De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - Evidence of climate destabilisation -- aberrant weather -- is now everyday news. "Record-breaking" has become a routine description of wind speeds, rainfall, flood levels, mudslides, wildfires, high temperatures and drought.

The drought which afflicts BC this October of 2022 is a record-breaker and a tragedy; near Bella Bella, tens of thousands of salmon have died trying to return to their breeding grounds in streams now too warm and shallow for them to survive in. Over the last few summers, BC has lost millions of hectares of forest and entire towns to wildfire; "fire season" and multi-day smoke palls are becoming business-as-usual in mid to late summer. In December last year, flooding destroyed livestock and crops in the lower mainland. These events are happening more frequently and their severity is ramping up, slowly, year by year.

As we discussed in Part One of this story, logging plays a significant part in accelerating the ongoing slow catastrophe. For decades, the logging industry has been destroying old-growth "carbon sponge" forest, burning slash, destroying soil ecosystems, destroying the forest's water-retention and -respiration capacity -- the damage is so profound that BC's forests which were once net carbon sinks, are now net carbon emitters. So, despite its claim to exploit a "green and renewable" resource that ensures a prosperous and healthy future for BC, the logging industry today is a major contributor to BC's status as a world-class carbon emitter... and hence to climate disaster.

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - The government of Canada, and the BC government, state publicly that they are committed to carbon reduction and proactive responses to climate change; yet both Canada and BC remain consistently among the world’s top carbon emitters per capita. In 2019 Canada was the world’s highest carbon emitter per capita.

On the one hand, our government proposes initiatives that would improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions — in sectors like transportation and construction. But on the other hand, they continue to subsidise existing and new fossil-fuel projects such as LNG Canada and the Coastal Gaslink pipeline — to expand fracking.

Canada’s Liberal government spent $4.5B to purchase the Trans-Mountain Pipeline in 2018, only to announce in Spring 2022 that no further funding would be allocated to the project as cost overruns neared 70%. But wasting money may be the least of our problems. These fossil-fuel projects have huge carbon impacts.

Says Jens Wieting of Sierra Club BC, “[with pipelines and LNG] We’re talking about millions of tons of, of emissions from methane leakage, from processing gas and its transportation. And then we also have to consider that the emissions will be even higher — if we consider the climate pollution from burning these fossil fuels after exporting them to other countries.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - “A lot of the places people want to go and visit are either down a beach access or they are a park. We've got large areas of unfragmented forest in Ha'thayim or Von Dominic Park. Mansons Landing Provincial Park is a really bio diverse lagoon full of marine life. Those parks together make up quite a big parcel of land that's set aside for conservation and for nature to thrive. There's no development pressure, that's really important. We have those permanent resources protected, and obviously there's a lot of really interesting ecosystems in them too,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI).

“It's just a wonderful collection of fantastic places that we've got protected on this island, and I think we should celebrate that. The parks are there, not just for nature, but they're also there for people to enjoy and learn about nature. They're very popular on Cortes.”

FOCI’s involvement began about 20 years ago, before there was a Strathcona Regional District (SRD). Hall is not sure whether FOCI approached the Comox-Stathcona Regional District, or they approached FOCI, but the the society has been maintaining Kw'as Park since then. Their next maintenance contract was for Carrington Bay Park. We were managing those two parks for a number of years. Then, shortly after the SRD was created in 2008, they were entrusted with the beach accesses to:

Gnat Beach access, in Squirrel Cove,

Moon Park, near Hollyhock Beach.

Seascape Park, at the end of Seascape Road

Hayes Park, at the end of Hayes Road.

Three or four years ago, FOCI took on Siskin Forest Park and Trails, the and the new Whales Rest Park (which everyone used to know as the park down by the ferry) and Whaletown Commons.

“So we've got quite a big collection. The only one of the regional parks that we are not looking after is Hanks Beach. Friends of Cortes actually maintains, I think it's nine regional parks and trails,” said Hall.

They also look after Mansons Landing Provincial Park, Smelt Bay Provincial Park and Háthayim Marine Park [a.k.a. Von Donop Marine Park]

in the north of the island.

“We've had a maintenance contract with the SRD for quite a number of years now, where Ryan Harvey and Alex Bernier will go out every month. They walk the trails, clear any trees have fallen, pick up any garbage that's been dropped and basically keep the parks in really good shape. They're doing that under contract with us and that's a year round job. so they're out walking every trail every month, which is quite phenomenal really. There's a lot of trails,” said Hall.

