Cortes Currents

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - In 2020, logging company Teal Jones was engaged in cutting irreplaceable, old-growth, temperate rainforest in the Fairy Creek area of their lease on Vancouver island. In response, substantial numbers of "forest defenders" gathered to protest and obstruct the old growth cut... and local history was made.

Protestors blocked the access road to Teal Cedar's cut blocks from 2020 through early 2021. The number of people arrested exceeded 1100 -- which, according to CBC, made it "the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history."

Cortes Currents has followed the story of the Fairy Creek protest as it developed; many Cortes residents spent time at the protest encampment, or are closely connected to people who participated. We continue that coverage now, with an update on the highly litigious aftermath of the blockade action.

As well as the unprecedented head count of people arrested, the duration and persistence of the blockade (despite harsh winter conditions) were newsworthy. So were the many allegations of unprofessional, and even brutal, conduct by RCMP on the scene -- particularly the notorious "Green Guys," the CIRG.

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Writer, journalist, ecologist, and Cortesian Rex Weyler joined us on December 15th to chat about truth and bias. We discussed media literacy, checking our own biases, and the intersection of media and global politics. Listen to this fascinating presentation and discussion on reading between the headlines.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 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 - On Tuesday, December 19, The Government of Canada announced a gradual phasing out of gas powered light vehicle sales until 2035, after which all new vehicles must be 100% emissions free.

“Transportation is the most polluting  sector in Canada after oil and gas, a lot of that comes from road transportation. So from the vehicles we drive that are on the road, from sitting in traffic. This regulation is aiming  to ensure that we're putting forward technologies like zero emission vehicles, that includes electric vehicles, that will drastically reduce emissions within that sector and this regulation says that it will have emissions reductions of 360 million tons. That's the equivalent of 62,000 Olympic swimming pools full of gas that have been burned,” explained Meena Bibra, Senior Policy Analyst with Clean Energy Canada. 

“To put that into perspective, around 15,000 premature deaths happen in Canada because of air pollutants from exhaust fumes, essentially.  Moving to zero emission technologies is going to ensure that there's going to be $90 billion of net benefits coming from just air pollution. That's less visits  to the hospital, to their emergency room. If you have an asthma attack or if you have lung disease,  impacting children less than an elderly folk less or those who already have other diseases that are related to respiratory illnesses.”

Cortes Currents: You’re quoting the same statistics I saw in the government press release and their backup material. Where did they come from? 

Meena Bibra: “The air pollution analysis essentially came from the atmospheric fund, but they used data from Health Canada and from Environment Canada to make this analysis. The ’62,000 million tons’ illustration was actually done by Environment Canada themselves, as a part of the regulatory process. It's required that they quantify what those emissions reductions are going to be looking like.”

To put a local spin on this story, Cortes Currents recently interviewed Forrest Berman-Hatch, lead author of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) report ‘The Carbon Footprint of Traveling to or from Cortes Island.’ He identified the ferry as the biggest polluter for any vehicle travelling to Vancouver, but if you are driving an EV that is almost the only source of pollution.   

By 2026, 20% of Canada’s new car sales must be emissions free, which can be fuel cell or plug-in electric. According to a recent report from Clean Energy Canada, British Columbia has already crossed that threshold, but the rest of the nation is lagging behind.  

We have a number of EVs on Cortes, including at least two Teslas, a Chevy Bolt and a number of e-bikes, but the only charging port is at Hollyhock.  

Cortes Currents: What can you tell us about Canada’s charging infrastructure?


Meena Bibra: “The most accurate update that we found for charging infrastructure in Canada is about 25,000 charging ports. The Auditor General recently released a report saying that the federal government is on track to meet its targets of 33,500 chargers by 2026.  The federal government has also spent 2 billion on charging infrastructure investments. So we are moving in the right direction.”

“The Federal Government can't do everything by themselves. This is where it's going to be really important to bring in other partners like provinces,  utilities, municipalities,  car makers as well to build infrastructure where it's needed.”

