Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Two assessments of the Cortes Island Fire Department were released last week.

Shaun Koopman, Protective Services Coordinator for the SRD, emailed,“While both reports covered operational aspects, the SRD’s audit was more focused on the governance model. The concerns expressed in the consultant’s report specifically pertained to the liability exposure that the Regional District incurs from the current governance model.”

Cortes Island’s Interim Fire Chief, Eli McKenty, describes them differently.

Regarding SRD’s consultant, Ernie Polsom of FireWise Consulting, he said, “Polsom spent about three hours with us and took a brief look through the files. I said, ‘Over here I have training records, over here I have vehicle records, over here I have financial records. I pulled the drawers out, and waved at them. Then said, I'm at your disposal, ask me for whatever you need, and I'll get it for you.’ He hardly asked for anything.”

The Cortes Island Fire Fighting Association did not see Polsom’s report until the SRD released it last week, but they decided to hire a consultant of their own. Rob Owens of Integrated Emergency & Safety Services BC is a former Deputy Fire Commissioner for British Columbia in charge of operations, fire investigations, fire code inspections and enforcement, wildfire structure protection program and the supervision of the five remote office locations. 

“Rob Owens spent about 13 hours with me, spoke to all the other officers who were available and dug through the files and we made photocopies. He read through things, asked for background, and asked a lot of in-depth questions. So from my perspective, Owens' assessment was far more thorough than Polsom’s,” explaind McKenty.

Anastasia Avvakumova A grant of eReaders from Rakuten Kobo has translated into a monthly book club on Cortes Island where readers use both print and digital media to access titles.

Late last year, 20 Kobo eReaders came under Cortes Literacy's stewardship. Through the partnership, a regular book club is now being held: readers have access to the devices and subscriptions to the Kobo Plus book library included with the grant, as well as public library's offerings.

Rebeka Carpenter, the book club's current organizer, has also just obtained a special book club library card from the Vancouver Island Regional Library, which provides a 12-copy set of one title at a time.

"I'm hopeful that once those start coming down the pike and I can distribute those to people, it'll spur more reading and enjoyment of books," she said.

About 20 people are currently on the book club's email list, with more inquiring about book recommendations.

A fireplace set into a grey stone wall and living room furnishings.

The location for the next meeting is in a home in Whaletown. Image courtesy of Rebeka Carpenter.

The new group has held two meetings so far in 2023, with the next scheduled for March 26 (postponed from March 19th, as originally stated in the audio). To learn more, contact [email protected]

Loni Taylor/CKTZ News - Local DJ legend Aspen King plans to kick off the festival season with a local triple header this weekend.

Aspen will be joined on stage by her sister Carmanah and father Ian at “Family Reunion,” a musical event at the Gorge Hall on March 4. The young entertainer boasts her Cortes culture roots run deep.

“I pretty much grew up around DJs and I'm pretty sure… my mom was pregnant with me the first time I went to Carrington (Rave).”

Aspen’s dad was a DJ “back in the day,” and Ian is making his comeback at the "Family Reunion." Carmanah will also be performing a DJ set, and all three plan to perform together at the end of the night.

Aspen has historically offered DJ events at the Gorge Hall called “Cabin Fever.” She wasn’t able to put on these events for three years during the pandemic but hopes this event will revive that tradition.

After this weekend’s local show, Aspen will be headed to Costa Rica to play at “Jungle Dreaming” March 17-19. The Central American event will bring several Cortesian fans and friends to the heat. Local DJ RichGaud will be performing while also featuring Stanton Warriors and Neon Steve. The event is the first of its kind, organized by Lilith Klassen, also connected to Cortes. King noted that Carrington Rave founder, Ben Howells, has his hand in helping organize the Costa Rican festival too.

"Family Reunion" begins at 7 p.m. on March 4.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District recognizes ten First Nations as communities within their boundaries, but the Tla’amin are not one of them. This topic arose during last month’s First Nation’s Committee Meeting and arose again when the committee met on February 22.

Most of the Tla’amin lands are within qathet Regional District, but they have a shared history with the Klahoose in southern Cortes Island and were given a large parcel of Mansons Landing by treaty.

