not be possible to collect – the fees are paid on an honour system and do not currently cover the expenses of even the low wage.

Billie goes on to describe the abuse of the system – she's had couches, chemicals, fuels, needles and human feces. This is from local residents as well as the transient boating community.

Billie points out that the abuse of the system (and the workers) by transient boating community is particularly egregious because they should be paying the cost of getting their garbage to the apprpriate places – historically this has been subsidized by the Cortes community.

Billie says it just couldn't go on, and so she came up with a new option.

The new option is modeled after a garbage service run in Refuge Cove on West Redonda Island. There, people pay by weight. Billie says her program will have different rates for those who sort their waste and for those who don't. The highest rates will be paid by those who contribute a mix of garbage, recycling and compost. The lowest rates will be offered to those who separate all those things.

This is tiered cost program will hopefully offer a way for local liveaboards to have an affordable waste option – if they sort their garbage.

The garbage collection will be focused on the long summer months beginning May 15. If people need garbage collection outside of that time, they are encouraged to contact Billie directly to make arrangements.

Billie doesn't want people to be throwing their garbage in the ocean and also believes that people need to take responsibility.

The new waste collection service will happen from 10am to 6pm everyday beginning May 15, at the Gorge Government Dock.

For more information, contact Billie at [email protected]

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents