Cortes Currents

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Gorge Harbour Marina is undergoing extensive renovations this year. The general store, marina and gas pump is open, but much of resort is expected to remain closed until 2024.

General Manager Jason Johnson explained:

“We had a fairly successful last season and then became even more aware of some major infrastructure issues needing to be addressed. It wasn't just a matter of ‘it's a septic issue,’ or ‘it's a water issue,’ or ‘it's an electric issue” - it's all of it. We are having to take a look at some major infrastructure at the Gorge with the understanding that the property has a lot of age behind it. So we really need to take a look at that and press the pause button.”

“We're fortunate to have a buyer like Klahoose that has motivations past a return on investment – they want to see these properties benefit the community for generations to come. So, the decisions to restrict operations is a tough one. It's a tough one for QXMC, it's a tough one for Klahoose and it's certainly a tough one for the community who depend on some of the amenities at the property.”

“As time goes on, we'll have more data and can speak more intelligently regarding a final operating plan.”

Loni Taylor/CKTZ News - The Cortes Island Waste Management Center is hosting a grand reopening of the Free Store next week to celebrate its return to the pre-pandemic schedule, Thursday-Sunday. The unique store was briefly closed during the pandemic and softly re-opened with special protocols.

The Free Store, housed at the waste management centre, is a resource available to Cortes Island residents where recycled "clothing, books, toys, household items, and more" are available for free.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held on Feb. 9 to commence the new schedule—a reversion back to the old operating hours with the two facilities running at the same time—and "re-opening" of the Free Store. Strathcona Regional Director Mark Vonesch will be officiating the ceremony.

New facilities manager Aaron McCulloch-Gary explained how the new schedule for the Free Store will shift back to the pandemic-hours, of Monday and Wednesday, when the high-volume tourist season begins in June. The manager emphasizes the need to manage many people and vehicles in the centre, hence moving the Free Store schedule to different days during the summer months. McCullough-Gary said that the focus for him is on operations and safety at both facilities.

"I'm responsible for this entire facility, that includes the Free Store and everybody coming to the Free Store."

The facilities manager points to the sentiment surrounding the Free Store operations.

"I believe tradition is part of it. People didn't like that it ever got changed and cuz it was good the way it used to be or at least it felt good."

In addition to the Free Store hours streamlining with the Waste Management Center, plastic recycling is also getting streamlined.

"Soft plastics, which used to be all separated from the soft, and the crinkly, and the weird different types of plastics, we no longer have to separate all that stuff. It's now just one category and so people don't have to worry about trying to figure out that bazaar system," McCulloch-Gary clarified.

Loni Taylor/CKTZ News - Cortes Island Academy (CIA) is finishing its first ever semester with a fourth block in filmmaking. The new high school program is a one semester-pilot project this year, so a film festival on Tuesday night concluded the program’s 2022-2023 school year.

CKTZ has covered the journey of the CIA pilot project, hearing from creators of the program. The CIA is largely powered by fundraising efforts, and the filmfest brought in admissions revenue from 120 guests. Snacks were served, and 27 short films made by students of the new academy were debuted. The program was run by educators of the local Cortes organization Reel Youth.

At the film festival, CKTZ spoke with a student completing the semester: Rowan Large. Large was attending Surge Narrows School on neighboring Read Island before attending CIA. Read Island can only be accessed by water taxi, private boat, or float plane. It is the most remote school in District 72. Large reflected on what made the program so unique.

"The CIA has really given me the opportunity to just learn. Not just in the way that normal school and how they give you a sheet of paper to work through: it feels like when I learn something here, it's gonna stick with me for my whole life."

Large also appreciated the social experiences within an intimate group of only 20 high school-age students. Large will return to Surge Narrows for his second semester, where he is the oldest and only high school student in a one-classroom school.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Wits End: Design and Fabrication is setting up shop on Cortes Island. Arne Olafson was looking for a space to use his equipment, when he walked into the Squirrel Cove General Store last December.

“Curt's a really friendly guy and he's super helpful. I was asking who had room for such a big machine, and Curt said that I could move into the shop here. I moved in. There was just some sweeping up, and then I had to build a table for my machine because I couldn't move my whole table from Hornby Island. I did move the top part of the machine, which fits in my van,” he said.

Olafson has been living on Hornby Island for the past 7 years, but is well known to many Cortes Island residents.

