Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - On March 21, Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a press release stating that in 2023 Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped to their lowest level in 27 years (excluding the pandemic years). The exception in this otherwise positive picture was the oil and gas sector, where emissions continue to rise. However there is good news within that sector as well, ‘fugitive greenhouse gas emissions from oil and natural gas have decreased by 33% between 2013–2023, driven in part by Canada’s 2020 oil and gas methane regulations, which have reduced methane venting and leaks.’  

“The two main messages from the National Inventory report last week, which I feel are really important, is that climate policy works. Over the last 10 years, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions have gone down. Our methane emissions have gone down. Our electricity has become less emissions intensive, and all of that has happened while our economy has grown. This is a significant point to make. And this is something that environmental groups, activists, researchers, community leaders, all of them have been saying for decades,” responded Aly Hyder Ali, from Environmental Defence. 

“The other aspect of the report was that the oil and gas industry is holding us back. The oil and gas industry has failed to do its part when it comes to emissions reductions and if it was able to or willing to do that, Canadians would be in a much better place.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) has been helping maintain Mansons Landing Provincial Park since 2016. They’ve been putting up railings to prevent further erosion of banks, putting up interpretive signage and maintain the trails. FOCI also holds a Broom Bash every year. 15 volunteers and staff showed up to remove this invasive species on Saturday, March 21, 2025.

Cortes Currents asked Helen Hall, FOCI's executive director, “Is this a good turnout?”

Helen Hall: “We’ve got a lovely turnout of people this morning, all ages and we're anticipating more people will turn out throughout the morning. We've also got BC Parks rangers coming out to help us as well, which is great news.”

“ The reason we started clearing broom on the Spit originally was because of the coastal sand ecosystem. This grassy looking habitat doesn't look like very much, but it's actually an ecosystem that's quite rare up and down the coast. When we started, about six years ago, it was covered in broom and it was getting shaded out. So we decided to remove broom from there. Then we realized it was also all over the Spit. So partly to stop it growing back onto the beach, we decided to clear it on the Spit. Then we realized that the broom was out competing native shrubs like huckleberry.”

“We've now been doing this for six years and we are begining to see a difference. The coastal sand ecosystem is starting to thrive and we've noticed a lot more native shrubs coming in. It's a good news story, but we have to keep on it because broom just keeps growing back. So it's great to have volunteers coming out today to help do this.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The election writ was dropped Sunday and the following day Cortes Currents published responses from the candidates in our riding. As they were either emails or excerpts from press releases, it is only on the web. However NDP candidate Tanille Johnston just sent in an audio clip as well.

She’s referring to a meeting the Cortes Island Climate Action Network put on in Mansons Hall.

“Hey everybody, just doing a little shout out. Thanks so much for having me a few weeks back. I really heard loud and clear your priorities of investing locally, especially in food sovereignty, climate mitigation, and how much investing locally really gets your best results for doing that kind of work on the ground.”

“So really excited that the writ has dropped and the campaign is launched. On my way to qathet, and will be over in Powell River today. I have a full packed schedule and look forward to seeing you guys again soon, bye.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There hasn't been a major wildfire on Cortes Island for decades, but this could change as our summer’s grow hotter and drier. The Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing project is being designed with this in mind.

“The main idea is to try to have more of a FireSmart community and get rid of the conifers that are much more prone to embers catching fire and then catching the neighbor's houses and vehicles on fire, like we saw in the California fires this winter,” explained Mark Lombard, speaking on behalf of the Cortes Housing Society.

“We're also going to try to incorporate deciduous trees into the landscape of the 24 units, so that in the summer time you'll have nice leafy, shady zones around the houses in key spots. So that you don't get, for example, overheating in the summer midday and afternoon sun from the south and west, while still allowing our buildings to have good access for passive solar design and solar photovoltaics on the roofs of the buildings.”

