Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - (An opinion)“Scapegoating: the act of blaming a person or group for something bad that has happened or that someone else has done. Example: the scapegoating of immigrants for the country’s economic problems.” – Cambridge Dictionary

While it is easy to blame the unhoused population for their predicament, ‘Point In Time’ (PIT) counts, throughout the surrounding area, all point to low wages.

When asked why they were homeless, the #1 response in Campbell River, the Comox Valley, Parksville/Qualicum, Powell River, Port Alberni and Sechelt/Gibsons was insufficient Income. None of these PIT counts identified a greater cause.

If you believe the oft-touted 30% rule, the surpising thing is that these numbers are not larger. According to the 2021 census, 3,450 Campbell River residents spend more than 30% of their income on housing. The PIT count only found 197 homeless people.

The disturbing thing is close to a third of them have been unhoused for less than a year. Prior to that, they were presumably either renting or owned homes.

While the numbers vary, this essential pattern is repeated in every one of the communities named above.

What could have caused so many people to lose their homes?

In September the BC Government reported that during the past year the cost of renting a house had risen 6.1% and the overall cosumer price index was 3.3% higher.

This slight raise may have been too much for families already teetering on the brink.

The second biggest cause of homelessness in many, but not all, of the communities mentioned above is ‘substance abuse.’

In Campbell River, a quarter of respondents reported this, but 34% said they were homeless because of conflicts with either their landlord or spouse.

Sue Moen, who worked with the unhoused sector when she was with the Salvation Army, once told Cortes Currents that most of the addicts she encountered did not have an addiction before they lost their homes.

Another disturbing finding, for those who like to portray the unhoused population as recent arrivals seeking handouts, is that more than two thiirds of their number in Parksville/Qualicum, Powell River, Port Alberni and Sechelt/Gibsons have been in their communities for more than five years. In Campbell River and the Comox Valley that statistic fell to 65% and 66%, respectively. Many unhoused people were also born in the communities where they live.

One would think their city councils would feel a responsibility for them, rather than treat the as a problem to (hopefully) be removed from sight.

There are fewer statistics for remote areas like Cortes Island, but 75% of the respondents to last years “Collecting Stories Of Where We Live” survey spent more than 30% of their income on shelter. Many were not aware that this meant they are classified as ‘at risk.’ The 2016 census was more precise: 85 renter families and 50 house owning families pay higher shelter costs than they could afford.

This explains why 11 Cortes Island residents lived outdoors and another 45 ‘couch surfed’ last year.

Statistics are even harder to find for Quadra Island, where the 2016 Census identified 20% of the population as at risk.

It seems the homeless problem will be with us until we solve the housing crisis and everyone has a liveable wage.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - On Saturday Robert Bringhurst (RB) brings his own brand of literature, local history, science and humour to the stage of the Quadra Community Centre. He just gave Cortes Currents a taste in a rambling conversation that at one point went off topic to include remarks about Cortes Island, Campbell River and Whistler. Bringhurst started out by describing his intentions in the epic description of ‘the Ridge’ on Quadra Island where he lives.    


RB: “I wanted to make good poetry out of, among other things, good science. I wanted  to walk the ridge and relish it as one does without any thought of scientific measurement or accuracy, but I also wanted to think about it as a real place in historical time and to look at the species in relation to other species on the planet, and at the rocks in relation to other rocks. I began to wonder how much biology, geology, astronomy and climatology I could put in this poem without sinking it. The answer turned out to be quite a bit.” 


“So unlike most poems, there could be a corrected second edition. There could be mistakes. It's like a research paper. An interesting thing about science is that it purports to have the real answers to things, but the answers are always changing. The facts are changing. There could be numbers in the poem that need to be changed or updated,  that's a curious thought.”


“Anyway, I worked on this thing for probably eight years, this one poem, and in that time I learned a great deal, and some of what I learned kept changing. The climatological facts change rapidly it seems, the geological facts change more slowly.”


“It sort of restored my childhood faith  in the possibility of science and the arts, science and literature coexisting happily.  I hope other people might find some pleasure in that as well.” 


“It's also a meditation on the end of the world, and there's very little pleasure to be found in that except the pleasure of admitting that things are as they are, not hiding from it.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There've been reports of Wolf sightings on Cortes island, which actually isn't too surprising.


“We're incredibly lucky to have wolves on Cortes. They've disappeared on a lot of the other islands. This is one of the last islands in the Salish Sea with wolves on it. Obviously we want to do everything we can to make sure that they can carry on living here, and that we can coexist alongside them,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). 