MIck Sweetman/ CHLY 101.7FM - Transit workers in Comox and Campbell River went on strike Friday morning citing wages as the key reason for the job action.

While this shuts down public transportation for tens of thousands of people, the union and employer agreed to keep operating the HandyDART buses for people with disabilities.

Unifor national representative Gavin Davies says the three major stumbling blocks are the rate of pay for current employees, a proposal by the employer to pay new hires less, which he says will make it harder to recruit and retain drivers and lead to drivers working more overtime, and funding issues.

A statement by Pacific Western Transit says that the company offered wage increases that were higher percentages than those in recent BC Public Sector Union agreements, with an 18 per cent increase in overall compensation and a 15 and a half per cent increase to wages over three years.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - More than 100 people turned up at Mansons Hall on Friday, December 15, for Cortes Island’s first firefighters dinner. 

"It was wonderful to be able to thank the firefighters and their families and their close friends for all the time and effort that they put in. I think we have an amazing crew and it's really something as chief, and the board, we need to be mindful of and make sure it's an amazing place for them to participate. A lot of small fire departments are really struggling with staff these days. We have a really strong crew," explained Fire Chief Eli McKenty.

“We invited all the firefighters, the board, the paramedic crew and everyone's families to a dinner. The turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and all that good stuff were catered by Carie Taylor from the Sunflower Food Truck. Kirsten Vitelich, and I don't know Amy's last name, (she’s relatively new at Linnaea Farm), did the on scene catering. All the firefighters and everybody brought a mountain of sides and desserts. It went super well, and  was a tremendous amount of fun for everyone.”

CC: How many people came? 

Eli McKenty: “I think we were 105-110, including well over half of our membership and their families.”

“It was a little bit stressful leading up to it, since we haven't had one before. The week before, we had ended up with a lot of late RSVPs and we jumped from expecting about 80 people to expecting over 100 and  weren't sure we were going to have enough food. I made a panic buying trip to Costco and ended up getting a mountain of food that we prepared.  We also were able to increase the amount that Carie was bringing. We still weren't totally sure, but then people delivered like I've never seen in the potluck department!” 

“All my worrying was unnecessary as usual. Every time we've had a barbecue or potluck, I've been concerned about whether there was going to be enough food to go around and it always turns out to be way more than we need.”

“It went super well, and  was a tremendous amount of fun for everyone.”

“I could never have pulled this off without Tammy Allwork, our Office Manager. I basically was like, 'hey, let's do this. Ahhhhh, now what?' She was instrumental, as were several other volunteers from the fire fighting community who stepped up. Tammy took care of  a huge amount of organizing around the food. Jeramie Ellingson organized the music,  Lucy Robinson organized photography and Robert Carrington set up a hilarious selfie booth in the hallway.  Mike Datura, the new principal from the school, DJ'd for us, which was well appreciated by everyone. As was the background music that Michael Keith played during the dinner.”  

CC: Did your President, Sadhu Johnston, make a speech? 

Eli McKenty: “Sadhu gave quite a nice speech. The speeches were thanking the firefighters and their families for supporting us and the board and the community. They detailed some of our achievements for the year,  thanking Mac for taking the training officer role. There were a few statistics. I think we've done 82 calls this year.”

“We had awards for firefighters, and gave away some door prizes. Then we had a couple of hilarious competitions.”

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - In late 2023, Klahoose First Nation completed a “landmark deal” to purchase a total tenure of 181,036 cubic metres of allowable annual cut (AAC), on forest lands located on the Sunshine Coast in the Nation’s traditional territory. This makes KFN the largest logging tenure holder within the Nation’s traditional landbase.

Klahoose already owned tenure of 115,000 cubic metres AAC, so this purchase brings their total allowable cut to 296 thousand cubic metres per year, or over 140 million board feet. Chief Steven Brown told reporters that “Klahoose Nation is a forestry nation. We see a bright future for forestry, and it is time for us to manage the resources in our territory so the benefits come to our members,”

Although tenure rights do not confer title to Crown land, they do enable the First Nation to set its own rules for management of the logging operation.

