Doll: Why Quadra Island and/or Area C needs a Community Association

Jemma Hicken/ Folk U - What really matters most in the world? How will we help inspire the next generation of truth-seekers and truth-tellers? At the Cortes Island Academy we believe in the passion and skills of the people and wild places of this place and are proud of our youth who learned along side our community and shared their growing skills through journalistic podcasts, Elder Documentaries, Field Guides and unsung hero posters (the one here is by artist Zella Aufochs).   This week on Folk U Radio CKTZ 89.5 FM (1 p.m. Fridays, repeats on folku.ca/cortescurents.ca/cortesradio.ca) youth journalists interview neighbours and regional experts on the issues of the day in our communities in their Audio Series called Desolation Sounds.    Friday March 8 will feature:  Jack – Serpent Stories Alora – Why Colour?   We hope you will tune in! You can listen to the CIA youth podcast series, Desolation Sounds, anytime at https://cortesislandacademy.ca/podcasts/ Watch the breathtaking and moving CIA/ReelYouth Elder Films at https://cortesislandacademy.ca/films/ Get your own pocket Biodiversity Field Guide for Cortes (e.g. edible berries, local fungi, marine species, seaweeds, mosses, and more!) at https://cortesislandacademy.ca/biodiversity-project/

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Around 60 people turned out for the Strathcona Regional District’s (SRD( zoning bylaw meeting in Mansons Hall at 1 PM on Wednesday, March 6. The meeting went very differently from how the SRD planned it. There was to have been a short presentation, after which participants were to have gathered around two maps and put sticky dots on the properties where the bylaws should be changed to allow for greater densification. Instead, this was a community conversation. There was undoubtedly some confusion as to whether it should be a meeting where the community asked questions, or a forum for them to express opinions. A variety of perspectives were given: some pointed to the need for more housing; others suggested the first step should be determining what the island’s carrying capacity in terms of water and other resources.SRD staff members Annie Girdler and Meredith Starkey added their expertise.

Roy L Hales/ COrtes Currents - Cortes Island has a new volunteer production company. According to their recent press release, Moon Dance Productions will pay travelling expenses, accommodation etc for bands coming to Cortes Island. They have already booked the Awakeneers for an Earth Day Contra Dance in Mansons Hall on Saturday, April 13th. A dance troupe will be coming on Tuesday, April 16th, and Elise LeBlanc with Sahara Jane on Saturday, April 27th. 
“Music is soul food. Music is like air, we need it. Live music is  a great experience. It's a different kind of soul food, to get moving and to be present with these great artists. I think it's really great for us to hang out together  and have fun together. It's bonding as a community and I care about the people who live here. I like seeing them, I like going out and I like the opportunity to do this. I think it is important for the overall health of everyone. You gotta get out and shake your thing every now and then,” explained Cora Moret. 
“I want to see regular live music in perpetuity. I want to see Cortes Island be on that list of venues when bands are touring. When someone's invited to come up to Quadra, I want them to know that Cortes is on that list too and to take that extra hop over and experience Cortes. Come join us too.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Effective May 1, 2024, all BC communities with a population over 10,000 have to limit short term rentals to the host’s principle residence plus one secondary suite or accessory dwelling unit. Campbell River, Comox, Courtenay and Powell River are all on the list of  64 communities where this applies. Cortes Island is too small to be on that list, but has chosen to opt in, and Quadra Island is considering the idea.  “With that legislation came the option for smaller communities like Cortes Island, or electoral areas within the SRD, to be able to opt in. We can say, ‘yes, we want that legislation as well.’  So in December, I worked with the Cortes Housing Society and we put on a housing forum, and we put out a housing survey,”  explained Regional Director Mark Vonesch of Cortes Island.  “What are people's thoughts on solutions? Polling some people on some specific questions like ‘should Cortes opt into BC legislation that says you can only run an Airbnb on your primary residence property?  The results came in overwhelmingly in support of the government legislation, a ratio of 3 to 1.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - It has been 9 months since 106 Cortes Island residents petitioned the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) to set up a Dog control service bylaw. At their February 28th meeting, the SRD Board passed a motion to seek electoral consent through the alternate approval process. According to Regional Director Mark Vonesch, if the service is apporved the average homeowner would probably see an increase of somewhere between $4 and $20 to their property taxes, depending on the final form of the bylaw. If 97 of the island’s 961 electors notify the SRD they are opposed by April 15, 2024, the bylaw will be considered defeated. 
“I realize this is a very divisive issue on Cortez. I'm personally not a dog owner, but I’ve talked to lots of people about this issue. Emotions run high. It seems like there's lots of people who want to control dogs on the island. There's also people who don’t. We'll see if there's enough to stop this,” explained Regional Director Mark Vonesh.    
If there is no serious opposition, the SRD Board could pass Cortes Island’s new Dog Service bylaw at its May 22 board meeting.  
“It's a tricky situation and, no matter what I do, there are going to be people upset, but I do want to move forward with what the community has asked me for in terms of the potential  dog bylaws. I think there are some common sense things that we could do quite cheaply,  as far as  making sure dogs have to be under control or on leash  in public areas.”  
Vonesch said if the proposed bylaw is defeated, he may revisit the issue to see what people think in another year or so.  
 “When I create new services at the SRD, I have three options. If it's a really non controversial service, maybe there's no tax requisition for it, or very little, or there's just no controversy, I can just do it by director's assent. or I can say we're doing it. My other option is to do an alternative approval process where it comes back to the community and if 10 percent of the electorate write in against it, it stops it from happening for a year.”   “The other option is to do a referendum, and the referendum costs about $60,000m of course everybody gets to vote.”  
“In this case, because I had a hundred names on a petition, I've asked to come back to the community and see if there's strong opposition against it.” “We're never going to get consensus on issues like this. I think that's just the reality that we have to live in. When I first thought about running for this position. I really wanted to run on the idea that we can talk to each other, regardless of what side of issues we were on. I hope that people have empathy for people who are on the other side of this issue and that conversations can happen that are curious and are working to create understanding rather than blame and anger, because it is really easy to go that way.”

Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - What really matters most in the world? How will we help inspire the next generation of truth-seekers and truth-tellers? At the Cortes Island Academy we believe in the passion and skills of the people and wild places of this place and are proud of our youth who learned along side our community and shared their growing skills through journalistic podcasts, Elder Documentaries, Field Guides and unsung hero posters.  This week on Folk U Radio CKTZ 89.5 FM (1 p.m. Fridays, repeats on folku.ca/cortescurents.ca/cortesradio.ca) youth journalists interview neighbours and regional experts on the issues of the day in our communities in their Audio Series called Desolation Sounds. What really matters most in the world? How will we help inspire the next generation of truth-seekers and truth-tellers? At the Cortes Island Academy we believe in the passion and skills of the people and wild places of this place and are proud of our youth who learned along side our community and shared their growing skills through journalistic podcasts, Elder Documentaries, Field Guides and unsung hero posters.  This week on Folk U Radio CKTZ 89.5 FM (1 p.m. Fridays, repeats on folku.ca/cortescurents.ca/cortesradio.ca) youth journalists interview neighbours and regional experts on the issues of the day in our communities in their Audio Series called Desolation Sounds.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Sandra Milligan has been teaching biology at North Island College, in Campbell River, for more than 20 years. She is an avid birder with deep roots in her local community. Someone from Sierra Quadra came to lecture she gave on bird intelligence, at ElderCollege in Campbell River, last fall. This led to Sierra Quadra inviting Milligan to speak at the Quadra Community Centre at 7:30  PM in Saturday, March 2.  “Birds are incredibly intelligent, contrary to what science has believed in the past.  They understand what each other is thinking. One of my favourite topics, because I'm a bird watcher, (aka a bird listener) is to talk about bird communication and language. They can have hundreds (and thousands even) of different vocalizations and they really communicate in much more depth than science previously believed to be happening,” she explained.

