Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Environmental Defence just released a report showing that last year oil and gas company lobbyists were targeting the Conservative Party, in preference to the Canadian Government, by more than a 2 to 1 ratio. Cortes Currents interviewed Emilia Belliveau, lead author of ‘Big Oil’s Playbook, A Summary of Big Oil’s 2024 Federal Lobbying’ and asked Max Thaysen, from the Cortes Island Climate Action Network for his insights.

Emilia Belliveau:  “Environmental Defence is a charity, so we are nonpartisan. What I can do is simply relay the facts, which are that the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party did not take any lobbyist meetings. The NDP took a very small number, four. Then you have most of the lobby meetings targeting the Federal Liberals and the Federal Conservatives. The Federal Liberals had 62 meetings with ministers and 29 meetings with backbencher MPs, and Conservative MPs took 216 lobby meetings.”

 Cortes Currents: That’s 91 contacts with government ministers and Liberal MPs, which is less than half of the 216 meetings the lobbyists had with Conservative party members.

Belliveau said this was a change from 2023 when gas and oil lobbyists met with Canada's two leading parties about 200 times each. (203 Liberal meetings vs 197 Conservative meetings.)

Max Thaysen, a member of the Cortes Climate Action Network pointed out, “The numbers presented for who the fossil fuel companies were lobbying, means that they are hoping for and planning on a Conservative government. This would be very strongly in their favour as far as I can tell and probably as far as they can tell. That's something that we need to consider when we're making our decisions and taking action leading up to our celebration of democracy (voting day), whenever that comes.”

 Emilia Belliveau: “Environmental Defense tracks the fossil fuel industry's lobbying of the Federal government in order to get a window into the ways that they're trying to influence climate policy. That has huge implications because we need ambitious government climate policy in order to tackle climate change at the scale that's really required.”

Max Thaysen: “To quote one scientific paper that I'm still working through, ‘We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster.’ This is a global emergency. We can't really remember that often enough and that should form the context of how we interpret these kinds of activities.”

Cortes Currents: What about meetings that are initiated by the government or by one of the parties? Are those tracked?

Emilia Belliveau: “When we try and track lobbying, what we really see is only meetings that are initiated by lobbyists get tracked in the government's registry. If the government itself requests a meeting, or sets up a working group, which we know they have done with certain oil and gas companies on major projects, those meetings don't count as lobby meetings. So they're not filed in the public record.”

“There's actually way more contact with the government that we know is happening, but can't report on in our analysis. We've seen some really wonderful investigative journalism. For example, in the past year, the Narwhal did a great investigation into TC Energy where they revealed lots of other ways that industry is trying to influence government. Lobbying is just one tactic, in this real playbook that they have, for trying to shape government policy in favor of fossil fuels.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - After trailing far behind in the polls for the better part of two years, the Liberal party’s propects appear to be on the rise nationally, and the gap between the Conservatives and NDP is narrowing in our riding. Canada’s two leading political forecasting websites, 338Canada and CBC’s poll tracker, still show the Conservatives in the front, but no longer predict a Conservative majority. Last week Ipsos and EKOS both released polls showing the Liberal party edging into the lead. However Innovative Reseach, Abacus Data, Leger, and Nanos all reported the Conservatives were still ahead.

On Thursday, CBC’s Poll Tracker reported the weighed average of all these polls showing the Conservatives still had 40% of the popular vote, the Liberals trailing with 31%, NDP with 14% and Greens had only 4%.

338Canada’s projection, released Sunday, March 2, showed the gap narrowing. The Conservatives were still leading, but with 39% of the popular vote to the Liberals 33%. The NDP and Greens remained unchanged.

A special feature of 338Canada’s projections is they give breakdowns for every riding.

North Island-Powell River is still regarded as a safe Conservative seat, but the gap between the two leading parties shrank 5% during the past week. The Conservatives now have 47%, NDP 29% and Greens 6%. If there was a Liberal candidate, 15% of the population may have chosen her or him. As there is no Liberal candidate, a significant number of those people would probably choose NDP. If they all did, there would only be a 3% gap between the Conservatives and NDP.

Given the speed in which the political situation is changing, it is important to realize that none of this data was collected after Tuesday, February 25. On a National level, the gap between the two leading parties has most likely narrowed. Similarly, the NDP are probably doing better than what the projection shows for North Island-Powell River.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) Virtual Forum is coming up Thursday and Friday, March 6th and 7th. 

Two of the organizers, Francine Carlin and Kate Maddigan are my guests today.

