The damages caused by what appears to be a slipshod legal petition, that fourteen Cortes Island residents filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on January 2, 2019, continue to spread. One of the first casualties were the two referenda, for First Responder funding and a Community Hall Service tax, which had once been tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 16, 2019. Though Cortes Island is in the midst of a comprehensive zoning bylaw review and on the verge of updating cannabis legislation, it still does not have an Advisory Planning Commission. This body was to have been appointed at the January 24, 2019, Strathcona Regional District Board meeting, but the decision was deferred “until the implications of the legal petition filed by Cortes constituents is fully understood by the Board.” Regional Director Noba Anderson submitted a revised list of candidates at the March 13 session, but the Board is still hesitant. The Klahoose Nation are the latest victims of this petition.
In our feature radio interview this morning, Francesca is talking to Joyce Baker of Way to Go, a group of Quadrites and Cortesians who have been exploring topics related to death and dying for over three years.
Rumours of an investigation have been circulating for some time. Now the results of the RCMP investigation into alleged voter fraud in Cortes Island’s October 20, 2018 election have been made public.
In the segment of the March 13, 2019, Strathcona Regional District board meeting devoted to correspondence, Campbell River Mayor Andy Adams asked staff for clarification about a phrase used by one of Cortes Island’s better known anti-hall tax advocates. She described the proposed hall tax as using “public funds for private organizations.” It is good to see this kind of communication in the public record, where inaccuracies can be dealt with. The answers he received were adequate, but one of the island’s two hall managers was actually sitting in the spectator section directly behind Mayor Adams. Had he been given the opportunity to speak, this is how Howie Roman would have responded to the question, ” is Gorge Hall a private club?”
