Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Telus unveiled its plan to erect five cell phone towers on Cortes and Quadra Islands at the January 13th, 2021 SRD Board meeting. More recenlty, they have given public announcements for three towers.

Two weeks ago they announced plans to erect a 73 foot metre tower is proposed on land owned by the We Wai Nation in Drew Harbour, Quadra Island. Anyone wishing to comment on this project has until June 4th

Another two towers have now been announced on Cortes Island. A 63.1 metre tall tower is proposed on TELUS’ property at 798 Rexford Road, in Mansons Landing. A second tower, 73 metres high, is to go up at 765 Whaletown Road in Whaletown. The comment period for these towers ends on June 28th.

According to their original plan, there could be another teo towers. TELUS did not answer a Cortes Currents query about an agreement they mentioned reaching, with a Squirrel Cove property owner, last January. They were looking for a property in the Heriot Bay area at that time.

A TELUS spokesperson emailed, “We are seeking input from local residents through the public consultation process, which is underway. We will continue working with the community and the Strathcona Regional District, and look forward to keeping residents updated as we progress toward our goal of upgrading wireless service in 2022.”

A concerned citizen wrote, in the Cortes Tideline,“If Telus gets the bid to build their towers on Cortes and Quadra, then the Connected Coast Project would not receive the funding it needs to be completed, as these areas would no longer be considered ‘unserved’. If the Connected Coast Project lost its funding, we’d be losing the opportunity for remote communities who could benefit from this government funded telecommunications infrastructure.”

She suggests that while Twincomm ‘could have the opportunity‘ to use Connected Coast’s cables, TELUS’ towers would take away business.

The TELUS spokesperson claimed the towers are “part of a broader project to improve cellular coverage throughout the inside passage of Coastal B.C. These proposals will provide residents of Cortes Island with an excellent level of cellular connectivity and will complement the high-speed Internet access planned as part of the Connected Coast project.”

There is more in the podcast

TELUS photo by Andrew Currie via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Dr Richard Stanwick recently observed, "What we are seeing is a general decrease both in South and Central Island. The numbers are absolutely bang on ... and that means our contact tracers are able to make sure we get a hold of anybody who has been exposed at this point."

This aligns with COVID numbers that Island Health just released. There are still 120 active cases on the Island, which is 33 less than when Cortes Currents reported last week. However there has been a slight increase in North Vancouver Island, where there are now 30 cases.

The BC Centre for Disease Control released more area specific data last night, but it is already five days old. As of the epi week ending on Saturday May 15th, there were 4 active cases in the Greater Campbell River Local Health Area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and other Discovery Islands. This is two less than the week before.

There were 17 cases just to the south in the Comox Valley Local Health Area. This is an increase of 4 over the previous week. The only North Vancouver Island school listed on Island Health’s school exposure page is in Comox.

There were no cases reported in Vancouver Island North or West.

The most recent data from BCCDC shows that 83% of the cases on Vancouver Island are variants. 67% of these are  the “UK variant” (Variant B.1.1.7) and 32%  the “Brazil variant” (Variant P.1).

Eleven Vancouver Island residents are currently in the hospital and 3 in critical care.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Dr Richard Stanwick recently observed, "What we are seeing is a general decrease both in South and Central Island. The numbers are absolutely bang on ... and that means our contact tracers are able to make sure we get a hold of anybody who has been exposed at this point."

This aligns with COVID numbers that Island Health just released. There are still 120 active cases on the Island, which is 33 less than when Cortes Currents reported last week. However there has been a slight increase in North Vancouver Island, where there are now 30 cases.

The BC Centre for Disease Control released more area specific data last night, but it is already five days old. As of the epi week ending on Saturday May 15th, there were 4 active cases in the Greater Campbell River Local Health Area, which includes Cortes, Quadra and other Discovery Islands. This is two less than the week before.

There were 17 cases just to the south in the Comox Valley Local Health Area. This is an increase of 4 over the previous week. The only North Vancouver Island school listed on Island Health’s school exposure page is in Comox.

There were no cases reported in Vancouver Island North or West.

The most recent data from BCCDC shows that 83% of the cases on Vancouver Island are variants. 67% of these are  the “UK variant” (Variant B.1.1.7) and 32%  the “Brazil variant” (Variant P.1).

