Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Close to 70 people of all ages took part in Cortes Island’s community fungal forest walk on November 1, 2023. The students of the Cortes Island Academy were among them. We were greeted outside the Linnaea Education Centre by one of the islands better known scientists, who declared:

“Good afternoon. Good afternoon. ‘Truncocolumella citrina‘ you can call me, the Latin name for Lemon truffle. On any day other than MYCOblitz, my name is Sabina Leader Mense. I’m a founding director and an educational research associate with the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortez Island Society and it’s my pleasure on their behalf to be hosting MYCOblitz 2023.” (Cheers)

“‘Myco’ is the Greek word for fungus. So MYCOblitz 2023 is a celebration of the kingdom fungi. And to add to our myco-merriment this very special day, we have invited three outstanding mycophiles, lovers of mushroom, and mycologists who do professional studies with mushrooms.”

Andy MacKinnon is the lead author of Mushrooms of BC, Paul Stamets founded Fungi Perfecti and Paul Kroeger is President of the Vancouver Mycological Society.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There was a marked decrease in the number of BC Ferries cancellations on the Campbell River run this past quarter, but little change on the Cortes Island Ferry.

According to the corporations newly released report of cancellations statistics from July to September 2023, the new hybrid e-ferries only missed 24 sailings as opposed to 161 the previous quarter.

There were no cancellations due to weather or mechanical failures. However 22 sailings had to be cancelled because of crew shortages and another 2 for unspecified reasons.

There were 343 cancellations in BC Ferries last fiscal year, which ended in March 2023.

26 sailings were missed on the Heriot Bay to Cortes Island run. This is only one more than the previous quarter. The principal differences are fewer weather related cancellations, but an increase in mechancial and staffing problems.

The picture Fleet wide is not pretty. There were 1,172 cancellations in the past six months. More than 80% of these occured in minor routes, such as ours and the leading causes were crew shortages, mechanical failures and weather.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Klahoose First Nation Development Corporation, QXMC, has a new General Manager. 

“In mid August I was approached by a member of the board I work closely with, who asked me if I was interested in applying for the position as General Manager. I gave it some thought and went ahead. It was a long process including several interviews, skill assessments and psychological evaluations. Thereafter the board took time to review all candidates, reflect and just at the end of last week they came to the decision of hiring me,” explained Marco Bedetti. 


Prior to that he was the Gorge Harbour Marina’s Guest Manager.  


Marco Bedetti: “I began my journey at the Gorge Harbour in May of 2017. I was hired to work at the reservation desk. This nice lady Pat trained me on how to use the reservation tool and how to book guests.”


“In the following years I kept on taking reservations, but also slowly learning about all aspects of the Resort. I worked in the store as a clerk, I would stock items, be more involved with the inventory, and I worked on grounds to prepare for the season. I fulfilled many of the tasks that have helped me to learn how to become a Guest Service Manager.” 


“As a Guest Service Manager, one needs to see the big picture. It’s not only about booking guests into the right spots, but it also involves understanding the synergies between all other departments. Housekeeping needs to be ready for when people check in. The grounds team needs to have all sites cleaned and prepared for the arrival of the RV’s. The dock staff needs to know how many boats are arriving, and which customers might also have a room booked. All these single components need to work together to provide for a smooth service, but also for an amazing guest experience. Learning this has given me a great advantage into understanding how the entire resort functions, and therefore being able to take on the brief, yet hectic role as Resort Manager.”


“I effectively managed the resort since July of this year, and we made it through “let’s call it an interesting” season. We did remained open, but due to many factors many of our services remained partially unavailable. I would like to thank every single team member who helped get us through this particular season. So many staff members wore so many different hats! I actually remain amazed at how willing everyone was to make it work!”

Cortes Currents: What do you hope to accomplish as General Manager of QXMC? 


Marco Bedetti: “I’m very committed to run QXMC in a very professional manner. That means to ensure that all the business ventures are profitable and I want to provide returns for the shareholders. I also want to see everyone involved succeed and have fun with what they do. I think we need to build teams that are successful, that can work together well, and that enjoy the journey towards the positive outcomes that will follow.”