However Klahoose is one of the nations recognized by the SRD and Cortes Island is within their traditional boundaries.

Azalea Milwood, the First Nations Liaison, explained, “I don't believe, at this point, we should add the Tla'amin Nation, due to not knowing whether or how the Klahoose Nation feels about that.”

Mark Thaysen, the alternate director for Cortes Island, had correspondence from Steven Brown, Chief of the Klahoose First Nation. 

"He says,  'Yikes ... This briefing note is not good,'  referring to the discussion paper. 'Scattered, seems to dismiss the point of a land acknowledgement, an oversimplification and glossing over reconciliation. I also don't recall Klahoose who's ever being consulted, which contradicts the note. Tla’amin should be recognized. They've confused 'territory' and 'location of occupation, which they also acknowledge is a problem in the note.’"  

“So we're hearing from Chief Brown that it would be appropriate to include the Tla'amin, and I'm understanding that the sort of location of settlement is maybe not the best way to recognize territory, that the broader territory is pretty important as a part of First Nations rights and identities and culture.”

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch responded, "This is going to be an ongoing challenge for us, when we have staff that have responsibilities. They have in this case, heritage Connections, relationships with First Nations. We task them to do work and we bring back recommendations to the committee. And then we have individual directors going out, doing the work of staff and coming back with contradictory recommendations."

"This is a staff recommendation and I don't know, moving forward if we continue on this path, if we're ever going to get anywhere."

Azalea Milwood: “I would like to comment that I did reach out to Chief Brown. He did not return my call. I also reached out to one of the knowledge keepers from the Klahoose Nation and what they responded was, 'thank you, thank you for asking' and that they would speak to the elders.”

“Once again, I would like to mention that, albeit individuals want this to be pre historical, we know which communities are located within the SRD. We don't know exactly which territories are overlapping. You're going to have a dialogue from one nation's knowledge keeper, from another nation's knowledge keeper, and nobody's going to walk away satisfied. Territorial acknowledgements have been presented by First Nations since I've ever known it, and sometimes what it looks like is it opens up the floor. It's not perfect. We've had 200 years of colonization. It's not going to be perfect. This is pieces of reconciliation. But what a territorial acknowledgement does is it opens a floor for First Nation people like me to say, ‘Wow, thank you for acknowledging. I'd like to tell you who I am now.’”

“What is important is the intent. Perfection is not going to happen. It's just not. And in that, I'm going to mention that First Nations were destabilized by disease, relocations and government assimilation policies that divided them into small sediments, reserves and bands. They no longer operated as a collective. So the passing of oral history and indigenous laws were interrupted.”

“I don't disagree with what the chief of the Klahoose Nation is stating. I'd love for him to give me a call, and talk to me about that. So I continue to keep this recommendation based on that.”

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - There has been friction between some of the Strathcona Regional Districts rural areas and municipalities in the past. This was thought to have ended with the new board, but there have been a couple of recent occasions when the electoral areas felt their wishes were being overridden. In both cases, this pertained to research rather than policy. Electoral Areas A and D were not allowed to withdraw from the feasibility studies for a proposed transit system from Campbell River to the West Coast of Vancouver Island. None of the Electoral Areas were interested in having their Fire Departments come under the administration of a proposed Fire Chief for the SRD.

Thus at the Board’s Feb 2 meeting, Regional Director Gerald Whalley of Area A announced, “The electoral areas have come to the unanimous conclusion that we are being unfairly treated by the Board.

The discussion that follows starts with a motion for a service revue of all electoral area services and comes to a surprising end.

Loni Taylor/CZTZ News - Next week, Roots Roundup will be returning to the region to perform for the first time in eight years. The “hardrocking world beat dance” band, based in Vancouver, is set to perform March 3 at the Quadra Legion.

CKTZ asked the band if they have plans to land on "the rock" soon, and founding member Greg Hathaway responded with excitement for the band to return to Cortes: they have taken the stage at the Gorge Hall numerous times since the band's fruition in 1985.

“We haven't been up there for quite a few years now and like I say, we do really love playing there, so hopefully we can make that happen.”

