Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - It began with sacred songs, drumming and dancers.  Executive Director Kristie Lamirande would later tell Cortes Currents that while many healing centres have Indigenous spiritual components, as far as she knows none of them possess the 50/50 blend of Indigenous and Western healing methodology that the new Tsakwa’luten Healing Centre will offer. Some will remember this property as the Tsa Kwa Luten Lodge, on the southern tip of Quadra Island. There will be 42 beds for people struggling with addiction. 20 of them should be ready when the Centre opens this Fall. Jennifer Whiteside, the province's Minister for Health and Addictions, MLA Michele Babchuk, Chief Susan Savoy of the K’omoks First Nation and a number of leaders from the health community joined the We Wai Kai First Nation for the dedication on Tuesday July 16, 2024.       

Ronnie Chickite, Chief Councillor of the We Wai Kai Nation addressed the visitors, “I would like to welcome you all to our traditional territory.  It's a great day to be here. The sun is shining for this monumental announcement that the Minister is going to do for us today. We've been working on this over the last year and a half, but this vision has been there a lot longer. It's something we've seen our people go through and not only our people, but people throughout this whole country, let alone BC, but Indigenous people are definitely struggling the most.”

“We wanted  to create an Indigenous led traditional healing centre. We've seen them work. We believe that the culture based approach, combined with evidence based practices, can heal our people.  The clinical programming that we are looking at as well is going to be combined with 50 percent Western therapies and 50 percent land based therapies.  We are looking to open up in the Fall, hopefully in November.” 

“I'd also like to thank the Ministry of Health and Addictions. Without Minister Whiteside and her team and staff, and also our local MLA, Michelle Babchuk, a lot of this wouldn’t be happening.”

The province is investing $7.86 million towards the renovations and the operations.  

Whiteside explained, “It’s an important part of building a continuum of care in this part of the island, with the detox beds that have just opened now, at the hospital. The relationships that have been built through  this project.”

Lamirande added, “The province has committed to funding  our social beds for the first year. That's 80 percent of our beds. 20 percent of our beds are corporate, private pay beds,  and so year two and beyond, we need to sort that out, but  social beds are covered for the first year.” 

Cortes Currents joined Minister Whiteside, Babchuk and Linda Campbell, the facility’s lead for construction, on a tour of the bedrooms that are already finished. They were discussing the centre’s interactions with other First Nations.

Cortes Currents: What about Klahoose?  

Linda Campbell: “We haven't heard from Klahoose yet. They've been invited today, but I don't know if they're sending anybody over.  Certainly we'll be reaching out to all the nations.  One of the nice things about it is I sit on the primary care network and the Indigenous Advisory.  Klahoose is also a member. I've been bringing them up to speed on where the Healing Centre is at. We will be open shortly, and a lot of nations have been reaching out.”

Chief Ronnie Chickite: “Our goal is to create a safe and wonderful environment for anyone who wants to come here, not just Indigenous people. We want to make this for everybody.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - MLA Michelle Babchuk was on Cortes Island for a few days last week. She spoke to Cortes Currents after meeting with some of the island’s non-profits in the Village Commons. This was the third time she’s visited the island since she was elected in 2020. 

“I'm hearing that Cortes actually has a lot of capacity and we've known that for a long time. There's a lot of not for profit groups here. A lot of them are feeling extremely underfunded,” she explained. 

“I'm really excited because in my past visits there've been a lot of not-for-profits doing really great work at a grassroots level built specifically on need for the community, which is super heartwarming because it's a community feel,  but now we're taking a look at those organizations scaling up.  They are not dispersing little amounts of money that are not getting where they are needed.  I'm seeing a lot of collaboration with people  actually taking a look at where there is overlap, where the highest need is and being able to collaborate and scale that up so that you're actually hitting that next level of service delivery.” 

Babchuk has visited a lot of rural communities in her riding. 

Michele Babchuk: “I’ve been traveling through the North Island for the last four years, It's a large riding but I've been able to go to all of the communities at least once or twice  to see if the direction of the government in housing, health care, public safety, all of that is working for the community, and if not, what are the things that need to change. Rural communities are different from urban communities, different from metropolitan communities and sometimes it feels like we're fitting a round peg into a square hole. We need to be able to listen to the communities to make that happen.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The audio version of this story starts with Michael Keith’s impromptu response to a car horn sounding off during his Friday, July 12, performance in the Village Commons Music Series.  

“I don't want to live in this crazy place, 

all the horns are beeping all over the place. 

Every time I try to play, I can’t - I hear another horn, 

it's probably someone shopping for corn.” 