“The other thing we've done is partnered with BC Parks at down at Manson's Spit/Manson’s Lagoon, and we've done a number of things down there. We're trying to get the Broom out of the spit, particularly out of what's called the coastal sand ecosystem, which is that sort of grassy looking ecosystem that grows along the beach. It is actually quite rare. We tried to get the broom out of that so that the plants there can flourish. We've been doing that with volunteers. We installed a new sign, which was celebrating all the marine life in the lagoon and informing people how to take care of it and not tread on things and not to take things away. So we had a little education piece there as well.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The drought conditions settling throughout the West Coast are another example of what Fisheries and Oceans Canada has identified as the #1 threat to BC’s endangered salmon population.

“While there are many stressors that affect Pacific salmon survival, climate change is rapidly superseding these threats,” DFO media spokesperson Lara Sloan emailed Cortes Currents.

A recent twitter video shows thousands of dead salmon in spread out across the bottom of an almost dried up creek. Their corpses are so think that you cannot take a step without treading on them.

Sloan explained, “On October 4, 2022, the Heiltsuk First Nation identified the death of approximately 63,000 adult Pink and Chum salmon in Neekas Creek which is located approximately 25 km north of Bella Bella.”

On Wednesday, October 5, the City of Nanaimo released water from its reservoir to help the Chinook run stranded in the tidal portion of the Nanaimo River. The augmented flow will enable them to reach their spawning grounds. It will taper off on the weekend of October 8-9.

It may be a little early for the Chum to return to Basil Creek on Cortes Island. They seem to have arrived towards the end of the month last year. In 2020 Christine Robinson wrote they ‘began to come into the creek on October 17.’

There were no signs of any fish, when I walked along the bank this morning. To my untrained eye, it is difficult to image salmon passing through the immense bed of rocks at the creek’s mouth. There is only a narrow trickle of water.

“Vancouver Island has been experiencing an extended period of dry weather.  Coupled with warmer water temperatures, current conditions for salmon in smaller river systems are generally poor, and there is unlikely to be sufficient rain to improve conditions in the next week to 10 days,” wrote Sloan.

“A small number of river systems where water flow is controlled are experiencing water levels more typical for this time of year (e.g. Cowichan, Campbell, Qualicum and Stamp Rivers…).”

Rochelle Baker of the National Observer recently donned a wetsuit to swim among the abundant Pink Salmon run in the Campbell River.

Sloan warned that it may become necessary to reduce the flows of these less effected rivers, if drought conditions persist.

“In general, we are not seeing fish moving into systems in the area, rather they are staging in front of rivers, or in deep pools in rivers where accessible.  Some species have commenced spawning (e.g. Pink Salmon or early-timed populations of Chum and Chinook Salmon), but their eggs are likely safe, provided they remain moist through groundwater or subsurface flows,” she wrote.

“The planet is warming, and the most recent five years have been the warmest on record. In Canada, the rate of warming has been twice the global average and is even greater at northern latitudes.  Stemming historic declines and rebuilding key Pacific salmon populations are the overarching goals of the historic $647 million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI) launched in June 2021. PSSI represents the largest-ever Government of Canada investment to save Pacific salmon. We need to take action toward stemming the declines now, while helping to rebuild adaptable populations over the longer term.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There were at least 159 Cortes Island residents living in ‘unsheltered’ or ‘at risk’ conditions when they responded to the housing needs survey last spring. There was a smaller response on Quadra and the Outer Islands, so only 69 were identified. These are both low numbers. At one point during our interview Emma Wallace, who oversaw this project, suggested the actual number for Cortes might be 10% higher. So I am going to guesstimate about 175 people in a population of about 1,100. (I do not believe there is enough data to make a serious guesstimate in Area C.)

Wallace is employed by the Rural Development Network, which was commissioned to do this study by the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness and the Urban Indigenous Housing and Wellness Coalition.

In today’s program she gives a demographic sketch of the unsheltered and at risk population. Some will find this episode a little dry, but Wallace scatters nuggets of insight throughout.

“One of the things we do is we break down demographics of all of our survey respondents. So we ask them a series of questions that helps us identify who they are and what their experiences might be and how their experiences affect their housing,” explained Wallace.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There may may be more than 1,200 ‘housing unstable’ people in the Strahcona Regional District.

This figure arises from a comment that Emma Wallace, of the Rural Development Network, made when she relased the comments from the 'Collecting Stories of Where you Live' data collection project.

Wallace’s organization was commissioned by the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness (CRDCEH) and the Urban Indigenous Housing and Wellness Coalition (UIHWC) to conduct the housing and service needs estimation in the Strathcona Regional District earlier this year. The ‘stories’ her organization collected were written responces to the housing needs survey.

Wallace spoke at the Thursday, October 6 meeting of the Campbell River and District Coalition to End Homelessness

“We identified 427 surveys that were suitable for analysis and that is the focus of this report and today's presentation,” said Wallace.

