Cortes Currents

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - The last year has transformed the way we work, play, learn, and interact by bringing more and more of our lives online. Cortes Island's clinical therapist and our resident brain "professor" Hayley Newell discusses social media addiction, the new Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," our brains on social media, and what we are reaching for when we reach for our devices.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - The last year has transformed the way we work, play, learn, and interact by bringing more and more of our lives online. Cortes Island's clinical therapist and our resident brain "professor" Hayley Newell discusses social media addiction, the new Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," our brains on social media, and what we are reaching for when we reach for our devices.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Today’s Folk U show is Lessons on Governance, Ecology and Protecting Rural Character: What Cortes can learn from the Islands Trust.

The Islands Trust is a special purpose government entrusted with a mandate to preserve and protect over 450 islands and surrounding waters in the Salish Sea. Known as the Islands Trust Area, the region comprises the Southern Gulf Islands, Howe Sound, and Denman & Hornby Islands.

In 1974, the Government of British Columbia acknowledged that unrestrained development arising from the Islands Trust Area’s proximity to major urban centres such as Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Seattle could irreversibly damage this uniquely biodiverse and ecologically sensitive region. It established the Islands Trust Act, a unique provincial legislation to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of its residents and of British Columbia generally. This gave rise to a federation of thirteen local trust areas / island municipalities, represented by twenty-six locally elected trustees, with a special regional mandate for conservation-oriented planning, regulation, inter-agency cooperation and advocacy.

In this show, Cortes Islander, Sobhana Dilani Hippola, shares some personal insights and reflections from her current role working as Senior Policy Advisor for the Islands Trust.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Today’s Folk U show is Lessons on Governance, Ecology and Protecting Rural Character: What Cortes can learn from the Islands Trust.

The Islands Trust is a special purpose government entrusted with a mandate to preserve and protect over 450 islands and surrounding waters in the Salish Sea. Known as the Islands Trust Area, the region comprises the Southern Gulf Islands, Howe Sound, and Denman & Hornby Islands.

In 1974, the Government of British Columbia acknowledged that unrestrained development arising from the Islands Trust Area’s proximity to major urban centres such as Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Seattle could irreversibly damage this uniquely biodiverse and ecologically sensitive region. It established the Islands Trust Act, a unique provincial legislation to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of its residents and of British Columbia generally. This gave rise to a federation of thirteen local trust areas / island municipalities, represented by twenty-six locally elected trustees, with a special regional mandate for conservation-oriented planning, regulation, inter-agency cooperation and advocacy.

In this show, Cortes Islander, Sobhana Dilani Hippola, shares some personal insights and reflections from her current role working as Senior Policy Advisor for the Islands Trust.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Today’s Folk U show is Lessons on Governance, Ecology and Protecting Rural Character: What Cortes can learn from the Islands Trust.

The Islands Trust is a special purpose government entrusted with a mandate to preserve and protect over 450 islands and surrounding waters in the Salish Sea. Known as the Islands Trust Area, the region comprises the Southern Gulf Islands, Howe Sound, and Denman & Hornby Islands.

In 1974, the Government of British Columbia acknowledged that unrestrained development arising from the Islands Trust Area’s proximity to major urban centres such as Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo and Seattle could irreversibly damage this uniquely biodiverse and ecologically sensitive region. It established the Islands Trust Act, a unique provincial legislation to preserve and protect the Trust Area and its unique amenities and environment for the benefit of its residents and of British Columbia generally. This gave rise to a federation of thirteen local trust areas / island municipalities, represented by twenty-six locally elected trustees, with a special regional mandate for conservation-oriented planning, regulation, inter-agency cooperation and advocacy.

In this show, Cortes Islander, Sobhana Dilani Hippola, shares some personal insights and reflections from her current role working as Senior Policy Advisor for the Islands Trust.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Orientation for the Cortes Island Fire Department’s new volunteers began last month.

Chief Mac Diver explains, “We had eight people come to that. Of those eight we’ve had four continue through as recruits, which is a really nice group to allow us to maintain social distancing in our training quarters.”

They have to go through another two training days before becoming “rookies” and are given pagers to alert them when there are call-outs.

After that, they will start joining the regular firefighter training sessions on Tuesday evenings, from 7 to 9 PM.

In the interim, Diver has been teaching the recruits the basics on Wednesday evenings.

“They will be training all year, before they are fully certified through Playbook standards. We do road rescues as well. There is medical training, which hasn’t been happening since COVID began. That’s another course. There is a CPR course which is a one day event, and we have been doing two week stints learning occupational first aid.”

The fire fighters are currently called out about 60 times a year, roughly half of which are structure, beach or brush fires.

Diver said the number of call-outs could reach 120 to 150 when the fire fighters become first responders.