There have been a lot of changes in what Manda Aufochs Gillespie calls the heart of ‘Mansons Landing.’ The big tent where Michael played has been moved  beside the Mansons Hall parking lot for the summer. Cortes Currents did not check to see if  Reef Point Farm is already selling corn at the Friday Market, but Sara Stewart was there. Her stall was involved in the realignment which now connects the Market with the Village Commons.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie: "The Cortes Island Community Foundation is really excited to be partnered with our neighbors in particular, the Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) and Manson's Hall  to rethink the Village Commons and heart of Manson's in a way that would be more from the neighbourhood user experience."

"One of the first things we realized, when we started looking at this piece of land that we're calling the Village Commons, is how separated the land right beyond the radio station and FOCI was. As if to say, ‘Who cares about that?’"

"What we want is to have interactive places where we can come together as a community, and flow between. The grants that came with the Village Commons, when CCEDA passed that land to the community foundation, provided an opportunity to do some revisioning taking onto account that has happened in the past with CCEDA and the deliverables that we have to do."

“One of the things that came up again and again, when we were talking to the community, was that  people wanted to feel like there was less division between spaces. They wanted  to park their car, leave it for some period of time and walk between things."

"As you can see now,  the parking lot here at Manson's hall is starting to feel a little bit more organized. It's a little less overfull.  Now there's an overflow parking that's tucked in near the skate park and the museum that is publicly accessible with  a short trail that goes right to the Friday Market, Manson's Hall and the Village Common space."

Lovefest 2024 is coming to Cortes Island on Saturday, August 10. The full slatep of performers has now been confirmed and today’s program is going to be a sampler from five of the acts: 6 Foot Johnson, Doc Fingers, Elise Le Blance, the Adonis Puentes Cuban band and Ann Mortifee 

“ It'll be a great  day of music; it’s a family affair. There's food, of course, and all the crafts vendors and  there will be massages. There's a kid's tent. We're going to have fun and games for kids. It's the Cortes annual music festival. This is for the people that are here in the summer and of course, the year round residents that live on Cortes. We like to feature our local musicians and we like to bring in new bands that people haven't heard.   Doors open at 11, the music starts at noon, Lovefest will probably go till nine o’clock,” explained Rex Weyer, one of the Festival’s principle organizers.  

Tickets are on sale in the stores: the Cortes Market, Cortes Natural Food Co-op, Squirrel Cove General Store and Gorge Harbour Store. 

Rex Weyler: "They're also on sale at Friday Markets. I'm there every Friday.” 

Cortes Currents: Let’s go to the sampling:

The audio version of this story opens with a short clip of 6 Foot Johnson  which CKTZ News reporter Louis Belcourt recorded just prior to their 20th year anniversary performance. You can listen to it in the podcast above.  

Rex Weyler:  “This is the first time that Six Foot Johnson is going to play at Lovefest.  We're really excited about that. This is a Cortes band that's been playing for a long time for decades and great musicians, 

“We have Doc Fingers, great BC musician. I knew Doc Fingers in the seventies and eighties, when he used to play in Vancouver all the time. He'll bring his band, really good music.”

Weyler’s co-producer, Benji Cohen emailed that Doc Fingers has been on the Vancouver scene since 1972: “Doc plays an eclectic mix of jazz, blues, pop, boogie-woogie and originals and has toured Europe regularly.” 

‘Good Times Roll’ is from a 2017 recording of the Doc Finger’s Trio. 

Rex Weyler: “We have Elise LeBlanc, a country singer from Cumberland. She plays with a fiddle player. They do just great western swing style fiddle music.  She did an album in 2011 called 'Runaway Kites' and her most recent, The Fiddle and the Fire, is excellent, just released last year.  You can find her on Spotify and BandCamp and so forth. She's got a website. You could play some of her music on the radio too if you want.” 

"The Fiddle and The Fire” is from a 2023 recording of Elise LeBlanc & The Ridgeriders

Rex Weyler: “The Adonis Puentes Cuban band that people love so much is coming back.” 

Puentes has been a headliner at the last two Lovefests and his song  Sabor A Café was a shortlisted nominee for World Music Album of the Year at the 2014 Junos. 

This sampling closes with a clip from one of the most internationally recognized singers on Cortes island. 

“Anne Mortifee is going to do  a retrospective of her career. And Anne, I also knew in the seventies in Vancouver. Anne has always been an extraordinary singer. She lives here on Cortes Island now, and we're really fortunate to have Anne on the island and double fortunate that she's going to do a set for us at Lovefest.”