Hathaway and his brother, another member of Roots Roundup, summered on Cortes in their childhood and are even distantly related to a former Cortes fire and police chief named "Bert."

Hathaway is enthusiastic about returning to the stage after years of pause during the pandemic.

“It was literally the longest I've gone without playing a show since I was 14 years old. When you play that regularly, to suddenly not play for two years was bizarre… when we finally all got back together in the rehearsal room, I felt such a surge of relief. I was like, wow, this is what I've been missing in my life.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Cortes Island residents will most likely be paying a great deal more for their fire department this year. The Cortes Island Fire Department (CIFFA) is asking the SRD for about $127,000 more in 2023. CIFFA hopes to obtain $381,000 from property taxes.

Their request was received as correspondence at the Wednesday, Feb 22, meeting of the SRD Board.

Cortes Island Regional Director Mark Vonesch prefaced this submission by stating,  “CIFFA has submitted a budget that is significantly larger than previous years that will cost the average landowner on Cortes approximately $250 extra per year. This increase brings the department up to similar standards as other fire departments in the region, and is the cost of running a service that will meet the newly released provincial standards that the department needs to be in compliance with by the end of the year.”

Earlier that morning, Cortes Currents asked Chris Walker, Vice President of CIFFA for an explanation.

CW: “There are two main reasons our operating budget has to be larger, increased regulation and inflation.”

“Increased regulation which affects training, our duty officers, and our Fire Chief. Every fire department in British Columbia has to meet provincial standards, even very small ones like ours. Recently, the province has come out with new training standards that fire departments must implement within the next year.”

“The Cortes Island Firefighting Association agrees with these new regulations and the higher standards, but they are significantly increasing our operating costs in terms of training and salaries. In advance of March, 2024, we will be required to have completed new training for all drivers, team leaders and incident commanders.”

“To meet the increasing training demands CIFFA proposes hiring a part-time Training Officer. In 2023, our costs for training are projected to increase 221% over last year in order to remain in compliance.”

“Our fire department has to have a Duty Officer on call 24 hours a day, who is able to respond within five minutes to any emergency. This responsibility is normally shared between the Chief and qualified senior officers. This position requires significant extra training and experience and carries great responsibility. Most volunteer fire departments offer a daily honorarium for being on call, including ours. In 2022, we increased the honorarium from a hundred to $150 per day and are now proposing to increase that payment to $200 a day. Being a duty officer has an impact on the individual's regular employment. In recognition of this, we are working to offer an amount that makes this commitment worthwhile. We are hoping that this increase will help incentivize more members to take on the training responsibility and time commitment associated with this position.”

“We are currently seeking a new Fire Chief and we may need to increase the salary offer in the area of $90,000 a year ,or more. In order to attract a qualified applicant and in order to match the Chief’s salary being offered incomparable depart elsewhere. For comparison, a firefighter in Campbell River can now make upwards of $120,000 a year, and that's just a firefighter.”

Louis Belcourt/ CKTZ News - A local karate and kinesiology specialist has been hosting a weekly self-defense class on Cortes Island and donating the proceeds back to the community.

Kaitlin Garratt runs "Fierce and Fluid," which she describes as an "empowered self defense class," blending cardio kickboxing, karate, and "foundational energy principles to help you embody your core power and learn to deliver it with grace to the world."

Garratt is a black belt in karate and was a Canadian national team fighter for eight years. She also completed her degree in kinesiology at UBC with specialty as an Exercise Physiologist and studied and taught yoga for 15 years.

Garratt stated in an interview with CKTZ that her clients at Mansons Hall are mostly women but the class is open to everyone.

"A lot of people, and especially women, throughout their lives have felt unsafe or had moments where they abandon themselves or were taken advantage of, and this can be really life-changing for someone. There's a beautiful value system that is steeped in the traditions in karate, and I weave that into the self-defense aspect to encourage individuals to feel like they can express their boundaries more honestly and more powerfully." Garratt said.

Garratt is donating the proceeds from her class to the Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) to help support the programming that they organize for the community.