Christine Robinson added, "In an increasingly busy technological world,  the beauty of wild spaces and wild creatures that are not impacted by human development is increasingly rare and it's a beautiful thing, just a beautiful experience."


CC: How long have wolves and humans been peacefully coexisting on Cortes Island?


Christine: "There are stories of some of the early white settlers who were farmers having issues with wolf predation, but really, truly, if we're talking about current times, for the last 40 years.  I'm just pulling that number out of the air, but I would say most of us living on Cortes, as a community,  highly value the wild spaces and the wild creatures. That means working in whatever way we can to coexist. FOCI has done an excellent job of educating the public how to secure animals so that they aren't an attractant to wolves and then potentially create that conflict."


CC: Tell me about some of the recent sightings 


Christine: "I live in Whaletown, and have  a keen interest in both wild spaces and wild critters. I'm grateful that we live in a place where we cohabit with wild creatures and so I'm always 'ear to the ground' when I hear stories."


"Most people  don't  talk about cougar encounters, because cougars are more secretive and they're single animals. We had very few reports of bears this fall, given all the apples. So the stories trickle down to me are about wolf observations, people who are hiking here and there. I actually started to record the observations that people were telling me, so that could be passed on to FOCI and we have a sense of where the wolves are moving on the island. It's helpful for them and it's helpful for humans." 


"We live very close to the Whaletown Commons, and have a highly energetic dog. We walk the Commons every day with her.  As I started hearing more about people observing the odd wolf off in the distance,  through the forest, we started thinking, 'well, maybe we should actually have her on a leash.' So for the last three and a half weeks, either my husband or I are walking daily through the Commons with our dog on a leash, and we have yet to see a wolf."


"I would say judging from our dog's behaviour, they are present because she changes. She's more alert. She's just looking around and sniffing more. We have not personally seen wolves in the Commons, but I know other people have within the same space of time that we were there."


"I always find that interesting.  People often think that wolves may present themselves. If you're one of the fortunate people to actually observe a wolf doing what naturally wild wolves will do, then I'd say you're very, very lucky." 


"We all learned, through the coexistence with wildlife program that FOCI sponsored, that dogs are a real magnet for wolves. They have a longstanding historical, genetic maybe, dislike of dogs. They may see them as a competitor for food and territory and basically will not tolerate dogs  running freely through an area that they consider part of their wildlife corridor." 


"Because of the recent activity in the general Whaletown area,  last week I very quickly put up extra notices in all the entrances to the Commons, advising people to not walk through the Commons with their dogs for the time being.  That was in response to several sightings where people felt wolves were close enough that it made them feel uncomfortable. In those cases, there were dogs that were the draw for the wolves."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Campbell River’s latest ‘Point in Time’ (PIT) Count found 197 homeless people within the city limits. 65% of them have been in Campbell River for at least five years, and 22% were born there. They are sleeping outside, in vehicles, or in someone else’s home. When asked, a third of them reported not earning enough money to pay rent. 


"If they're not in public places, if they are shuffled along back into alleys or nooks and crannies, they are targets. That is one of the reasons they congregate in public together. It's safe. I can't tell you how many people I’ve run into over the last year that have got a cast, or their heads wrapped up or they're on crutches or whatever,” explained Sue Moen, who worked for the Salvation Army prior to her retirement.

“It’s like, ‘Bylaw Enforcement pushed us along. We hung out in this alley. Four guys showed up (not members of the unhoused community), beat us all up and stole all our stuff.’”


Cortes Currents asked Moen for her impressions of a series of motions the City of Campbell River passed at their October 10 meeting.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There was an enormous public response to the city of Campbell River’s proposed Permissive Tax Exemption (PTE) cuts, made at the September 28 Council Meeting.  Hundreds of people wrote letters and emails protesting this action and Campbell River was criticized by BC’s MInistry of Housing. Consequently, the cuts were rescinded on Friday October 12.

One of the most controversial pieces was removal of the Campbell River Art Gallery’s PTE for their ‘bad behaviour’ in not confronting homeless people camped outside their doors. Sara Lopez Assu, Executive Director of the CRAG, informed Cortes Currents they are tenants in the Centennial Buildings with no authority over what happens outside. She and her staff persuaded the homeless people to leave during the hours the gallery is open. Council was informed of this in 2021 and again in 2022.  

BC Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon referred to the Campbell River Council’s actions at a press conference in Kelowna.

“This is not easy work, to go in and support people who are very vulnerable, who are struggling, and to have a city attack people because they’re trying to do their best to make sure people are housed is not the way you address this.”