Logging companies in the past have notoriously clearcut right across riparian zones. These zones help protect water quality by regulating the flow of water and nutrients between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Logging near fish-bearing streams, for example, has been shown to increase water temperatures and raise the risk of algal growth and eutrophication. Chief Brown, who studied Environmental Science at the University of Victoria, expressed his intention to improve existing conventional practise.

“If we want to increase the distance of harvest from the fish-bearing streams or [improve] old growth management, we dictate that on all of our tenure, and it means that contractors we hire to do the work have to follow those standards,” Brown said. “We can also plan for old growth management to ensure it’s done sustainably and that we’re promoting an increase in old growth in the territory.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -  The first time many Cortes Island residents heard of Doug McCaffrey was when he and his wife, Melanie, took over Becca's beans. Prior to that they were living in central Saanich.

"We came  for a vacation. It was a beautiful August, and I'd always wanted to come to Cortes.  I thought, 'hey, just for fun, let's look at some real estate.' The place we're at now had just come up for sale and came with  the optional coffee roastery.  I thought, 'well, I love coffee, let's learn coffee roasting.'  It all happened so fast. Two of the things I love most in life, coffee and film, and I'm in heaven," he explained.

"So many things have been captured on film over the past 120 years. There's millions of cans of film around the world. If these films aren't looked after, they're just going to disappear. I think it's very important that we archive, catalog and keep this window from the past with us. Digitizing and restoring, that's probably the bulk of what I do. Each project seems to be a little bit different. I work with archives and I'm learning more and more about the archives end of it."

The 2022 film festival at Mansons Hall was McCaffrey’s idea. 

"That was an interesting project, working with George Sirk, and having the Cortes Cinema film night. It seemed to be quite a success, and everybody enjoyed themselves. A lot of people regret missing it. I think we're going to have an encore. This March, maybe, we're going to team up with the Museum and Archives and do another film night of vintage Cortes Cinema."

 CC: How did you get into this business?

Doug Caffrey: "I got into graphic arts shortly after I  finished school. At that time there was a real labour shortage for skilled people, so I could pretty much pick and choose where I wanted to work.  I loved travelling back in those days, and so I could basically do working holidays almost wherever I went. I lived in New Zealand,  Britain, Southeast Asia Britain, and all around Europe."

"I would take the images, put them on a large plexiglass drum, and they'd spin at about 600 RPM, (go through) a fibre optic light and the images would come out the other end digitized. Then we could build whatever it is, a newspaper, a book, a magazine, a catalog, that sort of thing."

"It seemed like a natural progression moving on to motion picture film. I've always loved movies, especially foreign films and I started collecting Italian films on 16 mm. I'd find them on eBay and I ended up with a collection. I thought, 'hey, well, I'm in the graphic arts, restoring images, working on images and artwork. It can't be that much different from restoring motion picture film.' So I looked into it. I took some courses. I got a lot of help from a company in Austria  whose developed some amazing film restoration software and started doing that." 

"I thought, 'Why don't I look into buying a motion picture film scanner?' So I bit the bullet and basically took out another mortgage to get some of this equipment."

Top image credit:Old movie projector - Photo by emma.kate via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED)

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents -Former Regional Director Jim Abram may have been confusing the proposed SRD Housing Service with a Federal grant program when he criticized it during an interview with CKTZ News. 


Abram claimed that building permits are required under the new housing initiative, and the islands are ‘going to get nothing, most likely,  other than, you know, a little  less money in your pocketbook because it's going to go into your taxes.’ 


He also spoke against the ‘affordable housing bandwagon’: ‘There's only so many people that you can accommodate with your existing infrastructure.’


Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Isand, responded, “The points that he's making that have alarmed a lot of people, in my opinion very unnecessarily, and are not based on the facts. The housing service is about developing a  way for us to requisition a small amount of tax from people. The average property on Cortes is going to pay $31.80 maximum per year.  For 2024, right now it's at zero. We have nothing planned.  It's going to be used for us to collectively pool our money to make housing happen.”