 “Fire smart principles in general are to not have conifers - firs, cedars and hemlock trees - within 10 to 20 meters of your house. So when there are embers that fly ahead of a fire, they won't land in those trees, catch them on fire and then ignite the buildings around them. Using siding that's not going to be flammable like cedar; using metal or plaster as siding; designing your soffits so that the embers can't get trapped and then catch the roof on fire. We're going to use metal roofing which is very fire resistant.”

“The way you do your landscaping is really important. If you put in a lot of hedges, for example, that is a real problem because embers can catch those on fire and then it's really hard to protect the structures. So trying to do a fire smart architeure site plan as well as the specific landscaping is the general idea.”

“One of the big things for Cortes Island, if we have a major emergency our current plan is that we'll evacuate the island and that is expected to take about 40 - 48 hours - primarily using BC ferries. However, we know that if there's a major wildfire that starts, for example in Carrington, with a big northwesterly in five hours we could have serious fire conditions throughout the island.

“So we need to create places where we can do what's called ‘shelter-in-place,’ which is have a cleared area that has no trees for four times the height of the nearest trees nearby. We don't really have very much of that on Cortes, as everybody knows. There aren’t a lot of big cleared areas. One of the areas that was the most likely place that we want to shelter in place and use as an anchor point in a major wildfire would be the training grounds at the fire departments.”

“In the case of Manson's Landing, we had trees that were really tall directly adjacent to the helipad, and we did not have anywhere near the necessary four tree lengths. So now we've cleared the area to expand the training yard and directly behind that. We’re not going to have any tall conifers. So we've created a much more defensible place to ‘shelter-in-place’ on the south end of Cortes, right by the fire hall, which we think of as a bit of a multi-solving approach.”

You have been listening to an interview with Mark Lombard about the Fire Smarting aspects of Rainbow Ridge.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A four acre clearing was carved out of the forest in downtown Mansons Landing to make way for the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing Development. A crew was busy piling the last of the logs when Cortes Currents arrived on site, and the ground was covered with branches, wood debris and stumps. Construction on the first building is expected to start in a month, which means a lot of wood is going to have to disappear.

What is the Cortes Housing Society going to do with it? 

Mark Lombard answered on behalf of the Cortes Housing Society:  “That's a great question.” 

“We have two loads of saw logs going to the Klahoose Sawmill, and there are four loads of saw logs going to the Blue Jay Lake Sawmill. One of those loads is going to be for the use of the Housing Society for construction in the future. Over time, as we need lumber for various projects, we'll be able to pull them out of the inventory of logs that went to the Blue Jay Sawmill. There's also a load of saw logs going to a small mill in Mansons and another load of saw logs going to a small mill in Cortes Bay.”  

“In terms of the firewood logs, any of the logs that were a little bit smaller than the local mills can use or a little bit lower grade, we have two loads of firewood going to Klahoose and then multiple groups of residents who are getting two or three neighbors together are buying the rest of the loads of firewood logs.”

They started delivering logs across the island on Saturday and were expected to finish Monday, March 24.

 Mark Lombard: “ The next step for the project is all the branches and tops. It's a bit of a challenge to decide what to do with them sometimes..” 

“We've decided not to burn for a few reasons. One is the smoke, right in Mansons. Another is, there's a new requirement to have your piles piled for three months before they're burned, and that would put us right into fire season. So what we've decided is we're going to chip up the branches and tops too. That'll help keep the biomass on the site.”

“Once we pull the stumps and level up the site, then we can spread the wood chips out so that it builds topsoil and slows down erosion. So we don't have a lot of exposed soil.”

“The school is building a wetland this summer at the back of the school yard, and they are going to take about 125 stumps from the housing society projects. On the north end, directly behind the fire hall and where the first community building is going to be built, we are going to pile up those stumps so that they can be moved over to the school wetland project in July. Then the stumps further south on the project are going to be moved to the very south end of the clearing, where there was a little bit of a natural opening.”

“Once the site is levelled out, we're going to start building the first community building, the laundromat and housing society office. We are hoping that in about a month from now we'll be starting construction on that building.” 

“There are lots of small cedar logs that we're not making into firewood logs. So if people are looking for posts for garden fences or any kind of posts, we have lots available. We also have quite a few longer cedar poles that would make a really good barn pole or timber frame outdoor shed that will be for sale.”