Arne Olafson: “We haven’t officially moved yet. I've made about six trips and I still have a few more to make, and some heavy tools, but we started moving here last Spring. I do fabrication in all kinds of media, including wood, plywood, resins, metal, modern composites. All kinds of things and they can be mixed together. It's a creative fabrication lab.”

“The main current project is the puzzle house and plywood furniture to go along with the puzzle house.”

Anastasia Avvakumova/ CKTZ News - BC Ferries' two-ferry service that began on the Quadra Island-Campbell River route on Jan. 18 was deployed for convenience and speed, but some Cortes Island passengers are concerned with their recent experiences.

The loss of a priority loading lane for Cortes-bound traffic was mentioned in a news release by the company Jan.16. Traditionally, vehicles en route to Cortes were directed into lane 7 at the ferry terminal in Campbell River, and they board and disembark first. This would assist the drivers in arriving at the other ferry terminal on Quadra in time to catch a connecting 45-minute ferry home to Cortes—ferries that only sail every two hours.

One of the most impacted demographics may be foot passengers, who often walk along lane 7 to find a ride across Quadra. With Cortes-bound vehicles now peppered throughout the Campbell River ferry terminal parking lot, it's unclear how they will find their way across. Quadra Island has only one taxi that has been reported as inaccessible for different reasons.

Locals who have already been impacted have taken their concerns to online forums including one provided by BC Ferries, although the webpage states people will only get a direct reply if they email [email protected]. Michael Lynch, chair of the Quadra-Cortes Ferry Advisory Committee, confirmed that the item is on the next meeting's lengthy agenda.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The two much anticipated Island Class hybrid e-ferries are now in operation on the Campbell River to Quadra Island route.

“This was a long time coming for all of us, but we're pleased to have the vessels going and seeing the throughput at the both ends of the terminals.

There has been some bumps along the road for sure. We've had to make some minor adjustments with the way we stage traffic at the terminals. We're exploring different options, trying to keep the on-time performance and the traffic moving as fast as we can” said Megan Caldwell, the Terminal Manager for BC Ferries.

Cortes Currents attended the online Ferry Advisory Committee (FAC) meeting on Friday, February 3, and subsequently interviewed Karen Johnstone, BC Ferries Executive Director of Communications and Engagement as well as Ushi Koebberling from the FAC.

De Clark/Cortes Currents - In 1949, Newfoundland joined Canada as a new Province. Its fisheries then fell under the authority of the central government in Ottawa — the infamous DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans, or as some call it, the Dead Fish Organisation).

DFO’s mismanagement of the Newfoundland fishery — the immensely productive shoal banks of the northern Atlantic seaboard — is now a classic cautionary tale. DFO’s bureaucrats ignored repeated warnings — from marine biologists, environmentalists, and fishermen themselves — and allowed brutal overfishing of Canadian waters.

The high-value fish in those waters were the prolific Atlantic cod, the basis for centuries of both subsistence and prosperity for fishing communities. Larger industrialised boats, more entrants each season, and ruthless exploitation of the stocks ensured that prosperity was short-lived. To be fair, other nations hammered even harder on the cod stocks of the North Atlantic; but Canada could have done something to protect the fish in its territorial waters — and did far too little, far too late.

“In 1968 the cod catch peaked at 810,000 tons, approximately three times more than the maximum yearly catch achieved before the super-trawlers. Around eight million tons of cod were caught between 1647 and 1750 (103 years), encompassing 25 to 40 cod generations. The factory trawlers took the same amount in 15 years. […]

“In 1986, scientists reviewed calculations and data, after which they determined, to conserve cod fishing, the total allowable catch rate had to be cut in half. However, even with these new statistics brought to light, no changes were made in the allotted yearly catch of cod.[12] With only a limited knowledge of cod biology, scientists predicted that the population of the species would rebound from its low point in 1975.

“Many local fishers noticed the drastic decrease of cod and tried to inform local government officials […]

“In the early-1990s, the industry collapsed entirely.”

The Northwest Atlantic cod fishery has never recovered.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - One of the world’s leading forest ecologists was the feature speaker at the Cortes Children’s Forest virtual AGM on Saturday, January 298th. This is the last in a series of programs from that meeting, in which Dr Suzanne Simard’s answers questions from the Children’s Forest Alumni.

Forrest Berman-Hatch emceed the session and this abridged broadcast of the audio opens with him asking, “ How do you see the value of the Children's Forest taking into account all the different factors that are important to small communities like the ecological, the economic, as well as the cultural and scientific values?”