There was a decidedly different mood at Campbell River City council on the evening of October 12.

Councillor Susan Sinnot referred to a conversation with the art gallery just prior to the meeting.

“I think the conversation was incredibly productive in the entryway. And then I think also our city manager reflected that that happened. There was basically a commitment to have great dialogue and work together. What I think everyone really wants is to resolve our issues cooperatively and move together. So, having that message from your chair is wonderful for us. I don't know whether that means you need to do any more presentations. What do you say?”

“No, I feel confident in my chair,” replied Sara Lopez Assu, from the public area.

Councillor Sinnot: “Excellent. Thank you and thank you everybody for showing up tonight and showing your support for the art gallery. And I'm really pleased that the conversation's happened. Thank you for listening to us and letting us listen to you.

At the last meeting, Councillor Ron Kerr labelled the gallery and safe injection site ‘bad neighbours.’ His eyes were averted when he read out a series of motions including:

“I move that permissive tax exemption 2023 be amended so that all 90 percent tax exemptions are adjusted back to 100%, and those less than that be adjusted back up equally in a prorated manner.”

“I move that Council direct staff to review and make recommendations to the city policy on the current PTE limit of 1.7 percent and the allocation amounts to individual organizations.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Leslie Anderson and Nancy Arsenault are bringing a new vision of tourism to Mansons Hall on Monday, October 23rd and Gorge Hall the following day.

“The old model of tourism  where you just focused on the visitors doesn't work. How do you uild tourism for the benefit of all and not just the visitors? How can tourism, the dollars that it brings, the amenities and infrastructure that can be brought benefit residents first, along with the visitors. How do you build it based on what residents are looking for? It's a new lens and it's called regenerative tourism,” explained Anderson. 

She and Arsenault belong to Tourism Cafe,  a Vancouver Island based business, which offers clients across Canada anything from short e-courses courses to lengthy in-person programs.

"We're a dispersed team. We have one employee who lives in Toronto, two who live in the Williams Lake -108 mile area, myself in Nanaimo, and then Paul and Nancy are in Comox. We all work from home, and meet on Zoom.” 

“ Tourism Café has been contracted by the Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) and our goal in coming to the island is to gather input and Feedback from the community that will help to inform a new community tourism plan for the island. We want to have an opportunity to chat with the residents, and businesses who have an interest in the future of tourism on the island, to hear what they have to say, so that can be incorporated and taken into consideration as the plan is put together.” 

“We invite everyone to come and be part of the process. Take part in the engagement sessions that are happening on October the 23rd and the 24th. So that we can hear the input, hear the perspectives and take all of that into consideration as we put that plan together.”

 CC: Why do we need  a plan? 

LA: “I think that residents and businesses gain from the implementation of a well thought out tourism plan because it looks at the opportunities for growth while taking into consideration all of  the environmental, social, cultural impacts of tourism on the island and its residents.  It's better to think about what we want, and how we plan for it, rather than to just let it happen haphazardly.”

 “Going through the process of creating a plan provides an opportunity for input on what are the current challenges. What are the priorities for the future investment of the time and resources that  represent this economic opportunity for the island again.”  

 CC: What about people who don't want to see more tourism?

LA: “In all the communities we’ve been in, there is always some contentiousness around tourism. There are always varying opinions about how much tourism residents and communities want to have, because some folks rely on tourism for their livelihood and other people don't. Those who rely on tourism often would like to see more. Others may not wish to see it.” 

“It’s important to hear all perspectives from residents and businesses because we know, particularly in small communities, that tourism can be both a blessing and it comes with its challenges. So we want to hear what are some of the challenges that the residents feel exist with tourism at the current time.”

“Visitors are going to come to the island regardless. How might you create areas where visitors are welcome to go? And areas where visitors aren't welcome to go? We know that residents want to save areas for themselves and we know that maintaining the way of life Is really important. We hear that in many communities.”

CC: How would you gauge whether at the end of this process, the community has more of a collective vision or not? Is there a way to gauge it?

LA: “The more people who come and engage in the process, the better that vision is reflective of the islanders and the community itself. So hopefully, we'll get a lot of people out and who want to take part in the process and have their say.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - QXMC, the Klahoose development corporation, recently acquired a new operation. Kevin Peacey, who started the Klahoose mill and ran it until he became Chief in 2017, will now be overseeing operations.