311 of these responces surveys came from ‘housing unstable’ people and, after you add in their spouces and dependents, the number of people known to be in ‘unstable conditions’ rose to 801.

“It's really important here to emphasize or remind folks that there are likely many more people experiencing homelessness in the region,” said Wallace.

Cortes Currents asked,”Do you have any idea of how widespread the problem really is?”

Wallace responded, “What we often say is that we likely have captured 65% of the folks who are experiencing homelessness in an area.”

That works out to 1235, but as it is a guesstimate it is probably more accurate to say there could be more than 1200.

The regions highlighted in the Rural Development Network report are:

Campbell River, We Wai Kai (Quinsam), Wei Wai Kum First Nation, SRD Area D

Cortes Island and Klahoose First Nation

Quadra Island and the Outer Islands

Gold River, Tahsis, Tsaxana and Sayward

50 of the respondents were ‘unsheltered,’ 15 were in emergency shelters, 97 were ‘provisionally sheltered’ and 211 were in situations where their housing was ‘at risk.’

The top five reasons for housing instability were:

an inability to afford rent or mortgage payments

low wages

housing needs major repairs

increasing rent prices

illness or medical conditions

One of the surveys shocking findings is that 65% of the ‘unstable respondents’ are employed.

In addition:

- 107 people don't have heat in their home.

- 55 lack indoor plumbing.

- And 37 don't have access to safe drinking water.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The two candidates running for Regional Director of Area C, in the October 15 election, appear to have very different visions of how to govern.

Robyn Mawhinney explained:

“I'm very focused on creating a Community Advisory Council to support the Director's decision making process, a community advisory council with a broad spectrum of community voices. The other candidate, Marc Doll, is really focused on using his directorship as an opportunity to build a Community Association from the ground up. I'd like to talk about the difference between a Community Association and an Advisory Council and why I think there is quite a big difference.”

“There are several benefits to an Advisory Council. The Director receives input from a broad spectrum of community voices. It has geographic and demographic representation. It also does not add a complex layer of work to Area C’s already limited volunteer base. The Advisory Council is meant to support the decision making process of the Director, brainstorm and discuss island centric solutions to big issues as well as sharing opinions on land use and zoning applications. A Community Advisory Council is a no cost process.”

“It's really important that it has representation of the many diverse areas of Area C as well as representation of various areas within Quadra Island. The ages I would like to be represented: under thirties and elders, as well as those in between. I think it's really important for various interest groups, or important groups on Quadra Island to have a voice at the Advisory Council as well. Those voices or areas I would consider to include would be tourism, silviculture, First Nations, business interests and environmental advocacy. I think all those voices are really important.”

“As a Director, I intend to support the community and our established island institutions that we already have. Things like Quadra Island Recreation Society, ICAN, Quadra Circle, Quadra Foundation. These groups are already doing great work on Quadra Island. There are so many islanders who are busily engaged in community volunteering, and I'm grateful that the Quadra Community Center provides an umbrella of support for many of these groups and committees.”

“On Read Island, there's the Surge Narrows Community Association, which manages important projects. They've mentioned that they would love to find a way to have a paid community recreation organizer, something I'd look into researching as Director. My point is that there is great work being done in these organizations and through these organizations, and I see my role as director to support and strengthen this work.

“An Advisory Council is intended to provide the Director with a range of thoughtful opinions while not adding a complex layer of volunteerism work to our already busy involved community. I think it's important to tap into a range and intentionally broad spectrum of representation.

Historically, in my memory, a previous community association that was formed on Quadra Island was frequently in opposition to the Director. Apart from the costs and logistics, the Director is being elected to do the work, to take responsibility for decisions. I am unequivocally committed to doing the work.

To taking responsibility to listening to the community and reflecting that at the board level. I'm also dedicated and committed to amplifying community driven projects and advocating on important issues with other levels of government on Quadra Island.

There have been various residents and Community Associations over the years, and if there is an appetite for organizing as an association I think that's fantastic. As a Director, I would never stand in their way of organizing, and I would definitely attend and listen to the ideas and concerns being discussed.

I would say that it sounds like a time consuming process to create such an organization and the work of the Director is already a substantial job.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - One of the key points that Marc Doll keeps mentioning, in his campaign to become Regional Director of Area C, is the need to form a community Association. In today’s interview he explains why.

“There’s significant differences between a Community Association and an Advisory Council,” explained Doll.

“It’s created by the Regional Director, for the Regional Director. It is an attempt to give the Regional Director some input from a select group of people on the island.”

“A community association, on the other hand, is created for the community by the community. It is independent of a Regional Director, but it’s process of how it proceeds with discussions, how it attacks issues informs the regional director while it’s doing the work of the community association at the same time. So it’s more of a parallel process, it’s independent, it’s democratic. Those are some of the significant differences.”

