Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Three weeks ago the Toronto Star reported that "three Liberals privately suggested to the Star that Prime Minister Mark Carney may put federal money behind a new pipeline to the west coast ... Sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say Carney wants to see the pipeline built, and is realizing it may not happen without more public money behind it."

Aaron Gunn, the Conservative MP for North Island-Powell River, emailed that he is not interested in discussing rumours. While he recently acknowledged the climate is changing, Gunn also stated Canadians have more important issues to deal with. The pipeline was one of them: 

"I will say this pipeline should have been built ten years ago. Instead, the world remains beholden to oil from brutal, dictatorial regimes like Russia and Iran, while Canadian oil sells at a discount to the United States." 

Jennifer Lash's response to the Toronto Star article was, "Ottawa is nothing if not a fish bowl of rumours."

She did not know who the author was talking to, or how credible they were as sources. There were a lot of Liberal MPs and there was a lot of talk about the pipeline. Speaking as the Liberal candidate for North Island-Powell River in the 2025 election and possibly for the next, Lash said you need to go back to the MOU with Alberta and that clearly states the pipeline is to be privately financed. 

"I would be very disappointed if he [Mark Carney] put financial dollars into a pipeline. There's other priorities that the Prime Minister should have and investing more in clean energy right now would be more beneficial for Canada."

Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party pointed out that Carney did not say all the funding would all come from the private sector, or that there would be no public contribution. More importantly, there are no private sector proponents for any new pipelines in Canada. 

Expanding Canada's Oil Sector

"This particular government and this particular Prime Minister keep talking about how Canada will be an energy superpower. Expanding and increasing our exports of fossil fuels is very much part of what they boast they will do. Show us the business case, show us that this isn't going to lose money. Show us that those same dollars invested in solar and wind and protecting an old growth forest don't have a higher return in investment and are better for the Canadian economy than continuing down the road of 'drill baby drill.'"

Lash reiterated, "The MOU says privately financed and if the government put in money, that would be publicly financed. So can he change his mind? Of course, we've seen that happen many times, but right now what he supports is a privately financed pipeline." 

One point the two women agreed upon was that Alberta is named as the proponent and will undoubtedly put in money as well.

Roy L Hales/Cortes C urrents - Linnaea Farm's First Plant and Skill Share was on Saturday, April 18. It may be the first on Cortes Island. 

Tamarra McPhail, who has been at Linnaea farm the past quarter century explained,  "I don't know if there's ever been a plant share before on Cortes." 

She asked a group of Cortes residents, standing close to us, if they had ever heard of a plant share on Cortes? 

Pierre Belcourt, replied,  "Cloud sale? 

Tamarra: "A plant share, or plant swap?"

Pierre: "I don't understand, appliance?" 

Female bystander: "Swap, you swap." 

Pierre: "Oh, swap. You wanna exchange my washing machine for your cookstove?" 

Cortes Currents: "Yeah, except with plants."   

Pierre: "No." 

I'm not sure how long Pierre was pulling our legs, but that exchange provided the title for this article, 'Possibly Cortes Island's First Plant and Skill Share.'

There were three workshops, tables full of plants and seeds and a choice of three menu dishes for anyone who wished to buy lunch.

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - A short notice recently appeared in the Cortes Tideline, advising residents of the intention of Island United to quadruple the size of their quarry. The quarry (traditionally known as “the Pit”) is located in the Whaletown area, some distance into the bush on Jimmy Smith Grade. Island United is a rock, gravel and construction firm owned and operated by local resident Howard Nielsen, who bought the operation a few years ago from long-time owner Dave McCoy.

Although the Tideline posting is undated, the appearance of the same notice in the British Columbia Gazette on April 9th suggests that it may have been posted simultaneously to various provincial/regional media on the same date. The gist of the proposal is as follows:

2385425 Alberta Ltd. is applying to update the tenure holder on the file, increase the size of the tenure from 1.25ha to 5.16ha and notify the Ministry of Forests of the application to the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals to approve washing as a permitted activity, introduce a concrete plant onsite and increase the annual extraction rate to 39,999 tonnes a year. […] There is no Official Community Plan for Cortes Island. The Electoral Area “I” (Cortes Island) Zoning Bylaw, 2002 governs the area and designates the lands as Forestry One (F-1). Quarrying is considered a compatible use within Forestry One zoned lands. Cortes Island’s Vital Signs – 2024 Report dictates the need for year round jobs and new construction to feed sustainable employers. As such, the Cortes Island Quarry is integral to the economic growth of the Island.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Forty-nine acts will be coming to the Gorge Harbour Marina this year, the same number as last year. The driving force behind the venue’s success is Shannon Marks, who has been promoting the music industry since she was 16. In this morning's interview she talks about the coming season and her own life promoting music.