“A lot of planning has been put towards the resorts and I'm definitely looking forward to a successful season in 2024, both for the Gorge Harbour Marina and Klahoose Wilderness Resort. The sawmill is now run by Kevin, who is doing an absolutely amazing job with his team. QXMC has invested heavily in making this happen, and we are on the market.  I want to see this business thrive. The sawmill is already producing high quality lumber, and it's absolutely available to the public. Please, to anyone out there, come visit us, Mondays to Thursdays. Feel free to see for yourself what product we have and what projects we're working on.” 


“I will also deep dive into aquaculture and the coastal adventure businesses and see them from an operational perspective. I want to listen to the needs of the people involved and figure out with them how to grow these ventures.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - On Friday, October 27, host Manda Aufochs Gillespie was joined in the studio by gardener extraordinaire - Billie Taylor. Billie shares about her experience gardening on Cortes, the ways her garden has changed in the past few years, and her love of composting. Join in for a spontaneous conversation on adaptive gardening, climate crisis, and resilience.

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 - After five years at the helm of the Cortes Community Housing Society, Sandra Wood has stepped down. She continues to be involved with the society as a grant writer, a service which she has provided Cortes Island for more than a decade.


"The exciting news is We have a wonderful replacement who's going to be stepping in to take over the leadership of the housing society and that person is Sadhu Johnston. I couldn't have found a better qualified person than Sadhu on Cortes Island.  I'd really like Sadhu to speak to some of his past experience and credentials," she said.  


"He has a long history working with BC Housing in the city of Vancouver to bring Affordable housing to the table and because of that, he's got contacts. He's got a lot of financial savvy and creative ideas. He also has a lot more experience in policy and politics than I have. So I think he's the right man for the time that we're in now. I also believe that beyond building the next 24 townhomes in Rainbow Ridge, there's a legacy of another 45 acres, the remainder of Rainbow Ridge, which is a fantastic opportunity for Sadhu to look at other creative housing models, other solutions for this community that I haven't had time to look at."


Sadhu Johnston: "Thanks Sandra, those were very nice things to say about me. The first thing I would say is how grateful we all should be to Sandra for her Incredible commitment and the accomplishments that she's achieved supporting this work on Cortes. It's really amazing that we have 50 acres downtown and a strong organization. It's just a real testament to your leadership and your can-do attitude. So, very excited to be picking up and taking the reins from Sandra and really appreciate the opportunity to be able to focus on housing in my own community."  


"For me, Cortes is home and it will be for the rest of my life.  Hopefully my kids will be able to live here in the future. I feel like the Cortes that many of us love is at risk.  That diversity of community and the range of people that call Cortes home  is threatened by the challenges that we're facing for supporting housing and people's various housing needs on this island. So  I'm really grateful to be able to pick up where Sandra is leaving off and work on housing here on Cortes  and to hopefully get Rainbow Ridge phase 1  fully funded and built.”

“Sandra has agreed to stay on in a fundraising support capacity. So we'll be working together throughout November on getting the BC Housing grant and hopefully on other fundraising endeavours in the months and years to come. She's not leaving or sailing off into the sunset."


Sandra Wood: "For me, the fun has always been in the fundraising and the grant writing.  I feel like I'm completing that in November, and I'm ready to hand it off to you, hopefully to start the construction next year in 2024."       

Sadhu Johnston provided a glimpse into his previous experiences as Chief Environmental Officer of Chicago (2005-2009), Deputy City Manager (2009-16) and then City Manager of Vancouver (2016-21). 


"I'm thrilled to be able to work in my own community. Much of my work since leaving government is elsewhere. I've served on lots of boards on Cortes as my way to contribute here, but the idea that I could be a halftime focused on housing in a community that I love is really thrilling to me and that I'd be able to contribute some of the experience from elsewhere to support the housing needs on Cortes is, is something I'm really looking forward to."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A new music venue is coming to Cortes Island. The Blues Barn will open its doors, beside the store in Squirrel Cove, on Tuesday, October 31.

"We notice there's a lack of opportunity for community involvement on Cortes. We figured that since the last event we hosted, volleyball, is starting to die down, we need something new to bring to the community and to bring entertainment back to this side of the island. We figured that for the colder season, the Blues Barn would be a great opportunity to bring the community together and to have some fun," explained Chase Cunningham, from the Squirrel Cove General Store.


CC: Who is 'we?'


Chase: "'We' is currently the Squirrel Cove Store, Scotty Martin and the Cortes Rebels, but we are looking to branch out and get other influences - maybe from band members on Quadra - in the future.”