“We also have lots of pieces of curved fir and cedar. Some of them are longer, some of them are shorter, but can make some nice curved beams for things. We're also thinking that some of the really curved pieces of cedar, we’ll Alaska mill them and make them into slabs. So if people want any cedar slabs, we're going to have some of those available.”

 Cortes Currents: Any last thoughts?

Mark Lombard: "We are fortunate to have a crew of professionals doing the work and everything has been done carefully and in the most tidy way possible.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There were a couple of changes in the plan for the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing Development as the site was cleared. A small parcel of land along the northern border of the property was given to the Cortes Island Fire Department, to enable it to expand. Plans for a hedge of trees between Rainbow Ridge and the Cortes Island Senior’s Village were drastically altered after root rot was discovered.  

Mark Lombard spoke on behalf of the Cortes Island Housing Society, “ In the first phase, we have cut down the trees in the area where the housing society will be building 24 units of affordable housing over the next few years, as well as a community building that'll house a laundromat and washrooms and an office for the housing society.”

“We've cleared about four acres of land right behind the Manson's Fire Hall. We've also cleared about 50 feet of forest that is now going to be part of the training yard for the fire department. There's more space for the helicopters to land and more room for training. The ambulance is also bringing in a housing unit for the paramedics into the training yard.”

Unfortunately they also cut down a great many more trees than the Cortes Island Seniors Village wanted. 

Mark Lombard: “We didn't communicate as clearly as we could have. We met with some of the seniors this week, and we had a really constructive, positive conversation. I feel like their concerns were addressed and we were able to answer their questions, but it's a really hard thing and we really empathize and understand the fact that it's never easy to see the trees cut down in the neighborhood where you live”

One of the seniors, who did not wish to be identified, expressed support for Rainbow Ridge as a project and agreed that Cortes Island needs more housing, but she had loved that forest.

Cortes Currents spoke to three seniors and they were all devastated, but Naomi Hayter was the only one who agreed to an interview.

“I've only just moved here. My concern is for the village here and the impact it's had on the people who have lived here much longer than I have. This has been a shock to everyone.” 

“This village was created by the elders who came before us, and I find that to be a very special living situation for people of the age group from seventies up into nineties. It's been a safe place for people and I think it's a model for other communities to come and look at. People have come and looked at it as future possibilities for other places, but it has been compromised, I think.” 

Up until now the Senior’s Village had been sheltered in the trees, now it sits on the edge of a four acre clearcut. 

This does not appear to be what the Cortes Housing Society intended.  

Two months ago, at a public meeting in Mansons Hall on January 29, Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Housing Society,  said, “We heard loud and clear from them that they support the project, but they don’t want to lose all the trees. There are some nicer cedars. So we’re moving the project south. There’s a natural land clearing down here that we’ll be taking advantage of this way.”

Cortes Currents: The first aerial photos of the logging operation showed a fringe of trees separating the Senior’s Village from Rainbow Ridge. Most of these have since been removed.

Mark Lombard: “ In the northwest corner, which is directly adjacent to the senior’s cottages, we cleared the area where the training yard for the fire department's going to expand.  Then we cleared out a little patch of trees that were unhealthy that had a lot of root rot in them, and some of them had already started to fall over. We were particularly worried about having them blow onto the seniors' homes.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - mmanuel McKenty is the new face of the Cortes Island Microgrants 4 Neighbours Program. 

When this ZOOM interview began, he was sitting in a room that looked very similar to where  I interviewed him along with the rest of the Awakeneers on previous occasions.

Cortes Currents: Give me your spiel and then I’ll ask some questions.

Immanuel McKenty: “  The 2025 round of the Cortes Island MicroGrants is now open for applications between March 10th and April 7th. We're accepting applications for cool projects in on in theCortes community and giving out grants between $50 and $500. The application process is super simple. The link is on the Cortes Foundation website under their Grants section. And there's also posts on Tideline and the various different Cortes Island Facebook pages. One interesting new thing we're trying this year for the first time is we're planning to put all of the applications out for input to the whole community once we receive them. So anyone who lives on Cortes can log in and view all the applications and submit their votes on which are their favourites.”