So let's look at some of Abram's facts.  


CC: Is there any requirement for building permits under the proposed SRD housing service?


Mark Vonesch: “The short answer is no, the Regional District Housing Service has nothing in it that says we have to have building permits.”


“What Jim's referring to as far as building permits, is the Housing Accelerator Fund. So this is one grant  that the Regional District has applied for. Part of the requirement of the grant is having a way to measure new housing builds and the internal measurement for that is traditionally housing permits.” 


Regional Director Robin McWhinney of Area C mentioned the confusion between the Accelerator fund and proposed SRD housing service, in her December 12th Directors Newsletter. Even if the SRD application is approved. Cortes island, Area C and Area A will not be able to obtain Accelerator funding  because we do not use building permits.”


(This is a grant and unrelated to the SRD housing service, which is seeking to raise startup capital through our property taxes.)  


CC: So why don't we use building permits?


Mark Vonesch: “My sense is Cortes does not want a building permit. We have some of the best builders around on our island, and they are building to the code, whether we have building permits or not.” 


Robyn Mawhinney: “I haven't heard from any residents on Quadra Island who are in favour of adding another level of local government oversight and fees that  would be associated with building service and building permits and building inspections. Creating a new bylaw or service is a lot of work for staff and for me and for the community to attend community meetings and weigh in on things like that. It's not something that I'm pursuing unless I hear a reason why we should be, and I haven't heard one yet.” 


Abram also claims that Cortes and Quadra  islands have reached their capacity in terms of population.


Mark Vonesch: “That’s a fine statement to say. Somebody else could say we haven't reached our capacity, but what data are you actually looking at to make that statement?” 


“One of the things that I'm moving forward on, together with the Cortes Housing Society, is looking quite seriously at 'what is our capacity?' First of all, starting with the base, what is the health of our aquifer? What is the health of our watershed?  Where can we have more development that's going to be sustainable in the long term? And how can we do development in a way that is ecologically sensitive, that recognizes our imprint on the land but also produces housing.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Daniel Lindenberger, of Thaumazo and UBC’s Emerging Media Lab, joined us over Zoom on the December 1st FolkU Friday session to lead a fascinating presentation and discussion on artificial intelligence.

Listen to Daniel’s explanation of how AI works, different types of AI, and the benefits and challenges of an AI-informed future.

Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 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.

Kim Paulley/ CKTZ News - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) is engaging residents in an Alternative Approval Process (AAP) for a Regional Housing Service and loan authorization to address housing solutions on Cortes Island.

The AAP is "a form of approval that allows electors to indicate whether they are against a local government proposal moving forward," according to the BC government.

The SRD approved the AAP process on Nov. 8.

"Approval was given to proceed with an alternative approval process (AAP) for Bylaws No. 512 and 515 which would establish a regional housing service and authorize borrowing of up to $10 million for that purpose," the SRD website states. "If approved, the Regional District would be able to address a variety of housing challenges in the region including seniors housing, workforce housing, and other social housing issues either directly or in partnership with third parties such as housing societies."

CKTZ spoke with Jim Abram who, up until a year ago, was Regional Director for Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets (Area C) with the regional district for 35 years. Abram has two main concerns with adopting an regional housing service: increased taxes and required building inspections.

“If it passes, you’re going to be in the regional service and you’re going to pay for it on your taxes, whether you like it or not,” stated Abram.

A very particular problem for Cortes Island (Area B) and Quadra Island (Area C), according to Abram, is a Building Inspection Service - something currently not required on either island - that will follow from having a Regional Housing Service.

CKTZ contacted David Leitch, Chief Administrative Officer for the SRD, Tom Yates, Corporate Officer for the SRD, and Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, each of whom did not respond.

The AAP runs until noon on Jan. 2. To learn more, visit the SRD webpage.