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Cortes Island Academy’s school year is over. Graduation was on January 25. Executive Director, Manda Aufochs Gillespie, just gave Cortes Currents an overview of the 2023/24 semester and a peek into the year that just about to begin. 
“This year, the Cortes Island Academy was a lot of fun.  We learned a lot from our first year. So this year we really got to just revel in the model, the awesome kids and local knowledge holders that came out to make this year happen. It felt to me like a lot more fun, and a lot less trailblazing,” she began.  
“Some of the highlights included the students got to  a week at the incredible science laboratories of the HACI Institute with some of the HACI Institute's incredible research and science staff.  It's a  once in a lifetime experience that these students had, every single one of them.  They also got to work with people from the mother tree network and work alongside  Dr. Briony Penn, who's well known for her work with all sorts of things that relate to understanding the stories, flora, the fauna of our particular area. They got to be part of this mycoblitz that the Children's Forest put on, that had different mycologists from all around the region - including our local Paul Stamets. It was  a really beautiful year too with Klahoose participants.  We had a number of different Ayajuthem (Éy7á7juuthem) language opportunities.  Students got to participate in our first language trail that the Children's Forest helped curate. They identified different plant species all along this Sea to School Trail, drew the plants and wrote the names.” 
“Really, really fun, neat projects and this doesn't even get into  the culminating projects that the students did.  If anybody has not yet seen them, I recommend enough going to the Cortesislandacademy.ca website and looking there at their videos. They did five videos this year with different Cortes elders.”  (Jessie Louie, Duane Hansen, Nori Fletcher, Elizabeth Anderson and Christine Robinson.) “These are incredible short  documentaries about the people in our community and some of the little known stories of what brought them here, who they are, et cetera. They are really, really beautiful. You will not regret watching them.” “They also participated in creating podcasts this year again. They're playing right now on Cortes Radio, CKTZ 89. 5 FM, but you can also  listen to them all on the Cortes Island Academy website. Incredible pieces, everything from the wolf issue on Cortes and what we can do to live alongside wolves to what it means to live with dyslexia, or to question gender identity, et cetera. I really hope people will check it out.”  “Other projects that they participated in this year,  with many of the scientists previously mentioned and,  some of the local knowledge holders and local naturalists like our field guides Kai Harvey and Tosh Harvey who grew up on the island. The students each made their own Cortes field guides.” Manda Aufochs Gillespie: You can see all the edible berries an Cortes: what they look like, what they're called, what you can do with them. Many of the mushrooms that could be found here and what you can do with them et cetera.  These are  pieces that you would spend a great deal of money to buy and they're just there, for free,  on our website.”   
“I would also actually throw out that this year  the Cortes Island Academy  did a really cool thing that I was very excited about, which was to host the fall ‘Folk U’ radio series. Many of them were hosted at the Cortes Island School building.  I heard a lot from members of the community how much they deeply appreciated being able to spend a little bit of time with teenagers, hearing what's on their minds and being part of learning together.”

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Representatives from at least 56 Quadra Island organizations came together at the Quadra Community Centre on Saturday, February 24. Close to 30 more were invited. Jennifer Banks-Doll, who facilitated the meeting, estimates there were about 80 attendees. They were asked two questions: 
 “What are some ways Quadra groups and organizations could work together to combine our strengths and address our challenges?” And “What would help create or build stronger community connections?”  
Jody Rogers, Chair of the Board for Quadra Island Foundation, would later remark, “I was pleased beyond all expectation. The participation was enthusiastic and the positive feedback that we got afterwards was unexpectedly terrific. One of the most beautiful conversations I had was with Jack Maher, who said, He's been living on Quadra for a very long time, and the event made him very, very proud to be from Quadra Island. It was a lovely, lovely phone call, and it really made my day.”  
The Quadra Island Foundation hosted the meeting, which was one of the first steps towards its becoming a central hub for nonprofits and charities on Quadra Island and Surge Narrows-Read Island.

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Canada is expected to have another Federal election in October 2025. Green party leaders Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault launched their national campaign almost two weeks ago. Cortes Currents interviewed them in Ottawa (via ZOOM) yesterday morning. They will be coming to the Maritime Heritage Centre in Campbell River on Saturday, March 2.  
“We're less than 18 months away from a general election. It's crucial that voters get a chance to engage and ask questions to Elizabeth and I about where the party's key priorities are. It's crucial  for us to also get a pulse of  what the key issues are for voters from coast to coast,” explained Jonathan Pedneault.   
“We've been traveling extensively since the leadership race ended (on Nov 19, 2022). It's a great opportunity for the party to test a number of messages on housing, on affordability, and on the climate. Last year we saw some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change ever to have been seen in Canada - with the wildfire season, the storms in the Atlantic and with a continuation of an extremely dry summer in British Columbia. I think it's top of mind for a lot of small communities across Canada.”  “The key objectives of the tour are for us to get to know what's on people's minds and to share where we're at as a party. We are really kickstarting our electoral readiness process ahead of what is going to be an extremely important general election.”  
Cortes Currents: The Green party often does surprisingly well in polls taken prior to elections. A Nanos poll taken during the 2015 election showed that when the second choices of respondents were factored in, the Green party could potentially reach 27.7% of the electorate. During the 2019 election, 338Canada’s projections showed them leading in four Vancouver Island ridings throughout most of the campaign. In both cases, the Green party was not able to transform this potential into seats on election day.  
What could make the next election different? 
Elizabeth May: “Voter turnout, and voter turnout means citizens feeling engaged and empowered. That is the strategy, and we will win more seats on Vancouver Island and certainly that will encourage people who are dispirited.” She went on to illustrate her point with statistics from ridings where the Greens have won, adding that if 75% of the electorate turns out this election, they will take North Island-Powell River from the NDP.