Cortes Currents

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - The second in a series of five broadcasts in which Rex Weyler offers his personal memories of the early Greenpeace campaigns and of Paul Watson, who became a lifelong friend.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There are approximately 100 short term rentals, collectively earning between $1million and $5 million a year, on Cortes Island. At of the end of 2021, there were 177 on Quadra.  As of May 1st, all Airbnbs and short-term rentals in BC have to register with the provincial government.

 “It's a process where the provincial government is asking short term rental operators and short term rental platform operators to register. Then they're going to cross reference and use that as a way to regulate Airbnbs,” explained Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island (Area B).

Cortes Currents: Is there a cost?

Mark Vonesch:  “I think it's $100 if your Airbnb is in your home and you get 50% off if you register by February 28th. There's incentive to do it quickly.”

Cortes Currents: Are there any exceptions?

Mark Vonesch: “ Anyone can offer a short term rental to their friends and family and not have to register. If you've got a family home on Cortes, for example, and you rent a few weeks to your friends and family.”

“This is only a registry for people who are publicly advertising their short term rentals. If you are operating a short term rental where you're advertising through public newsletters, newspapers, social media, Airbnb, VRBO, Booking. com, those kind of things. If you're advertising your short term rental publicly, then you need to register.”

 Cortes Currents: What happens if you don't?

Mark Vonesch: “ If you don't, then what will happen is Airbnb or whatever sites you're using to advertise will pull your listing. You won't be able to use the platforms.”

“ If people check out the link that you've included in this story, there's tons of details there and lots of fine print of how things apply and who it applies to and the processes.

According to the provincial website, from June 1, 2025, and going forward, platforms must stop advertising any short-term rentals that do not have a valid registration number, prevent any new bookings, and cancel any existing bookings. Operating without a valid registration number may also result in monetary penalties.

Mark Vonesch: “ I just want to make it clear that Airbnbs are great. Short term rentals are an awesome way for people on Cortes to make some supplementary income and to be able to support them living here. We have a hundred Airbnbs on the island. It's an important source of income for a lot of people and I encourage people to get a short term rental and to do Airbnb.”

“At the same time the reason why there was popular support for opting into the primary residence requirement is that we don't want Cortes to be sold off to folks to turn properties into Airbnb businesses when they don't live here. I've heard lots of stories already of places being opened up to the market and rentals being provided.”

“So this is a way to sort of just protect the rental housing that we have on Cortes and to close the door on speculation in the housing market, and people buying homes and turning them into businesses.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - This is Roy Hales with Cortes Currents and as the data for the following report was almost exclusively collected by email or phone, the only voice in the following report is mine.

CityWest started hooking Cortes Island residents up to the internet in December 2023, but many homes are still waiting. As the evidence is anecdotal, it is difficult to say how many people are currently connected through CityWest and how many are not.

Sherman Barker just informed me that he has never met anyone who is connected. After waiting for two years of waiting, he was using Starlink by the time a CityWest crew showed up to do the final hook-up. 

“I have a pile of CityWest cable, all the way from my driveway to my yard, that they don’t want back.”  

Sean Coyote, a techie who works for Cortes Community Radio, said typically people who have yet to be serviced are told their names are on a list. Some, like Sherman, subsequently moved on to other internet providers. Sean added that there are a couple of CityWest trucks working on the island right now.

De Clarke/Cortes Currents - In December 2024, the environmental activist Paul Watson was freed by Danish authorities from detention in Greenland.  He had been held there due to an Interpol red-notice (warrant) issued against him by the government of Japan. The Danish Ministry of Justice denied official requests to extradite Watson for trial in Japan, and he was released to rejoin his family.

What did Paul Watson do that so angered the Japanese government?  Watson, born in Canada, has spent most of his adult life — ever since the 1970s — protesting against the commercial slaughter of whales and other marine mammals.  He was a founding member of Greenpeace, and participated in their early actions to document and obstruct the Russian whaling fleet in the North Pacific.   One of his shipmates on these early campaigns was longtime Cortes resident Rex Weyler.