“ It's going to be a jam packed two half days, 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM.  Our virtual events are really unique because we all live on islands or coastal remote communities and don't have the opportunity to get together as a collaborative regional grouping. So it's important to have these virtual events that bring together people from all across the coast and the islands, up from North Island as far as Alert Bay, to Sooke and beyond. So we have a pretty broad reach and this year it's really important, particularly with the events in the world around economic  issues that relate to  our local  economic and social wellbeing,” explained Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Islands Economic Partnership. 

“Our theme this year  is adaptation, innovation, and resilience, because in these times you need to be able to adapt to change. You need to be innovative in terms of what you are doing to keep small businesses vibrant and alive during these challenging times and to be resilient.  It's an ongoing process to ensure that we have our sovereignty as a nation. And that we have our local communities and our local economies thriving as best they can.”

“The opening sessions will be looking at our economic snapshot in terms of what exactly and who exactly are we in terms of our population, our economy, our, our health and wellbeing. We're going to follow up with a program around how we share our services. How we can leverage our economies of scale to be more resilient in times of change. Then moving into using  artificial intelligence” Is it a friend or an enemy? Or fremony? (laughter)  You have to find a way to use it so that it doesn't overpower and that we can take advantage of the technologies that have been evolving for the last 30 years.”

 “Day two is looking at economic reconciliation. What is that all about in terms of how we're going to work collaboratively and in concert with the indigenous communities that live and work on these islands and across the remote coast. We're having former MLA, Adam Olson, who is now the Chief Negotiator for the Tsartlip Nation.  One of the reasons that our Southern Gulf Islands got into the Island Coast Economic Trust and was able to apply for funds there was because of his advocacy with the province.  He's going to be speaking to us about working together with Indigenous communities to ensure a diverse and integrated economy over time. The most difficult thing to pull together was what we're calling this Learning Exchange. We're bringing together about nine Representatives of organizations from across the islands and the coast to share everything from housing initiatives and solutions to climate adaptation to food security and social enterprise.”

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Roy L Hales/Cortes Island - NDP candidate Tanille Johnson recently visited Cortes Island, where 20 people were waiting to see her in the Pioneer Room at Mansons Hall. The event was sponsored by Cortes Island’s Climate Action Network, which also provided lunch. 

Johnson said she prefers small meetings like this,  “I've been spending most of my time going to people's houses, meeting with their friends,  I like to think that I'm a very truthful, honest person and I actually care about what happens in this riding. It means a lot to me, like my family, generations and generations, lived here.”

Recent polls suggest the Conservative Party may have lost its early lead in this pre-election period. Both EKOS (February 26) and Ipsos (February 25) released polls that show the Liberals edging forward in what has once again become a two party race. The NDP are a distant third and fading. 

That’s on the national level, it has always been a very different race in North Island-Powell River. If you include the results from the former Vancouver Island North riding, the choice has been NDP or Conservative for decades. Rachel Blaney has been our MP since 2015, but her predecessor John Duncan was a Conservative and the Conservatives have been a close second in every recent federal election. 

Now Blaney is stepping down. 338Canada’s most recent projections still depict Johnson as the underdog in our riding, but those projections will only be released on Sundays until the election is declared. A great deal has changed since last Sunday. More will change in the weeks to come. 

Tanille Johnson began,  “ I was born and raised in Campbell River,  that's my home territory and my home community in more ways than one.  I am a member of the We Wai Kai First Nation, one of the three Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ Nations that make up the greater Campbell River area and a little bit up into Sayward for our traditional territory.  I didn't grow up on reserve. I spent a ton of time on reserve, but my house was down in Willow Point in Campbell River, which started me off in an interesting place in my life.” 

“I purposely moved back from Victoria eight years ago because I wanted to be home. I wanted to be home for me and for my kids.  I did not want to raise a family outside of my traditional territory. I'm extremely connected and loyal to this area. I'm not going anywhere.  I recognize that Ottawa is very far away and  I will be in Ottawa when I have to be in Ottawa but I will have big accountability for showing up in the riding and having my ear to the ground and showing up when you need me and being where I need to be.” 

“I first got into politics in post secondary education.  I dove in with both feet.  I was on the Native Student Union Council, I was on the UVic Student Society Board of Directors, I was on the UVic Senate. I sat at the Equity Advisory Council for the School of Social Work, federally with the Canadian Federation of Students on their Federal Executive Board as well as their Provincial Executive Board.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - 21 people attended the Premier of the feature documentary Yintah at the Campbell River Community Center on February 20th, 2025. The movie is sponsored by the North Island Powell River (NIPR) Federal Green Party Riding Association and follows the Wet'suwet'en land defenders 10 years struggle to keep gas companies from building a pipeline through their territory. Cortes Currents interviewed two of the event’s organizers about the film and some of the deeper issues within the local community.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A quick question just came up in regard to Cortes Island’s ongoing Zoning Bylaw Review. Cortes Island residents have up until noon on Friday, March 7, to make their thoughts known on possible limits to house sizes known. 