“I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative projects that get submitted and there's a few that are coming in already.” 

Cortes Currents: Actually, the first question that popped in my mind is how did Immanuel McKenty end up as the person doing the MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “Manda Aufochs Gillespie recruited me shortly after the program launched. She initiated the program based on her literacy outreach coordinator position in 2020, I think that was the first year she organized it,  and  she recruited me as a jury member in 2021. The jury is basically a collection of people who review the different applications and rate them based on the rating matrix of different attributes.  I  was on the jury for a few years after that, and  Co-adjudicator last year. This year I'm coordinating the program for the first time.” 

Cortes Currents: When exactly did you say ‘yes,’ you'll be the guy in charge? 

Immanuel McKenty: “Manda asked me, I believe it was in December  of 2024, just after Isabella McKnight retired from  working for the foundation. She had been the previous coordinator, and I had been a co-judicator with her last year.”

Cortes Currents: Are you going to be doing more than MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “I've just been contracted to run the MicroGrants program this year.  It's roughly a three month engagement during the time period that the grants are being accepted and reviewed.”

Cortes Currents: What’s special about the MicroGrants?  

Immanuel McKenty: “I find them very special and inspiring because they're so easy to apply for. Obviously applying for it doesn't mean you'll get the money, but the nice thing about the MicroGrants is that you don't need to have a registered non profit or a registered charity and go through all of these hoops of submitting financial statements, forms and hours and hours of details. They're small grants and it's super easy to apply for them.”

“They're a great fit for some types of community projects. For example, in the past, they funded things like the Cortes Island Skate Jam, or songwriter circles that happened on the island, or several years in a row they've funded some youth kayaking trips, or little library boxes, or language classes. Basically, they're great for  projects that somebody is excited about doing on Cortes and needs a little bit of encouragement and support  to get the project to happen.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Mascon by TELUS informed at least 10 Cortes Island residents that their internet service will be terminated on June 2, 2025.

A dozen people were chatting about it on the Cortes Island Is Home Facebook page, where one typed a message to Regional Director Mark Vonesch, “The SRD was part of the whole CityWest to insure all communities were connected? Most of us do not have access to CityWest yet and now we are losing access to our only other option.”

Nancy Kendel posted a comment on the Tideline, “A LOT OF GOVERNMENT MONEY was given to the Connected Coast Partnership of CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District, but THE JOB IS NOT FINISHED! When will Cortes Island be connected?”

She also emailed Cortes Currents, which is what led to this story.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the oil and gas sector is a major contributor to Canada’s economy, employing 182,000 people and generating $209 billion in GDP during 2023, yet it is also the source of 31% of Canada’’s Greenhouse gas emissions.

 “Demand for oil and gas is not going to go to zero tomorrow.  It is a transition that takes decades  to undergo.  There will be a role for oil and gas as we move forward along that transition, but it is likely to be a  cleaner oil and gas sector as the rest of the world stops buying  the oil and gas products that Canada and other countries produce. Which , I think, really underlines the importance of investing in decarbonization now while we're still using oil and gas  to 2050 and a little bit beyond  if we get on a net zero trajectory,” explained Janetta McKenzie  from the Pembina Institute, a Canadian think tank and non-profit focused on energy. 

She was responding to a new report from the Federal Parliamentary Budget Office. 

Janetta McKenzie:  “They were assuming that very little action was taken by oil sands firms in particular, to reduce emissions on site, and therefore they would be choosing to stop producing. Across the sector, there's been a lot of commitments to slashing emissions by 2030. There's billions of dollars on offer through federal and provincial tax incentive and grant programs.  We think there is a path towards choosing to decarbonize, choosing to reduce emissions and not just choosing to shut in production. We think it's a pretty narrow analysis that's based on a very specific set of assumptions that doesn't necessarily reflect the suite of options available to the sector.”