“That will likely happen after COVID hopefully gets under control. We can’t do it under COVID conditions,” said Diver.

The main responsibility falls upon the duty officer, who has a mandate to respond to every emergency.

That’s Mac Diver about 250 days of a typical year. When Diver is off duty, one of three fire officers stand in for him.

Cortes Island’s fire department is about 98% volunteer driven. Most of the firefighters are paid $10 an hour to train, but receive no compensation for responding in times of need.

“There is a really big personal commitment that the firefighters put into the community, just being there when people are in need and dealing with stressful situations. These fire fighters are just out there through dedication to their community members. They have a desire to help. I’m sure they’d be happy to be compensated, but our tax base doesn’t account for that,” said Diver.

The Cortes Island Fire Department will most likely be doing another recruitment drive in late September or early October this year.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Orientation for the Cortes Island Fire Department’s new volunteers began last month.

Chief Mac Diver explains, “We had eight people come to that. Of those eight we’ve had four continue through as recruits, which is a really nice group to allow us to maintain social distancing in our training quarters.”

They have to go through another two training days before becoming “rookies” and are given pagers to alert them when there are call-outs.

After that, they will start joining the regular firefighter training sessions on Tuesday evenings, from 7 to 9 PM.

In the interim, Diver has been teaching the recruits the basics on Wednesday evenings.

“They will be training all year, before they are fully certified through Playbook standards. We do road rescues as well. There is medical training, which hasn’t been happening since COVID began. That’s another course. There is a CPR course which is a one day event, and we have been doing two week stints learning occupational first aid.”

The fire fighters are currently called out about 60 times a year, roughly half of which are structure, beach or brush fires.

Diver said the number of call-outs could reach 120 to 150 when the fire fighters become first responders.

“That will likely happen after COVID hopefully gets under control. We can’t do it under COVID conditions,” said Diver.

The main responsibility falls upon the duty officer, who has a mandate to respond to every emergency.

That’s Mac Diver about 250 days of a typical year. When Diver is off duty, one of three fire officers stand in for him.

Cortes Island’s fire department is about 98% volunteer driven. Most of the firefighters are paid $10 an hour to train, but receive no compensation for responding in times of need.

“There is a really big personal commitment that the firefighters put into the community, just being there when people are in need and dealing with stressful situations. These fire fighters are just out there through dedication to their community members. They have a desire to help. I’m sure they’d be happy to be compensated, but our tax base doesn’t account for that,” said Diver.

The Cortes Island Fire Department will most likely be doing another recruitment drive in late September or early October this year.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Orientation for the Cortes Island Fire Department’s new volunteers began last month.

Chief Mac Diver explains, “We had eight people come to that. Of those eight we’ve had four continue through as recruits, which is a really nice group to allow us to maintain social distancing in our training quarters.”

They have to go through another two training days before becoming “rookies” and are given pagers to alert them when there are call-outs.

After that, they will start joining the regular firefighter training sessions on Tuesday evenings, from 7 to 9 PM.

In the interim, Diver has been teaching the recruits the basics on Wednesday evenings.

“They will be training all year, before they are fully certified through Playbook standards. We do road rescues as well. There is medical training, which hasn’t been happening since COVID began. That’s another course. There is a CPR course which is a one day event, and we have been doing two week stints learning occupational first aid.”

The fire fighters are currently called out about 60 times a year, roughly half of which are structure, beach or brush fires.

Diver said the number of call-outs could reach 120 to 150 when the fire fighters become first responders.

“That will likely happen after COVID hopefully gets under control. We can’t do it under COVID conditions,” said Diver.

The main responsibility falls upon the duty officer, who has a mandate to respond to every emergency.

That’s Mac Diver about 250 days of a typical year. When Diver is off duty, one of three fire officers stand in for him.

Cortes Island’s fire department is about 98% volunteer driven. Most of the firefighters are paid $10 an hour to train, but receive no compensation for responding in times of need.

“There is a really big personal commitment that the firefighters put into the community, just being there when people are in need and dealing with stressful situations. These fire fighters are just out there through dedication to their community members. They have a desire to help. I’m sure they’d be happy to be compensated, but our tax base doesn’t account for that,” said Diver.

The Cortes Island Fire Department will most likely be doing another recruitment drive in late September or early October this year.

This is the unedited audio from the aquaculture presentation to the SRD Board made by John Paul Fraser, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmer’s Association, and  Dean Dobrinsky, from MOWI Canada West on March 10, 2021.

This is the unedited audio from the aquaculture presentation to the SRD Board made by John Paul Fraser, Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmer’s Association, and  Dean Dobrinsky, from MOWI Canada West on March 10, 2021.