In this special feature, we offer an extended interview with Rex Weyler; he offers his personal memories of the early Greenpeace campaigns and of Paul Watson, who became a lifelong friend.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Academy’s third semester is wrapping up and in this year’s end showcase the students are taking the audience on an imaginative visit to the year 2040. It starts at 7:00 this Thursday, January 13, 2025 at Mansons Hall.  

 “A really important part of the Cortes Island Academy is our year end showcase where the students are  given the task of finding a way to share some of the  learning that they've gone through in the semester in a form that is digestible for the community at large. So they put on this big event which is supposed to be fun and compelling and also spark the imagination of the citizenry of Cortes and the surrounding islands.  We are really hoping that a lot of people will come out. I'm quite proud of the way the students have really taken things a different way this year,” explained Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie.

“ One of the big things that the students were examining this year is the concept of climate and art. By climate, we don't necessarily mean climate change. They did a lot of deep diving into citizen science and current ecology,  but we also wanted them to examine this time that they were living in.This time is often referred to as the Anthropocene  which is derived from the ancient Greek word 'ánthrōpos' meaning human and ‘cene’ meaning new. People are using it to refer to this geological era that we're in now, where human activity has been the dominant influence on the world and the environment. The students have spent the semester examining what it means to grow up and live in this time with radical change, with societal pressure, and ecological pressure, ect.  So they did a bunch of different things.” 

“They had Tianna Hope come in and lead them through art. Rex Weyler led them through science. Kai Harvey and her brother Tosh Harvey led them through citizen relationships, science, and also field studies of different kinds and outdoor education. Michael Datura led them in social justice and in English. I helped them through two big things. One is what we call the Apocalyptic Book Club, which was not as doom and gloom as it sounds. It was a series of very interesting  books that examined the idea of different apocalypses through time, from now and into the future.”

“They also put together an anthology  of their works  called 'growing up in the Anthropocene,' where through art and through writing, they look specifically at what it means to be alive in this time and what it means to try to remain hopeful in this time. They are basically creating a time portal into the future and they're saying, what if we really choose and fight for the most imaginative and hopeful future possible?  They are taking  all the guests that come Thursday through this imagining of what it might look like in the future on Cortes in 2040.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/Folk U - On January 9, 2025, Max Thaysen and Erik Lyon hosted a hands-on workshop on all things shellfish! This fantastic teaching team chatted harvesting, sustainability, identification, risks and benefits of eating local shellfish, and so much more! This is a field-recording-style episode made possible by Decoda Literacy, the Cortes Island Community Foundation, and the Cortes Island Food Bank. Big thank you to Max and Erik.

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 - The Cortes Community Housing Society will soon break ground on Rainbow Ridge. They are also renting out two houses, are about to explore the possibility of a tiny house village, and hope to launch a homeshare program this summer. There is also news about the aquifer study, more online housing forums, the Cortes Island Trade Directory and Cortes Island’s vacant homes.

“2024 was a banner year for us in many ways,” exclaimed Executive Director Sadhu Johnston.

Bruin Black, the Society’s new Project Manager, added,  “This year is going to be a big year in terms of things happening. I'm just excited to see how things unfold.”

Orchard Village

What was special about 2024? What did you accomplish?

Sadhu Johnston: “ I guess the biggest thing is that we got some housing under our belts. We purchased a property with two existing houses on it, and we're able to get those rented out. I'm really excited to be working with the health association, CCHA to be providing housing to the doctors on the island,  which is much needed. We have a second house on the property that's being rented out to some artists, long time Cortes folks. That's really great and exciting for us to have housing that we're able to provide in the community.”

Cortes Currents: Tell me about the woodworking maker's space. 

Sadhu Johnston: “At Orchard Village, the project where we have the houses being rented,  we have a good size shop. We put a call out on Tideline for proposals for how to use that shop for community uses and we got a wonderful proposal from Hannu Huuskonen who's a woodworker on the island. He proposed the idea of setting up a woodworking maker space and those are pretty popular around North America.  Shared workshops where people can go and be a member and use tools and use a shop.” 

“We've established a partnership with the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative, where we will be co funding it  and working together to pursue the value added wood strategy that the co-op adopted last year.  People can have an annual membership and that gives them access to use the shop and we'll have commercial grade tools there and hopefully support entrepreneurs and hobbyists alike to have access to a wood shop and hopefully use more local wood for business opportunities.”