CC: Cortes Rebels is a band? 


Scotty Martin replied, ”Yes we are. The Cortes Rebels featuring Drivin’ on drums, Michael Keith on guitar, and myself on bass, but we're interchangeable.”


"Michael Keith grew up in Toronto. He's been playing as a full time musician his whole life and just moved to Cortes ten years ago. Michael Keith is a blues man extraordinaire. This man is known Canada wide, an incredible musician. Michael’s not a walk behinder, he’s a new note finder. He likes to advance his musical skills daily. There hasn't been a day that Michael and I played together that he's played the same. He's always improving."

  

“Drivin' on the drums, this guy was playing in bands like from 1963. This guy was there when it was happening and both these men are full time musicians."


”I, myself, toured for 24 years before I got my first day job, so between us we have centuries of experience.  We can play up to 500 songs easily, kid stuff. You want to see some guys play some good music, you just shout out a song and we'll play it for you." 

"I'm going to be the host, the front man. Chase is the band manager.  Sandy Hoffman is  going to work the door.  We also want Wolfman Jake to be involved in this." 


"This is Rock and Roll edginess that a lot of people don't get or understand. So if you want to really come and have fun, this is where you're going to come.  


"Every Thursday night there will be 'Thursday Night Jam.' Anyone who wants to come and jam, they're allowed to come in and play. It's a $10 cover charge to get in. There are tons of great musicians on this island that will come and jam. Sit in that old barn, and just be entertained like no other place on the planet."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - British Columbia’s health care crisis has reached Cortes Island. A number of complex factors led to the resignation of all three doctors working out of the Cortes Island Medical Clinic. Their contract ends on Sunday, March 31, 2024. 


“The  physicians that we've had in our physicians group are moving on to do things in their own lives. They're starting practices elsewhere and it no longer fits for them to come here,” explained Bernice McGowan, on behalf of the Cortes Community Health Association (CCHA) board.


“We will not be shutting the doors of the clinic on April 1st.  That's not in the foreseeable future. If our physicians leave, the worst case scenario is that we have a whole bunch of locums coming and we've been in this position before, where the only people that we had covering the practice were locums.” 


She was referring to the situation prior to the beginning of the current group practice in 2016.


“I was only involved with the Health Centre because I was the home care nurse, so I was aware that there were different doctors every week.  I would phone up with a concern about a client and this doctor didn't have a clue who I was. Even though I said, ‘I'm the home care nurse,’ they didn't know how much to trust me and my judgment. It's like going to a walk in clinic  and that's not the model we've had for several years. It's not good patient care and Island Health is very aware of that.”


“I don't know how long it lasted for, I think probably a year or so, then Dr. Mary Jo Woolgar got together with some of the locums who had been coming here regularly, to put together a group practice proposal, which is what we've had since then.” 


On Friday October 13 the CCHA met with Island Health to discuss the situation.


CC: Who was at that meeting?

BM: “Three board members, including myself. Rose Fitcyk, who's our admin person, was also there.” 

“The people from Island Health were Michelle Crosby, Director of Primary Care for Courtney Comox and Campbell River area, Erin Harrison, head of the primary care network which we are part of, Dr Louis DeBruin, who  is the Medical Director for Courtney Comox, Campbell River, I believe and Dr Janet Conrad, who's the Primary Care Medical Director for Campbell River. These are not the people who necessarily negotiate the contracts, but they are the people who know what's going on.” 


“They are committed to making sure that there's some kind of primary care on Cortes. They don't all want us to suddenly need to go to Campbell River for health care. We're being told that there's a shortage of physicians and given the extra complexities of getting people here, they floated the idea of a nurse practitioner continuing the practice.” 

 

McGowan explained that the health centre is much busier and there are more demands on the physicians, than when she started working there five years ago.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Close to 40 residents turned out to the first two Tourism Cafes on Cortes Island. The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) brought in Lesley Anderson and Nancy Arsenault to facilitate meetings at Mansons and Gorge Halls last week. The pair will host a virtual Tourism Cafe on Wednesday, November 1st from 10 am to 12 pm, and return in January to present their findings.

“ People came out of the meeting feeling a lot more informed about this planning process and how it can be a force for better tourism outcomes on the island in the future. A process like this can be really useful and it doesn’t have to result in greater tourism. It’s how we can nuance that tourism and make it better for the island and just attract the right visitors,” explained Kate Madigan, Economic Development Officer of CCEDA.