Shannon Marks: "I really hope people enjoy the music we put on at the Gorge. There are so many good acts coming, and I've never been anywhere else where they offer free music five nights a week during the summer. Not only that, but it's high-quality music."

Cortes Currents: "Tell us a little about your background. How long has music been a passion in your life?"

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - All things MicroGrants! Tune in for a group discussion about MicroGrants - the history of the granting program, event highlights, application tips, and more! This conversation features Connie Quayle, Mark Vonesch, Francis McKenty, Immanuel McKenty, Jemma Hicken, and your host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 6:30 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @ CKTZ 89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

UNedited audio from Aaron Gunn's April 9, 2026 town hall at Mansons Hall on Cortes Island. The recording starts at the point where Samantha Stori fe, Gunn's Office Manager, stepped up to the podium and ithe forst two minutes are crowd chatter.

Roy L Hales/ COrtes Currents - Aaron Gunn, the MP for North Island-Powell River came to Cortes Island on Thursday April 9. Jacob Mantle, the MP from York-Durham in Ontario, accompanied him. About 60 expectant Cortes residents showed up at Mansons Hall. The resulting town hall meeting covered everything from the cost of living to the future of the resource sector. The report that follows consists of highly edited audio clips from an hour and a half meeting.

Cortes Island's Community Spirit

 Aaron Gunn: "This is definitely the best turnout per capita that we've had of any of our town halls."

" One thing that I really feel here on whether it's Cortes or Quadra, is there's a much stronger element of community. There's a much stronger element of volunteerism and there's a much stronger element of 'we're not going to rely on the government. We're going to go out and just do it ourselves as a community.' I think the whole country, quite frankly, could learn from that."

"You guys have an absolutely amazing museum here, just an incredible group of volunteers. Then this (Rainbow Ridge) housing development that's getting put up here for families in need, I think that's just really incredible."

Gunn's Team

Samantha Storfie, Gunn's Office Manager, was the MC for this meeting. Mel, another one of his staff from the Campbell River office, was at the back of the room.

 Aaron Gunn: "They're here to help you if you've got any issues with the CRA, with citizenship and immigration, veteran affairs, or any federal department. If you're running into a roadblock, we're here to try to help. Then if you're still running into the federal government not making a common sense decision, then that's when I come in to try to apply a little more pressure to try to guide them in the right direction for your guys' benefit. One thing I've definitely noticed is that Ottawa is very far from this riding and Cortes Island. We want to always put it on the radar whenever that can help."

Format for the Evening

The format for the evening was for Gunn to make his presentation, then he would accept written questions from the audience. His team believes this takes less time and is more efficient than having people speak out at meetings.

Aaron Gunn:  "If you don't want to write your question down, I'm here as long as it takes. You can come up and ask your question. Also, if you want to have a private conversation, talk to Mel or Sam. We can arrange a phone call and of course, you're always welcome to come to our Campbell River office, and I'm sure I'll be back on Cortes this summer if you'd like an in-person meeting as well."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Morgan Tams was an integral part of the Cortes Island community for eight years before he and his partner Carly left in 2024. He recorded part of their experience as members of the Blue Jay Lake Farm community on a documentary that will air at Vancouver's DOXA Festival on May 3 and 9, as well as the Knowledge Network later this year. 

Morgan Tams: " It was about five years working on this, not exclusively but of my time. I've had some really great showings on Cortes, which was really fantastic." 

"Now to have it play in Vancouver where I think there will be some crossover, some Cortes people in Vancouver, but I think there's a city where people are right now so interested in alternative ways of living. I think partially just the direction the world is going, ideas about community, about being more connected to our food sources, about being connected to one another and being connected to skills like building and growing food are really pertinent topics for our time." 