The oil sector has been promoting the idea of carbon capture for years. A group of oil companies put forward a $16.5-billion plan for a massive carbon capture and storage (CCS) network in northern Alberta, but has not implemented it. 

Janetta McKenzie: “We have not seen a lot of movement from the oil sands Pathways Alliance carbon capture project. This was announced several years ago. We simply haven't seen it  move ahead. In the absence of news on that, it's difficult to make the call on whether those big emissions reduction projects  will be implemented anytime soon.”

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, “New regulations to be finalized later this fall will ensure that the sector continues to cut methane emissions by at least 75% from 2012 levels by 2030. Carbon capture is also going to play an increasingly important role  in reducing the emissions from oil and gas production and Canada is well placed to cement its position as a global leader in this critical technology. According to both the IPCC and the International Energy Agency, there's no credible plan to carbon neutrality without carbon management technologies such as carbon capture and storage and their deployment must be rapid and immense, scaling up by nearly 200 times by 2050.”

Janetta McKenzie: “It's difficult to say what is on the docket  for these firms right now. I will say, with the combination of policy, like industrial carbon pricing,  incentives, tax incentives like the carbon capture incentive tax credit from the federal government and provincial grants in particular for carbon capture, but also other emissions reductions technologies plus the possibility of doing a deal with the Canada Growth Fund, the conditions for the last couple of years have been quite good to get a pretty package  to incentivize and encourage the industry  to move forward with these things.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As Canada prepares for an election, which may be called sometime before parliament is recalled on March 24, polls show the Conservatives and Liberals in a statistical tie. But 6 out of 8 recent polls also show the Liberals rising quickly and now narrowly ahead. On Sunday 338Canada projected the odds of a Conservative forming a majority government has fallen from 99% on January 19 to a mere 13%. About 8 AM Tuesday - an hour after Cortes Currents sent in its daily radio broadcast! - 338Canada revised its projections to suggest Mark Carney’s Liberals may be on it’s way to forming a majority government.

That may have been because the first of this week’s polls.

The Angus Reid Institute suggests the Liberals may be on their way to a majority.

Mark Carney is believed to be better equipped to:

handle the trade war with the United States (55%-30%),

develop or expand new trade relationships outside the US (54%-28%)

handle Trump’s threats of annexing Canada (53%-31%)

protect Canada’s economy (53%-33%)

deal with the provinces (47%-31%)

protect health care (44%-26%)

and reduce the cost of living (41%-35%)

That said, Angus Reid only found the Liberals leading by 5% in the popular vote.

Leger gave them a 3% lead and also identified a ‘wild card.’ 28% of their respondents said they did not know enough about Carney to have an opinion, compared to just 12% who said that about Poilievre.

338Canada’s latest projection, from this morning, suggests the Liberals could be elected in 177 seats, which is 5 more than what is needed for a majority.

The Liberals are now projected as leading in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario the Yukon and Northwest Territories. They are tied with the Conservatives in Manitoba. The Conservative Party currently only leads in BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Angus Reid and Leger suggest the NDP’s support is now down to a single digit (9%).

In British Columbia, where 338Canada projected the Conservatives may be elected in many as 22 seats, a dozen former NDP seats may be going Conservative or LIberal. Six of them are on Vancouver Island, where there is not a single NDP candidate leading in the race.

North Island Powell River (NIPR) has been an NDP riding since Rachel Blaney was elected in 2015, but Blaney stepped down and the new NDP candidate, Tanille Johnson, is 25 points behind Conservative candidate Aaron Gunn. The big story in this riding may be the Liberal’s jump from 12% to 20% since Jennifer Lash announced her candidacy last week. While the NDP are currently second in this riding, they just lost 6 points and the Liberals picked up 5.

338Canada suggests the progressive vote in North Island Powell River is split between three parties: with the NDP falling to 23%, the Liberals rising to 20% and the Greens unchanged at 6%.

Sometime in the next two weeks, Prime Minister Carney will dissolve parliament and an election will be declared. Once the writ is dropped, there will be a campaign of at least 37 days and no more than 51 days.