“We had quite a range of feedback. A lot of people are kind of like, ‘ Why are we doing this? We’ve got enough tourism on Cortes, we don’t need any more’ – And that’s true.”

“Lesley and Nancy of Tourism Cafe explained we don’t want tourism to happen haphazardly. We want to be able to plan it and manage it in a way that is good for the community. If you don’t get involved in how tourism is evolving on your island, it might evolve in a way that is not good for the community. This is why we’re doing this exercise.”

“There’s a lot of tourists out there. We don’t want to be everything to everybody. We want to attract the kind of tourists that respect our island way of life, that respect how we want tourism to evolve. We did spend a lot of time discussing that.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Hollyhock brought Ann Mortifee to Cortes Island. She was one of Vancouver’s leading singers, but had no previous teaching experience when they invited her to do a workshop. That was 40 years ago. 


“Martha Abelson convinced me to give it a go. I remember the first workshop I did. I went into a wild panic because I'm not a teacher, I'm a singer. I went to the library to find out how I could teach,” she explained.  “At the end of the first session in the morning, I told Shivon Robinsong (a co-founder and Director of Hollyhock), 'I can't do this. I've used everything that I was going to use in the five days in the first morning. I have no idea what I'm doing for the rest of the week. I have to give them the option to leave. I'll pay for everything that Hollyhock would lose.'"


"They agreed to give the guests back their money if need be and that I would cover it, or they could switch to another workshop."


"So I went back to the class and told everyone, 'I've got to be honest, I don't know what I'm doing here. I just love to sing, and I don't know how to teach you to sing. I don't know how to run a workshop. I've never even done a workshop with anyone else.  I've arranged for you to get your money back, or you can change to another workshop. If you choose to stay, then you have to know that you're going to teach me how to do this by helping me. That's all. I'm going to leave the room for five minutes. If you want to leave, take your stuff and go. Thank you so much for coming. I'm very touched that you have, but this is what the truth is.'" 


"So I left the room going, 'Oh my God, I'll come back. It'll be an empty room and it'll cost me a fortune.' I went back. Everyone just stood up, cheered and laughed. That was it, they stayed." 


"From then on, I did a workshop at Cortes for many years, but never in a million years thought I'd live here. My life was definitely in the city and I was doing what I had to do." 


"What happened is that when my son Devon turned 10, I felt I had to get him out of the city. He'd got into some trouble at one of the schools and I just felt, 'no, this isn't working.' I had no idea where to take him and was looking for a really good school." 

She found the answer at one of her Hollyhock workshops.


AM: "Denise Wolda was there. We got chatting and she told me about the school that her son went to. Paul was Devon's age, and so I said, 'I'd be interested in seeing this school.'"


So Mortifee spoke with Donna Bracewell, principal of the Linnaea school on Cortes island. 


AM: "I told her what was happening and she said, ‘bring him, we'd love to have him.’" 


"Devon was having none of it. He was not coming  to an island. He was not leaving Vancouver. I was a single mother, totally overwhelmed and I just couldn't have one more fight. I just couldn't do it, so I just said, 'okay.'" 


"That night he went to stay with a friend. It was on a Saturday night.  The parents dropped them at a movie and said they'd pick them up. They were a little bit late and an older set of guys started fighting. Devon ended up hiding In a garbage dumpster and the police found him. The first thing out of his mouth is, 'we should have moved to that island.'"


"We had a conversation with the policeman. He asked, 'what island's that Devon?' I told him about Cortes Island. He said, 'oh my God,  I was brought up on Quadra. I loved it. You should go.' And Devon said, 'okay, okay, if I'm supposed to go, okay, Mr. Policeman.' He was only 10 and it was fairly dramatic."

"So I said, 'okay, we're going.' "

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Ann Mortifee was born in Zululand. While she's been in Canada most of her life, the first 10 years were spent on a sugarcane farm where she was surrounded by the Zulu and Xhosa peoples.


"My grandfather had been in Africa during the Boer War. He had stayed on and had become a farmer.  It was in KwaZulu, then called Zululand and I felt I owed a debt on behalf of our family," she explained.  


"Apartheid was a terrible thing. In fact that’s why my father left South Africa." 

The family moved to Vancouver, but Ann still felt connected to the land of her birth.