Fierce and Fluid is at Mansons Hall from 7-8:30 p.m. every Monday with a $5 dollar drop in fee for SCCA members.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - More than eight years have passed since Transport Canada (TC) transferred administration of three wharves to the Strathcona Regional District (SRD). Owen Bay on Sonora Island, Surge Narrows on Read Island, and Port Neville on the northern shore of the Johnstone Strait are all within Area C. The SRD was provided with $2.9 million for maintenance and upgrades that were to be completed sometime during the next decade. These upgrades have not yet occurred. Nor has a service to carry out operations and maintenance been established for Area C. Robyn Mawhinney, the new Regional Director, hopes to have this work well underway before the November 2024 deadline.

RM: “The wharves are important. They need improvements. Outer Discovery Islands residents rely on these wharves for their day-to-day life, and they have a high desire for this to get underway.”

“There was an attempt at an alternative approval process for a wharf service in 2022, and it did not pass. There were definitely some folks last time that had concerns about the wharf service. I do think a lot of it had to do with the lack of communication. That's why this time I am really focused on making sure that there is lots of communication. So this time, I am having town hall meetings to answer questions, and hear concerns. I initiated this community consultation on Quadra Island and at Surge Narrows before a bylaw is written because I want a wharf service to meet the needs of the community and find the community support needed to become a reality.”

“I was really pleased that the Strathcona Regional District's, CAO David Leach and two staff engineers joined me at the town hall meetings. I think that the folks on both Quadra and the Outer Islands were really pleased to have that conversation, be heard and have their questions answered.”

“At these meetings, SRD engineers stated that they have done Class B estimates on the costs for wharf upgrades and are optimistic that the existing funds will be adequate.”

CC: Were most people positive?

RM: “I think most people were curious.”

CC: Can you get it done in time?

RM: “That’s another good question, and was one of the questions that came up at the meetings. Marine work, such as pilings, can only be done at certain times of year. Something the SRD engineers have referred to as fish windows, because the timing is approved by Department of Fisheries, oceans as the least disruptive to marine life.”

“Which is why I've been pushing this forward and seeking community engagement prior to a wharf service bylaw being drafted, because timing is important.”

“Apart from the Transport Canada funding deadline, there is the lived reality for folks who are using these wharves as their sole connection to their broader community. The wharves need work. There are plans in place, and the service must be created in order to spend the federal funding. Officially, the funding expires in November 2024. Dave Leitch, the Strathcona Regional District's Chief Administrative officer said at one of our recent meetings that he thought if the work was in progress, an extension wouldn't be unusual.”

CC: Personally, I would think that if they wanted to get rid of them 10 years ago, they don't want them back.

RM: “There’s some language in the divestiture agreement. It says, ‘If Area C residents do not approve a service, the divestment funds must be returned to Transport Canada’ — which has stated they make no promise to continue operating the public ports.”

Loni Taylor/CKTZ News -A Cortes Island couple has been running a comedy podcast over the past six months and, 30 episodes in, momentum is building.

“We Can’t Pick a Title” was created by local entertainers Bobbie-Gene Hanson and Jason Thompson and the podcast just reached the milestone of over 1,000 downloads.

Thompson described the process of getting started.

“I looked around the room and I had the right equipment to be able to do something and plugged some cables in and tried it out. And the whole thing was always, 'as long as we're having fun, we'll keep doing it'…and it's still fun.”

Hanson was surprised by one of the unexpected communication benefits of podcasting with her husband.

“Finding it easier to talk with Jason… you're just there with each other 100 per cent!”

The podcast is geared towards adults, but almost anything is on the table for discussion. Some topics they have discussed in the past 30 comedic episodes include sea creatures, serial killers and the logistics of diabetic vampires.

The entertaining duo say they are coping with the local fandom.

“We've tried to keep it vague as to where we are, because we don't wanna give it away to hundreds and thousands of fans coming on the ferries and all the fandom...We really were like, ‘let's be considerate of that’,” Bobbie jokes.

BG and JT, as they are known on the podcast, have plans to experiment with the podcast moving forward, including inviting special guests to the show, filming the episodes, and recording on special locations around the island.