On the Webb, the Cortes Trades Directory & New Staff

“We've also just got staff and a new website with the Trades Directory on it. So there's just really a lot going on right now and gearing up to get construction going on Rainbow Ridge too. So it feels like an exciting time.” 

Starting Construction on Rainbow Ridge

Cortes Currents: So tell me about this construction on Rainbow Ridge. I understand it's going to be this Spring?

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - On January 9, 2025, Campbell River’s City Council gave first and second readings to a public nuisance amendment bylaw intended to prevent floodlighting, spotlighting and directional lighting from shining beyond the properties they protect onto residential areas. Council is giving the public to respond in writing before making a decision. 

Bylaw Services Manager (SM) Karl Read pointed out that it has been a year since Paula Burque asked the city to remedy this matter.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -  Election fever seems to be in the air again and in the first of a series of interviews with the candidates, Cortes Currents talked with Jessica wig the green party candidate for North Island-Powell River.

“We have a chance now to show the world that we will not Follow the trend of electing conservative right wing governments out of fear because we're told that things are bad. We know that things are bad in some ways, but things are amazing and wonderful in so many other ways,” she exclaimed.

“If we just have our knee jerk reaction and say, the last government was liberal, they didn't work. Let's go over to the other side and give this. Conservative government a try, we're never going to advance the ball. We're just going to keep hitting it back and forth. What we need is a way through this mess. That is with each other, that is by voting with our hearts and knowing what is right, what we value, using our brains to look at the world around us and see what is happening and ask ourselves, what's the best way that I can try to make it through this?”

“Who's the best person to stand up for what I believe in, to represent me in Ottawa and that's the Greens. We have known this is coming. We've been shouting it from the rooftops, trying to get attention and now it's unavoidable. It's here, so I would encourage people to vote Green.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Max Thaysen and Erik Lyon led a shellfish harvesting workshop in Mansons Lagoon on Thursday January 9, 2024. This was a free event sponsored by the Cortes Island Community Foundation, Decoda Literacy, and the Cortes Island Food Bank. Cortes Currents interviewed Max a few days prior to the workshop. 

“ I would love to support people to get more of their food from our local environment in a way that is ecologically sustainable  and invited my friend Eric Lyon to join me in  presenting the glory of shellfish to anybody who hasn't yet heard, or felt comfortable accessing this food,”he said.

“I think eating wild local food makes life more meaningful. I am hoping to encourage people to develop this relationship that I find so meaningful.  It defines part of who I am , and  makes my life  beautifully intertwined with the ecosystem. Eating the place that we live  is a way to love and need the place that we live, in addition to making life more affordable and healthier.”

“I also plan on talking a little bit about the impacts of climate change, which are strongly felt in the shellfish community.”

“Clams exist all around our coast.  Manila and Littleneck are the easiest to find and the ones that I'm most familiar with. Then of course, there are oysters. Both of them are super easy to harvest even in not a very low tide, more like a medium low tide.”

“They are pretty accessible, delicious, abundant and super nutritious in ways that lots of other foods that we eat are not. Like healthy sea fats, which are rich in brain food and also important for heart health and immune function.  So shellfish are pretty amazing, if we can figure out how to work it into our lifestyles.”

 Cortes Currents: How do you know where to find the clams? 

Max Thaysen: “They're pretty common. If you're not sure, you can go to the beach and just start poking around. Certainly finding shells on the surface of the beach is a good indicator that there's clams around.   Manson's Landing,  also known as Clytosin, is the place that I'm most familiar with. There's shells everywhere littering the surface, indicating that there's clams everywhere under the surface. They're about an inch down.” 

“Oysters live on the surface, so they're visible. You can find them almost everywhere.”  

Cortes Currents: You didn't mention  mussels. 

Max Thaysen: “There are some wild mussels around, but  they don't get as big as the commercial variety in most of the places that I've been. They tend to be quite small. While I have eaten them, I haven't usually bothered to harvest them.”

“If you find yourself somewhere where there's big mussels and they're safe to eat, then that's pretty premium stuff. On the west coast of Vancouver Island there's some really big mussels that are quite delicious.”