Eleven Vancouver Island residents are currently in the hospital and 3 in critical care.

Roy L Hales /Cortes Currents - On May 12th,  Eileen Sowerby from the Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society (QISES) gave the Strathcona Regional District Board a presentation about the three threats to Quadra Island’s wild salmon: salmon farms, logging and climate change

This was originally intended to be a talk in support of the DFO’s decision to phase out the Discovery Island fish farms.

>>> Notice of motion

This was the second presentation in favour of the DFO decision in a little over two weeks.

After Sowerby left the meeting, Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson gave a notice of motion, “So I was just coming out of the presentation we had at our last board meeting, from a number of wilderness tourism folks in regard to the Discovery Island fish farms. They had a request of the Board and I just wanted to put before us for consideration … The notice of motion is that the SRD support the federal government decision to remove open net pen aquaculture ”

That notice of motion was seconded by Campbell River Director Charlie Cornfield, a friend of the aquaculture sector, which means there will most likely be another heated debate about fish farms at the May 26th Board meeting.

>>> The Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society

Meanwhile Eileen Sowerby told Cortes Currents, “The Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society was started forty years ago, to try and help remediate the problems with salmon, bring them back and educate (the public).”

They monitor the salmon in seven creeks south of Quadra Island’s Portage. There are usually Chum and Coho, and occasionally Pink, but there has been no Sockeye runs up Village Bay Creek since 2008.

“That was because sockeye need the late August rains and we weren’t getting them,” Sowerby explained. “The biggest dangers facing salmon, I think and many people would agree, are climate change, habitat loss and fish farms.” (More in the podcast)

Roy L Hales /Cortes Currents - On May 12th,  Eileen Sowerby from the Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society (QISES) gave the Strathcona Regional District Board a presentation about the three threats to Quadra Island’s wild salmon: salmon farms, logging and climate change

This was originally intended to be a talk in support of the DFO’s decision to phase out the Discovery Island fish farms.

>>> Notice of motion

This was the second presentation in favour of the DFO decision in a little over two weeks.

After Sowerby left the meeting, Cortes Island Regional Director Noba Anderson gave a notice of motion, “So I was just coming out of the presentation we had at our last board meeting, from a number of wilderness tourism folks in regard to the Discovery Island fish farms. They had a request of the Board and I just wanted to put before us for consideration … The notice of motion is that the SRD support the federal government decision to remove open net pen aquaculture ”

That notice of motion was seconded by Campbell River Director Charlie Cornfield, a friend of the aquaculture sector, which means there will most likely be another heated debate about fish farms at the May 26th Board meeting.

>>> The Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society

Meanwhile Eileen Sowerby told Cortes Currents, “The Quadra Island Salmon Enhancement Society was started forty years ago, to try and help remediate the problems with salmon, bring them back and educate (the public).”

They monitor the salmon in seven creeks south of Quadra Island’s Portage. There are usually Chum and Coho, and occasionally Pink, but there has been no Sockeye runs up Village Bay Creek since 2008.

“That was because sockeye need the late August rains and we weren’t getting them,” Sowerby explained. “The biggest dangers facing salmon, I think and many people would agree, are climate change, habitat loss and fish farms.” (More in the podcast)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Associate professor Rajnish Dhawan, from the University of the Fraser Valley, makes a distinction between hate-based and ignorance-based racism.

He is quoted in a series of programs that Fraser Valley Community Radio recently broadcast about Abbotsford’s hushed racist history.

That prompted me to think about the community I was raised in, across the river in Maple Ridge.

For the most part, the racial prejudices where I grew up in the 1950s and 60s were almost invisible. While I knew that First Nations people had once occupied our land, there were probably less than half a dozen at my school. I think I was in my teens when I first heard of the Katzie Nation. Decades would pass before I learned they still claim title to the land.

The more immediate problem was what happened to the Japanese. There were so many Japanese immigrants prior to World War II that Maple Ridge acquired the nickname ‘Japtown’ and one of the principal streets along the road to my home was ‘Jap Alley.’ Their lands were confiscated.

As I remember it, Ray and Colleen Nagai eventually bought back about 17 of the 120 acres the Nagai family owned prior to the war.

I learned this because they were friends of my family.