"As of September 1st,  QXMC has taken over the mill and has leased the land here from the band. We have three employees right now, (myself),  J. R. Harry and Tim.  In the near future, which is coming up pretty quick, we're going to probably employ three or four more people. Phase three power is coming into the mill, here in Squirrel Cove, and we've got four more machines coming in:  an edger, a kiln, a TNG machine,  and  a big chop saw machine.  Everything will be run off  phase three, as much as we can get here," he explained.

“We have a lot of good plans that are going to happen: building cabins for the Gorge; up at our coastal adventure resort in Humphrey; cabins going to be built on our new campsite over by the Squirrel Cove store; cabins up the hill by the fish hatchery and some cabins here in the village because of the housing shortage.”

As Peacey was giving me a tour of the mill, he pointed to some of the neatly stacked piles of lumber.

"There's a gazebo being built down at our dock and this is part of the order for the gazebo. This here will be decks for the cabins that are being built for the Gorge."

"We have a lot going on in the next year to year and a half, and we're all excited. That's why QXMC took over."

"We've still got a little bit of hiccups here and there, but we're getting it all sorted out, and hopefully by next year we're going to have everything all in place and ready to go."

"We're not in competition with the other mills. We have our own thing that we're doing, and  we're not trying to take jobs away or put other mills down. I just want to make that clear, we have no intention of that."

CC: you will be selling to the public?

KP: "Yes, we'll be selling to the public, but not in a big way like the other mills because we have so much work to do for all of our businesses on the island and up the coast."

We were sitting in the sawmill and the distinct aroma of cedar hung in the air, but this is not the only tree speicies that grows on the island.

CC: In your ad, you specifically mentioned cedar, which is what I'm seeing in front of me.  Do you want to talk to me a little bit about the cedar and also about the fir and hemlock and anything else that you happen to be cutting?

KP: "Hemlock hasn't been  a big thing for us. There's another mill on the other side of the island that cuts hemlock. When I was running the mill,  it was almost 90% cedar that people bought and about 10% fir. We have to mill a lot of cedar because it goes very fast. We do have a lot of fir coming  in the next few weeks, once we get our permit signed over at the campsite."

"The cedar is also from the island. We have our own woodlot and also the partnership with the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative. We'd like to keep it on the island as much as possible. That gives us a bonus and we don't have to pay a higher price than any other place you buy logs from, which is a good advantage."

He pointed at the driveway, "We have a barge  of a blue chip coming in to compact, so we don't have any mud in this area and in the back area.  It makes it easier on the machine running around instead of sinking in the mud."

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Sierra Quadra has been educating Quadra Islanders about the unfolding environmental crisis for close to 25 years, but they have been relatively quiet since COVID. 


This is changing. On September 28 they joined with the Council of Canadians, in Campbell River, to protest the provincial governments failure to implement its strategy to preserve old growth forests. On October 21 they will be sponsoring the world premiere of Robert Bringhurst’s poem ‘The Ridge‘ at the Quadra Community Centre. They will be bringing two widely recognized films to Quadra this winter and plan to host a forum on environmental issues in March 2024. 


Cortes Currents recently asked Ray Grigg, one Sierra Quadra’s principle Directors, for an update on their vision for the future. 

“We got disoriented and stopped by COVID, like everybody. In the time that's transpired, we've been evaluating who we are, what we're trying to do, how successful it's been, and exactly how we should proceed.”

“We're not quite sure what to do and that has partly been the explanation for the quietude that's been us on Quadra for the last three years, actually.”

“We know we have an environmental problem on the planet. We know we produce too much CO2. We know we have too many children. We know we're consuming too much. We know we're in overshoot, but It's not registering deep enough for us to actually change.” 

“I remember An Inconvenient Truth, which we showed, that should have awakened some people. Things haven't changed very much in any regard with respect to environmental emissions. With respect to forestry practices, Mosaic still is busy on the island.” 

“How much information do you need before it's actually internalized into you and you change your behavior? It's almost as if we're confronted with a Zen koan and we have to reflect and think and wrestle with that koan for sometimes years and a whole lifetime until it actually changes us. It almost seems like that's the state in which we're in. We have this koan that we're confronting. We know what the koan is.”

“This leaves us Sierra Quadra in a bit of a bind.  Do we keep plodding forward with more information? We're not perfectly clear what we're going to do and what we should do. I'm not sure we know as a society, as a civilization, what we're going to do and what we should do. It almost feels like we've stepped over the precipice and we're losing control of the environmental agenda.”

“I think there is a great deal of angst out there.” 

“There's hope in the sense that we're shifting to green energies. There's potential there. My concern is that we've waited too long. As we start losing control, that loss of control impairs our ability to function preemptively.”

