On Monday, September 15th, 2025, Anna Kindy, the MLA for our riding, visited Cortes and Quadra Islands. Cortes Currents met up with her at the Cortes Medical Clinic and then we took a quick tour of the downtown Mansons Landing area. 

Cortes Currents:What’s it like coming to Cortes Island?

Anna Kindy: You forget how beautiful it is. Just taking the ferry over, my first thought was: it’s beautiful. So you guys are lucky.

Cortes Currents: You’ve been here before?

Anna Kindy: Many years ago, when my husband had a small boat. I remember docking somewhere on Cortes.

Cortes Currents: What brings you to Cortes?

Anna Kindy: I’m taking my job seriously, and I’m trying to find out what communities need. We’ve done quite a bit of traveling over the summer—we just came back from Tahsis, went to Gold River, Port Hardy, Port McNeill, different areas. This was one of the areas I hadn’t come to yet. Second, with my medical background, I wanted to find out how the services were on the two islands—or all the islands around.

Cortes Currents: What did you find out about the medical service?

Anna Kindy: It reaffirms my thinking: the community knows best what they need. Sometimes you drive ideas from communities. The health authorities need to listen because they already have a good product that can be made better.

I’m seeing a lot of dedication—staff who’ve been there for years and love what they do. There’s a real connection between staff. Like somebody mentioned, it’s a multidisciplinary approach. There are no boundaries—they all help each other, which is fantastic.

I also appreciate the welcome feeling. People picked me up from the ferry. They fed us. They’re excited that we’re here.

Cortes Currents: Tell me about your visit to Quadra Island.

Anna Kindy:  We went to the clinic. Their facility is fantastic. They’re wanting to plan for the future. All of BC has a lack of primary care access and they want to make sure that they have proper primary care access for long-term. They also have a multidisciplinary team. There’s a nurse practitioner and they sometimes get other parts of medical services.

Long-term, they’re looking at an even better model where all of the islands are serviced by one community health centre with potential outreach. I think that’s a sustainable way of doing things.

Cortes Currents: Our tour of Mansons Landing happened more or less spontaneously. It began at the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing project, beside the Medical Clinic, where construction on the first duplex starts today. From there, it seemed only natural to walk over to the Village Commons. We looked at the stage, the food bank sea cans, the Nook, FOCI and Cortes Community Radio. 

Standing in the parking lot at Mansons Hall, I pointed out some of the surrounding businesses. When I came to the Cortes Natural Food Co-op, Ms. Kindy asked, “How is it a Co-op?” I suggested, “Why don’t you ask them?” So we went inside.

After that we walked up Beasley Road, past the Cortes Market, Skate Park, Fire Department and Museum to the Cortes Elementary School.

When the tour was finished, I asked Ms. Kindy for her impressions. 

Anna Kindy:  It’s a very friendly ‘can do’ community. If I was probably not well settled where I am now, I would consider moving here. I just like the atmosphere and what’s available. It’s beautiful. From the medical clinic to the housing project, which I think is going to be fantastic for the community here, considering how many people are still left without housing .

There still is a housing issue though, by the sounds of it. So that needs to be addressed. I think affordability as well. Living on an island often ends up being more expensive in certain ways – rent, maybe less – but everything else is more expensive.

One of the issues which I would not want to contribute to is there are houses that are seasonal, and that contributes to the housing crisis here. How do you address that? It’s difficult because people that come during the summer do buy houses and they do contribute to the economy.

One special place again was the housing project and how it was the local folks that were building it with local product. That’s great. We’re talking about tariffs and the cost of everything. How we beat that is to buy local as much as possible, build with local products and use local people to build. That’s what I saw there.

The school was amazing. The primary school, plus they have a program for high school—the Cortes Island Academy, which is strongly biology-based. I think that’s fantastic. 

I saw what I call my ‘hero place,’ because I’ve always listened to Cortes Radio whenever I could tune in, and I finally saw the source of it. I remember driving from home to work every day with my kids. Once in a while, I’d catch Cortes Radio and I loved the eclectic music. They also had some extremely good programs from around the world, like Democracy Now, which you’d never find on a regular radio station.

We went to the Natural Food Co-op, and I would argue that if you went to a high-end Vancouver store, that’s what you’d see. Natural-based products that seemed excellent. I wish I had bought a bag of chips on my way out, as I’m sitting here thinking about the food there.

Overall, I’m very impressed. I encourage people to come and talk to me. I’m still learning, I’m still like a sponge right now. I want to learn about the healthcare issues, the housing issues, even water issues—because something I learned today is that 39% of the wells on Cortes are surface wells. That can potentially cause water issues, especially with potential climate change.

I came here with my assistant Candace, and I have another assistant (Susan). They’re wonderful women who, like me, are sponges. We’re learning, and I want everybody to feel free to call our office or drop by if they’re ever in Campbell River.

Anna Kindy’s constituency office is at 908 Island Hwy in Campbell River. Her cell phone number is 778-902-8544 and her email is [email protected]

Links of Interest:

• Anna Kindy’s Facebook page
• Anna Kindy, MLA – Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
• Articles about, or mentioning, Anna Kindy

All undesignated photos by Roy L Hales

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