‘Nobody Gets My Child’ is taken from the Ecstasy of Rita Joe

Rex Weyler: “I found out that  August 10th, the day of Love Fest, there will also be a massive shooting star exhibition  put on by the universe. so as the music's ending, we'll be showered in shooting stars. The grand finale will be the shooting star display in association with the Universe and Love Fest.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - As anyone passing through Squirrel Cove in recent months knows, there has been a great clearing in the upper part of the new Klahoose property. QXMC, the business arm of the Klahoose First Nation, hopes to open a store and gas bar there by March 2025.

Ron Buchhorn, Chair of the Board of QXMC, explained, ”We retained a project manager back in November of last year and we have signed a letter of intent with Chevron for the gas station component of the store and gas bar. We have a commitment from Co-op that they will assist us with stocking the store and helping us basically manage to their standards.  Co-op will supply us with all the products in the store through their wholesale distributor TGF. We're very happy about that. It won't be branded Co-op because obviously with the Chevron branding on the facility, you can't have two brands.” 

“The footprint of the store will be about 4,000 square feet. Full service with everything from groceries to produce, to meat, to deli to some prepared warm foods. It looks as though we'll have four suites upstairs. A 2 bedroom and three 1 bedroom suites, to ensure that we have accommodation for staff at the store.”

“If we proceed with phase two, which is the campground next door, our plan is to have the General Manager and potentially a couple of the other department managers living at the facility. We want to have someone there full time.”

“In terms of the store layout and the external architecture of the store, we're trying to keep the architecture consistent with the cabins that we've had an architect design. He's done a lot of research on Coast Salish buildings, during the last couple hundred years and tried to factor in that type of architecture.  It'll be very similar to the Klahoose Administration Building as well, so it'll be a shed roof with some nice exterior wood paneling. Our hope is that the sawmill will be able to provide all of the beams and most of the wood that will be required for the structure.”

Maureen Williams/Cortes Currents - Last week, I sat down on zoom with television showrunner and independent film maker Jon Cooksey to talk about his 2010 film, “How to Boil a Frog”. The film, which also features Rex Weyler, is being screened at Manson’s Hall on Tuesday, July 9, at 7PM. Jon and Rex will be there to participate in discussion after the film.

In the interview, we talked about the events that led to his interest in climate change and ecological overshoot, his long friendship with Rex, and how his thoughts about impacting the future have evolved since making this film.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The renovations at Gorge Harbour Marina are finished. This has been much more than a facelift. It includes a new water system, upgraded septic and electric systems, yet the face of the resort has also been dramatically improved. The RV sites, campsites, much of the grounds and internal layout of the lodge have all been redesigned. Six new visitor domes, 2 cooking stations, a new massage hut, a new bridge across the creek and a food truck have been added.  

There is one big decision remaining. Will QXMC, the business arm of the Klahoose FIrst Nation, build a restaurant to take the place of the former Floathouse restaurant? General Manager Marco Bedetti says a decision is imminent and, for now, the food truck serves the resort’s needs.

The last three months at the resort have been a success story, which Bedetti insists starts at the board level:

“Obviously we had ideas on the direction that the Gorge Harbour should go.  Those ideas became more focused and clear towards the beginning of March.  There was a board meeting at the end of March and we decided to go ahead with a bigger project which left us with basically April, May, and parts of June, to be able to get them all done for the opening on June 28th.  We couldn't have done any of this without the Klahoose community, without council and chief,  without the board of directors who: 

A - purchased the property, and

B - had a vision of wanting to own a better run resort like this one. So I want to give a big thank you to the Klahoose Community Chief and Council and Board of Directors."  

Darryl Czegledi, the general contractor during this final stage of renovations, added, “This is a big project.  It doesn't make a lot of money up front.  So you have to have the vision and then you  really have to want to put the money forward so the vision can come together.  From my perspective, the Klahoose seems to want to invest in the community.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Michael Keith has been a professional musician for over 35 years, and lately people have been asking him to share some of his expertise on the radio. He finally launched ‘Six Strings And Beyond’ on Tuesday June 18th. 

“The idea of the programs based on guitar, which is my area of expertise: guitar, guitarists, and guitar like instruments from around the world. So, plucked string instruments a number of which I've studied privately over the years. I'm an  amateur Ethnomusicologist,” he explained.

Cortes Currents: What’s the format: interviews? recordings? your expertise?