"If this film can give some people some insight or some inspiration, or maybe even make them laugh within the context of all that stuff, then that's great. I'm just so happy that it can screen here in Vancouver and hopefully people enjoy it and we can talk about it after. It's always great to just to hear what people really think." 

Cortes Currents: how long were you at Blue Jay Farm? 

Morgan Tams: "We were at Blue Jay Lake Farm for almost eight years." 

Cortes Currents: Why did you go there? Why was it important? 

Morgan Tams: "This would've been way back in 2016. I was on a road trip with my partner Carly. We were driving from Victoria back to Toronto. Our car broke down. And our car was a 1990 Volvo station wagon and, in the middle of Manitoba, it's really hard to find parts. They quoted us three days for a new fuel pump to come. We were holed up in Brandon Manitoba. So we spent three days just hanging around the motel and wandering around town."

"We got to talking about our lives in the future and neither of us were really feeling set on Toronto. It's a great city when you're young and we were feeling like as we got older, we weren't really taking advantage of being in the city. I happened to mention that I always wanted to spend time on one of the islands on the west coast of BC." 

"Carly had spent a little bit of time at this place called Blue Jay Lake Farm, where she was a WWOOFer. She went for two weeks and ended up staying for two months. So she said, 'oh, well, we could always go to Cortes to Blue Jay Lake Farm and connect with Henry and the rest of the crew there.' So right then and there we decided we were going the wrong direction and we decided to head back out west. I think it was November 1st, 2016, we landed at Blue Jay Lake Farm and we stayed for eight years." 

Cortes Currents: So what was it like? Was it a surprise?

Morgan Tams: "It was for me. I had an inkling that it was a different way of life, the back to the land thing, the do it yourself thing, and these were all things I wanted to learn. I wanted to learn to build with wood and work on my carpentry skills, and I wanted to learn to be able to fix machinery. I love being in community and connecting with people on that level. I also just love the landscapes of the West Coast. So while it was a big departure from our lives in Toronto, it was a world that I really, really wanted to be in. And I knew from being there for half an hour that somebody had to make a movie about this place."

Hi, this is Aaron Gun, your member of Parliament for North Island-Powell River. I'm reaching out to personally invite you to join me on Cortes for a public town hall this Thursday, April 9th, starting at 7:00 PM at Manson's Hall. Doors will open at six 30.

As a member of Parliament, it is my belief that one of the most important parts of my job is listening to and engaging with the constituents I was elected to represent. These conversations matter because your experiences, your insights, your questions, and your feedback help shape the work I do every day in our nation's parliament, whether it's on issues relating to affordability, fisheries, or defending our local economy.

I'll also be joined this evening by MP Jacob Mantle, member of Parliament for York, Durham. Jacob brings a strong background in international trade and economic policy, having previously worked as one of Canada's top trade lawyers and now serves on the House of Commons International Trade Committee. I'm looking forward to having him with us for what I know will be an engaging and lively discussion.

I know many families across Cortes, Powell River and the North Island are worried about the rising cost of living the hollowing out of our resource sector in cumbersome DFO regulations that are causing uncertainty for those who enjoy or make their living from fishing in our communities. This town Hall is an opportunity to raise those issues, ask questions, and have an open and respectful conversation directly with your federal representative.

It is an honor of a lifetime to serve as your mp your. Member of Parliament, and whether you voted for me or not, my most important job is to serve you and be your voice in Ottawa. So once again, I invite you to our town hall this Thursday, April 9th at 7:00 PM at Manson's Hall and for more information and to register in advance, please visit aaron gunn mp.ca.

I hope to see many of you there.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is asking for submissions to its 2026 Annual Member's Show. Artists may bring up to two pieces. To participate, you must be a member, which costs just $10 a year. The cut-off date for submissions is May 14, and the exhibition will run from May 29 to June 14, 2026.

 "We would like to make it so nobody feels like, 'I don't know if I'm good enough to hang in the gallery.' If you are picking up paint or clay, that already is a good step. Your next step is to show it. That's important and that's why I've been volunteering and that's why we are all volunteering because it is our passion," explained Meinsje Vlaming, one of the Directors.

"The showing isn't always about selling your art. Very few of us are actually commercial artists. It's way more of a community thing. From beginner to seasoned artist, we welcome everybody. Like we want to share our art. We want to grow as artists and there's nothing better than putting your work in a group show beside your peers."