On the other side of the ledger, if you are keeping a ledger, is the fact that the commissioners who took away the lands of Maple Ridge’s Japanese immigrants stayed in my maternal grandparent’s summer home.

Were my maternal grandparents ‘racists’?

To a certain extent, I believe we have all (regardless of our ethnic origins) been exposed to ‘racist’ ideologies. )More in podcast

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Associate professor Rajnish Dhawan, from the University of the Fraser Valley, makes a distinction between hate-based and ignorance-based racism.

He is quoted in a series of programs that Fraser Valley Community Radio recently broadcast about Abbotsford’s hushed racist history.

That prompted me to think about the community I was raised in, across the river in Maple Ridge.

For the most part, the racial prejudices where I grew up in the 1950s and 60s were almost invisible. While I knew that First Nations people had once occupied our land, there were probably less than half a dozen at my school. I think I was in my teens when I first heard of the Katzie Nation. Decades would pass before I learned they still claim title to the land.

The more immediate problem was what happened to the Japanese. There were so many Japanese immigrants prior to World War II that Maple Ridge acquired the nickname ‘Japtown’ and one of the principal streets along the road to my home was ‘Jap Alley.’ Their lands were confiscated.

As I remember it, Ray and Colleen Nagai eventually bought back about 17 of the 120 acres the Nagai family owned prior to the war.

I learned this because they were friends of my family.

On the other side of the ledger, if you are keeping a ledger, is the fact that the commissioners who took away the lands of Maple Ridge’s Japanese immigrants stayed in my maternal grandparent’s summer home.

Were my maternal grandparents ‘racists’?

To a certain extent, I believe we have all (regardless of our ethnic origins) been exposed to ‘racist’ ideologies. )More in podcast

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Liberals placed third in North Island- Powell River during the 2015 election. In 2019: they sank to fourth – just behind the Green party. While this is challenging, Michael Ballard, the new Chair of this riding’s Liberal Electoral District Association, has a larger vision. He says the keys to moving forward as a society, is bringing everyone to the table.

“ I originally got involved in politics because I could see that I could make change,”explained Ballard, an Operations Field Supervisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He has worked with the NDP in the past, knocking on doors for both Claire Trevana and Rachel Blaney. He has also stood beside Elizabeth May, fighting for clean water.

“It’s not about parties. For me it’s about the kinds of policies that create enabling – more inclusive, more diverse – where people are more engaged, said Ballard.

He joined the Liberal party because they can bring about the kind of political policies that would be in our best interests.

Photo credit: screen shot from the DFO YouTube video Start your adventure – become a Fishery Officer!

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Liberals placed third in North Island- Powell River during the 2015 election. In 2019: they sank to fourth – just behind the Green party. While this is challenging, Michael Ballard, the new Chair of this riding’s Liberal Electoral District Association, has a larger vision. He says the keys to moving forward as a society, is bringing everyone to the table.

“ I originally got involved in politics because I could see that I could make change,”explained Ballard, an Operations Field Supervisor with Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He has worked with the NDP in the past, knocking on doors for both Claire Trevana and Rachel Blaney. He has also stood beside Elizabeth May, fighting for clean water.

“It’s not about parties. For me it’s about the kinds of policies that create enabling – more inclusive, more diverse – where people are more engaged, said Ballard.

He joined the Liberal party because they can bring about the kind of political policies that would be in our best interests.

Photo credit: screen shot from the DFO YouTube video Start your adventure – become a Fishery Officer!

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Current - On March 29th, the city of Nanaimo passed a resolution calling on the provincial government “to immediately defer logging in all high productivity, rare, oldest, and most intact old-growth forests as recommended by the Old-Growth Strategic Review, until all 14 of the panel’s recommendations have been implemented.” This issue was hotly contested. Four of the nine councillors present, include Mayor Leonard Krog whose signature is at the bottom of the letter that subsequently went out, were opposed. Never-the less at least eight other municipal governments, and the Comox Valley Regional District, have passed similar resolutions calling implementation of of the province’s Old-Growth Strategic Review. In response, Campbell River passed an opposing resolution, calling for “an elevated direct response of support for Forest operations based on fact and science” at their April 26th Board Meeting.

This motion was brought forward by Councillor Charlie Cornfield, who did not explain what parts of the Old-Growth Strategic Review are unscientific, or how he came to that conclusion.