Suzanne Simard: “I think it's fantastic, there is so much value. I grew up in a forest and everything I do - from being in the forest and growing up in the forest - I've put my whole life into protecting forests. Really when children grow up in these places, it just becomes part of them. It's not just like protecting forests, it's protecting all the connections in life.”

“The connections in society: even if your life is devoted to human relations, you learn so much about that in the forest. We are all here together. The trees and plants are our ancestors and we respect them, we learn to respect them.”

“We learn about the relations in the forest. Everything is relational. Loving something is really important to protecting. Those fundamental principles of life, you learn them from, our environments, like our forest where we live. Our whole lives are dependent and interdependent with these places that we live.”

“There's no better place to do that in than in the very home that you grew up in and it's really, really important. It shapes you, it becomes you. You become it.”

Mia Gregg: “The second question we have for you are what roles, responsibilities, activities - that kind of thing - do you envision for youth alumni and young adults in the Children's Forest. Can you envision how the Mother tree network could play a role in the children's forest, which you've already spoken to as well, but some very exciting things.”

Suzanne Simard: “There's kids that are in the forest learning now, I'm sure. I see this around British Columbia when I visit different places. How the curriculum in schools, in a lot of cases, moving into forests or into to outdoors. All the things that we could otherwise learn in the classroom, you can learn all of those and even better in the forest.”

“I was watching some kids in Maple Ridge last week. They were learning trigonometry by measuring the heights of trees and the angles. At the same time, the next activity was that they could build a tree fort in that tree and get to know that tree really intimately. I'm sure that those lessons were embedded in them much more deeply than you would learn them in a classroom.”

“It's just a fantastic place to learn.”

“I think that for alumni like you - Kiera, Mia, Forrest - you've just built on that to find your path for the trest of your lives, whatever you’re doing. I'm sure you are going to make great contributions to society because you learn how societies work from being in those forests.”

“I encourage you to continue on those paths and give back to society because you've learned from the best; you've learned from the trees and all the elders around you.”

“I think we need more and more children who are connected in that way, who will continue to fight for our natural world.”

Louis Belcourt/ CKTZ News - An investigation has begun on Quadra Island after a 39-year-old woman was found dead inside her home.

RCMP were conducting a wellness check on Jan. 16 when they found her inside her home, according to press release Feb. 1.

Police have confirmed that the death is criminal based on evidence forensic investigators have collected and believe it was a targeted killing.

No details about the woman's identity or manner of death have been released by the investigation unit.

"Investigators believe this incident was targeted," Cpl Alex Bérubé, spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP, said in the release.

"The incident was isolated and investigators do not believe there are any further risks to the public. The investigation is ongoing," he added.

Bérubé declined an interview with CKTZ News for "investigative purposes."

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Vancouver Island Integrated Major Crime Unit (VIIMCU) information line at 250-380-6211.

Anastasia Avvakumova/ Cortes Currents - On Sat. Jan. 28, Cortes Community Forest Cooperative (CCFC) public meeting succeeded in providing a "local knowledge download" for the external consulting team, who are now working on a plan for CCFC to keep more of its cut wood on island, simultaneously creating jobs through tapping the value-added wood products sector.

The meeting was held at the Klahoose First Nation's Multi-Purpose Building. The Nation is a strategic partner with the non-indigenous side of the island in holding and guiding development on approximately 3,869 hectares of Crown land that makes up the Forest's tenure.

The event began with a presentation by consultant Rami Rothkop, a co-founder of Herrop-Procter Forest Products (HPFP) in the Kootenays region, which has over a decade of experience creating the thriving model of local economy that CCFC is pursuing. Unique in today's logging industry in British Columbia, HPFP prioritizes creation of local jobs and selling its products as locally as possible, as well as emphasizing value-added wood products—which is defined as anything produced from a cut tree beyond its raw log state, from milled lumber to highly intensive labour products like furniture. Typically, the more labour is involved in the end-product's creation, the higher its value, which is heralded by eco-minded perspectives as the best way to honour the precious commodity of BC's forests. "In BC's industrial forest operations, there's very few jobs for volume of wood cut. So if initiatives can be created that focus much more on value-added, creating more jobs with less wood and the goal is to have employment, you need less wood to create more jobs for people," said Rothkop.

His business partner Oliver Scholfield then led the approximately 50 people in attendance through small-group discussions of various questions that asked to identify the opportunities and barriers for expanding Cortes Island's economy with CCFC's timber.