Q/Why is this important?

“Well, I think it’s incredibly important on basic democratic principles, on community building and community organizational principles. The other thing is in terms of effectiveness, a regional director is one person who has, in our case, two votes on a council with 35 votes. There is limited power that comes with the voice of one.”

“However, when a community is engaged and working on issues, its voice is more than just the Regional Director table. Its voice extends out beyond that. It also adds weight to the voice that the Regional Director is bringing to the SRD table. Instead of saying, ‘Well, I’ve consulted with my people, and we believe this is the way to go,’ you’re now, ‘hey, the community has put the work into this issue. We’ve gone through a democratic process. Discussions were had. This is the way that Quadra Island and the Outer Islands wants to go.’ Weight really helps move community issues forward.”

“Another important aspect of a community association is it isn’t all about working on the next problem. It’s also doing the work of making a community better, of getting groups together, of making collaboration possible, of creating partnerships, of engaging people, getting people to focus on their community. Its reach is much more than just advising a Regional Director. It does the work of community building and making a community better.”

Q/How would you go about forming a community association on either Quadra Island or Area C?

“We already have a community association in Area C with SNCA, Surge Narrows Community Association on Reed Island.”

So we know that it is possible. We have examples on Hornby Island with HIRRA and Denman Island with the Denman Island Residence Association. So we have examples to fall follow. We’re not going to be inventing this from scratch. Like all not for profit organizations, there’s a basic template that needs to be followed. How it’s going to come about is actually already starting. One of the big parts of this campaign is finding those who have the passion for this community, that have the energy, that want to step up and make this happen. And as I’ve spent the last four months talking to people, the number of people wanting to jump on board is significant.

Getting messages like we got just this week from somebody saying,’ my chances of being appointed to an advisory committee are small, but I will join a community association in a heartbeat to make this community better.’ Those are the type of messages that we’re getting.

We know the interest is there and it’s simply engaging in and harnessing the skills and passions that we know people in this area and on these islands.

Hiway Hippy's home burned down by Cortes Currents (https://cortescurrents.ca/)

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - United Way British Columbia awarded an Emergency Preparedness and Response grant of $25,000 to Quadra Circle.

“We're pretty excited about it. We are a group of various social service and community organizations on Quadra,” said Maureen McDowell, President of Quadra Circle.

Quadra Circle’s 'Better at Home Program,’ the Quadra Island Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP), Quadra Island Seniors Housing, Quadra Legion Branch 154, Quadra ICAN, Old Age Pensioners and the Quadra Island Medical Clinic are all involved.

“On Quadra, we have a very good Neighborhood Emergency Preparedness Program. There are volunteers in each neighborhood who know who the more vulnerable people are, and are able to reach out to them and see if they need help. They would plug us into those seniors if the seniors are willing to accept some extra help, or equipment in their homes. So we can make stronger, more efficient use of those resources that we have already in a more coordinated way.”

“We'll have a coordinator, at least for this project, who will help us take those action steps and make sure that all the systems are operating together and sharing information.”

McDowell said the situation was already on their minds, “Especially during the heat dome. Then in the winters when it's been extra snowfalls and power outages combined with storm after storm, after storm. We've certainly seen how difficult it is not for ourselves, as younger seniors, but especially for those who have more health problems or are more frail, can't get out, don't drive, whatever. They are really in a very stuck place that can put their life in health at risk.”

The B.C. Chief Coroner’s Report found that 67% of the 619 decedents during the recent heat dome were 70 years old or older. Most lived in homes without adequate cooling systems, such as air conditioners or fans. More than 60% had seen a medical professional within a month of their death.

“I do know of one situation where the person was very, very ill and when there was a request to find a fan, there was no fans left to be bought anywhere and the person did pass away. The heat played a big factor in it at the time. That’s the only one that I, personally, am aware of,” said McDowell.

“As islanders we do what needs to be done when an emergency comes up. We're already doing some of those things, but in some cases the financial resources to purchase equipment or to be able to coordinate and think ahead, et cetera. It's all been very add hoc.”

“The exciting part for us is to be able to work together with so many different community groups who are all doing good services, so that we don't overlap each other. We check in and know that somebody is helping Mary or Fred or whatever and it doesn't necessarily have to be Quadra Circle. It could be their friends, or their family, or their neighbourhood. It pulls the community together and in a way that maybe makes everybody, volunteers included, feel like they're making a contribution and giving back to the seniors in the community. Hopefully they know that they'll be able to get similar help when they need it and can't manage. I think that's the motivation for all of us that are working on this.”

Quadra Circle was already looking into the logistics of setting up a cooling or a warming center on Quadra, Cortes, or some of the Outer Discovery Islands. They were sudying the heat dome in particular and used this information to apply for the grant.