Michael Keith: “All of the above, I'm wide open. Cortes Community Radio (CKTZ 89.5 FM) would like to have local people as much as possible, so I'm certainly  open to that, but mostly just sharing anecdotes about  my experiences as a guitar player. discovering and being inspired by people ta lot of people (if they tune in) probably haven’t heard of. I've done such an extensive amount of listening and following of off the radar guitarists and other instrumentalists over the last 40 years or so. I also plan on bringing different instruments with me, having a little talk about them and playing a little bit live in the studio myself, just for the fun of it. Randy Bachman has done that on a CBC show where he'd have guitar player guests, and then they would jam a tune live on the air and I think that's a cool idea.”

Cortes Currents: How is the show coming so far? 

Michael Keith: “I’ve done two and they both went smoothly. So now we're starting to advertise it a bit. It's Tuesday afternoons on CKTZ 89.5 FM, at 3:30 to 5 PM.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) have just published their summer activities program for 2024.

“We're really delighted to be launching our 2024 Summer Events Program. We've got eight really fabulous events running in July and August. Everything from a low tide walk in Manson's Lagoon, which we call ‘Gumbooting in the Lagoon’, through to a kayak tour of Hague and Gunflint Lakes. We've also got a tour of Blue Jay Farm, a herbal tea workshop, and an early morning seashore walk in front of Hollyhock. So lots of really exciting events coming up,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.

Cortes Currents: Are any of these activities hands on, where you get to really experience nature?

Helen Hall: “All of them are like that. We've got a new event for us which is called Forest Foraging on Foot, and that's with permaculturalist and herbalist Maria McKenty. That's going to be a guided walk through Hank's Beach Forest Trails. People get a chance to learn about the nutritional and medicinal uses of plants, so that should be a really fun and engaging.”

“Our ‘Gumbooting in the Lagoon’ event is really hands on. Marine biologist, Deb Cowper is there to guide people around the lagoon and look at all the different marine life in the lagoon. On that event, we have lots of children who are really excited to take part. It's a bit like a marine treasure hunt for them. They look at crabs, the moon snails and Deb tells them all about it.”

“We've also got a herbal tea workshop that we're running in August, which is where people can actually learn how to blend different herbs and make teas. So that's going to be a very hands on fun event for people to take part in too.”

Cortes Currents: I noticed that two of your events or farm tours.

Helen Hall: “That’s learning about the two different farms: Blue Jay Farm and how people live there off grid. Max Thaysen, who's a farm resident, will be talking to people about some unique systems of human habitation there. The Linnaea Farm Tour is quite a nice tour for kids to take part in. They get to meet the farm animals, see life on the farm and where the food comes from.”

Cortes Currents: Are these events fundraisers for FOCI?

Helen Hall: “It helps, we do make a little bit of money about it, but our prime reason is to get people out there enjoying. the natural environment, having fun and discovering new things about the island.”

Cortes Currents: Do you find that it that some people who go on the tours turn around and become volunteers for FOCAI?

Hellen Hall: Yes, over the years had people volunteering or joining FOCAI as a member, and then getting more involved in the organization. Maybe a child who's come on our low tide Gumbooting walk will be inspired to become a marine biologist. When people do an event or activity, you never really know what they're taking away from it.”

We get a mixture of locals and tourists, so it's a good way for us also to talk about the work we're doing in the different locations. Like we're doing some work at Manson's Spit next to the lagoon, so it gives us a chance to tell people about the work we're doing as well. So people get to learn a bit more about us as an organization. It's a lovely time in the summer to be outdoors exploring and we usually get really good feedback from people who take part.

“I'd like to say one more thing about our summer events program. The program is on our website, which is friendsofcortes.org. You can find out more about the events there. If people want to book a spot, then they just have to contact the FOCI office by phoning 250-935-0087 or emailing us on [email protected]. The events are usually very popular, so we encourage people to book to make sure they get a spot.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents- Alan Morrison of the Sunday Herald described Simon Kempston as ‘One of Scotland's very best singer-songwriters.’ Scottish Television said he is ‘a stunning Talent.’ Tom Robinson of BBC Radio 6 added, ‘Beautifully authentic guitar style & heartfelt vocals.’

Kempston will be performing in: Campbell River’s Spirit Square from noon to 1:15 on Tuesday, July 9th; Mansons Hall  on Cortes Island, at 7 PM on July 11; and in the Kameleon Cafe on Quadra Island, at 7 PM on Friday July 12th.

This is Simon Kemptson’s 9th Canadian tour and Cortes Currents caught up with him in Wells BC, where he was playing at the Sunset Theatre.  

"Listening audiences are the most important thing to me, an audience that's going to listen to you. I have a lot to say both in the songs and  with the music, but also I like to tell stories and give some context and background about the song. So  small art centers, churches, small theatres, house concerts: these are the type of ideal venues  for what I present," he explained.