 “Do we want to put a limit on the maximum house size on Cortes?  It's a basic yes or no question.” asked Regional Director Mark Vonesch.   

“If you do agree, what is the maximum size you would like to see happen? Everything from 2,500 square feet to 4,300 square feet. I've certainly heard from a lot of people that this is something that's important to consider.  Basically do we want to have folks buy land here and build mega mansions?  Do we want to have Cortes be a place where the ultra wealthy can buy a piece of land and build a summer mansion?”

 “There's probably going to be quite heated thoughts on both sides of this question and rather than me just making a decision I want to understand what the wishes of the community are.”

 “If this new regulation goes through and we do say Cortes agrees that we should limit the size of the houses that are built, one of the questions people have is what does that mean for houses that are already larger than whatever square footage that we choose? The answer for that is simple, they’ll be grandfathered in. The bylaw does affect new builds only. If the house burns down, they won't be able to build to that same size.” 

“If this regulation does go through and anyone decides to build a house that's larger than the square footage that Cortes Wants, then the SRD can create a court injunction and have them either go through the process of reducing the size of their house to conform to the regulation, or take the house down.” 

 “Is this something we want? How do we want to have land use on, on Cortez B? I'm really excited to hear people's answers.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - While most of the Strathcona Regional District’s costs can be directly allocated to specific areas, others are labelled administration costs and need to be shared among the 10 communities. At their February 19 meeting the SRD Board discussed ways to make a more fair allocation of this expense. 

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “ To put this in perspective, let's say the SRD's total budget is $20 million or whatever it may be this year, we're talking about $2.8 million for admin costs.”

Campbell River has close to three quarters of the SRD’s population, but only contributes $1.6 million towards the $2.8 million administration bill. That’s just under 56%. Some Campbell River Directors dispute that number and most appear to think they are paying too much for a service they derive very little benefit from. Mayor Kermit Dahl served notice that at the next SRD Board meeting he will move to slash Campbell River’s contribution by 82%.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On February 21, 2025, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by De Clarke for a deep dive into neoliberalism—its history, impact, and the debates surrounding its influence on economics, politics, and society. How do current trends in US and Canadian politics affect us on Cortes?

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. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Brian Kingzett, the Executive Director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association, recently informed the city of Campbell River that: 

“ We have seen a weaponization of science where industry and government have their science, industry science is always put into conflict. Then we see activist science, which is largely coming out of urban areas  being weaponized against us. We need that independent science more than ever.” 

What Kingzett, who by the way has a Master’s degree in Marine Biology from SFU, did not say is that the professors he was defaming ‘have cumulatively published over 1,500 peer-reviewed scientific papers, serve or have served on over 30 editorial boards of scientific journals, include five Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada, and have many decades of experience in science advice processes across levels of government.’

Nor did he mention that they were either professors working in the following universities,  or have moved on from them after obtaining their PHDs: namely Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, University of California (Davis), University of Hawaii, University of Toronto, and the University of Victoria. At least two of them are also connected to the Pacific Salmon Foundation.  

When Cortes Currents asked Dr Gideon Mordecai, from UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, for a response, he pointed out that the urban label was not accurate because ‘much of the work is carried out by researchers living outside of large urban centres’ and additionally, there is a huge amount of science being led by, or carried out in collaboration with, First Nation Communities, which are often more rural.’

Cortes Currents: Do you have any response to Kingzett's comments? Or his dismissal of a letter from 16 recognized scientists as ‘activist science?’  

Gideon Mordecai emailed: “Bias exists in all scientific endeavours. However, I would suggest that it is quite clear who stands to benefit the most from certain scientific narratives. Industry-backed science inherently has a vested interest in outcomes that support continued operations, whereas independent academic research is typically more driven by curiosity and public interest. All that to say, let’s not let the BC Salmon Farmers Association be the final arbitrator of science!”

“The 16 scientists who critiqued the DFO rapid science response did so based on their expertise. Dismissing their concerns as “activist science” oversimplifies the issue and avoids engaging with the actual critiques they raised (which would be more typical of the scientific process). These issues (as described in our letter) are that DFO’s sea lice report is fundamentally flawed due to selective reporting of methods and results. We noted that the report was did not meet any reasonable standards of independent peer review, and downplays a large body of peer-reviewed research — both BC-focussed and international — that has repeatedly demonstrated the relationship between salmon farms and sea lice on wild juvenile salmon”

“One of the usual ways to mitigate bias is transparency— e.g. disclosing funding sources, data access, and methodologies. DFO has failed to share data for the sea-lice rapid science response (see the Information Commissioner's report on this). We will have to wait and see if the data is released in the coming weeks.”

There is much more in the podcast