“The more money we spend dealing with forest fires, repairing from floods, typhoons and hurricanes,  the less money we have and the less energy we have and the less attention we can give to actually preventing those things from happening.  It works in both ways against us. We get the disasters, but the disasters impair our ability to prevent further disasters.”

“If you think of the number of homes that are destroyed by a hurricane in Florida, for example, those homes have to be rebuilt. This  means more wood for houses, it means,  there's now more demand, which creates more of the problem, which caused the problem.”

Odette Auger/ CKTZ News - The sun was shining on Cortes Island school Friday Sept 29, as the Parent Advisory Committee shared orange T-shirts with all the children. With a new principal, the team and students were busy all month preparing to observe the day of memorial by raising a Residential School Survivors’ flag.

Klahoose Elders visited to share their lived experiences and share song, drumming, and hope. Sisters Rose Hanson and Jessie Louie, joined with singer Brenda Hanson.

The day was explained in advance, in age appropriate ways from kindergarten to Cortes Island Academy. For high school students, a week of online lunch and learns with the NCTR– shared the full history, along with exploring unconscious bias and debunking stereotypes.

Michael Datura is the new principal, and he shared why this day was important to observe, and communicate.

“As a principal, obviously the day I feel like needs to be observed, especially given the role that the education system has played in colonization,” Datura says.

“I think it's important for students to see the Canadian flag come down and be replaced if only for a moment, if just to acknowledge the role of the nation state in colonization and the continued oppression of indigenous peoples.”

Erica Kohn, president of the school’s PAC, explained Datura had made connections months before he was on the clock as new principal, and how to do TRC day in a good way was at the top of his list.

The Survivors’ flag was conceived during the summer of 2021, when discoveries of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools sparked mourning explains the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. It was designed by a group of survivors, and the meaning of the symbolism was explained to students before the flag was raised. Along with adults and children, seeds are visible on the lower part of the flag. “The seeds below the ground represent the children who did not come home. They were always there, but are now seen and searched for,” explains the NCTR website.

The Elders led the drumming, with school children joining as the orange flag rose. Elder Jessie Louie shared the emotions running through her, and the impact of families feeling like strangers.

“I never thought I'd see this day that I'd be speaking to all these children,” says Jessie. “Wearing the Every Child Matters [t-shirts] to tell a bit of my story. It's part of healing. Every time you speak of it, you kind of let a little bit of yourself go, the hurt that you feel, and that's what I felt today. I kind of feel a bit of relief because the healing journey of the residential school is a long journey.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Sierra Quadra is bringing Robert Bringhurst’s poem The Ridge to  the Quadra Community Centre, at 7:30 on Saturday October 21st.

In an interview with Cortes Currents, Ray Grigg said he believes thisis the 80 minute long poem’s world premiere.  

It is also the first of four performances Sierra Quadra is putting on this year. They also have two films lined up. On Dec 16 they will be showing ‘Once You Know’ and on Feb 3 ‘Keepers of the Land.’ A fourth event is being planned.

In regards to Bringhurts poem, Grigg explained, “There is a ridge on Quadra Island called the Heriot Ridge and Robert Bringhurst lives just below it. He hikes it often. It's a rocky outcropping that separates the west from the east part of the island. It's rich in history, botany, zoology and all sorts of things. Robert has written this long poem about it involving the geography, the history, the First Nations, the arrival of people. it's a symbol of what's happening on the island specifically and on the planet generally,” explained Grigg.

“The ridge has fortunately stayed fairly pristine, but it's a symbol of a larger concern. It's a reminder that our time on this planet as humanity is pretty brief.  We. I've only been here as a species for 350,000 years approximately, maybe actually less, about 250,000. Civilization is barely 5,000 years old. The ridge has been here a  lot longer, and the trees have been here a lot longer. This is some of the feeling that I think that Robert is trying to give to us in this poem. We are an ephemeral species and our influence is ephemeral. We may just have to back away from  the immediate traumas we're experiencing and place ourselves in the larger historical natural context to understand what is happening and how we deal with the climate crisis.”

The poetry Foundation describes Bringhurst as one of Canada’s most revered poets, who draws his inspiration from Native American myths and storytelling, the Bible and ancient Greek poets.

According to the Sierra Quadra press release, ‘Bringhurst is a winner of the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence, and a former Guggenheim Fellow in poetry. Trained initially in the sciences at MIT, he has made his career in the humanities. Widely celebrated for his work not only in poetry, but also in typography and Native American linguistics, he is an Officer of the Order of Canada and the author of many books.’