The SRD Board unanimously passed a resolution that Cortes residents will vote on whether to fund the island’s youth and senior organizations at the upcoming October 17, 2026 election.

Regional Director Mark Vonesh explained, “There was a little bit of a rush because I realized that, in order to get this onto the referendum—which I think is the fairest way to consult with the community—it needs to go through a process. It goes to the board, a draft bylaw is created, the draft bylaw is reviewed, and then it goes to the Inspector of Municipalities for approval. That comes back to the referendum at the election. The time period for this one was tight. It basically had to happen in the month that I introduced it, but the beauty of it is that we’ve got four months to talk about it.”

“I’m going to be holding a public meeting in the Fall, before the election, so we can come together and talk about it, and so I can share information that I have about the services. We’ll also make it available online, so it’s really accessible for people.”

Two New Services

“The two new services that passed the board today, unanimously, are about providing funding for programming on Cortes.”

“We know that youth and older people on Cortes are important to the future—and the past—of our community. By supporting them, it’s going to make Cortes a better place to be. As a youth worker and someone who’s worked with seniors all over Canada doing nonprofit work, I know the impact that the organizations on Cortes are already having.”

“We’re looking at $35,000 for each of the services, which really isn’t a lot of money, but I think it could go a long way toward filling some gaps and strengthening what we’re already doing on Cortes for younger people and older people.”

Cortes Currents: “So that’s about $70,000 for the two services, which from figures Vonesch supplied, would work out to a tax increase of about $74 for the average Cortes Island property.

The Youth and Senior Services

Mark Vonesh: “The reality is that these organizations apply for grant and aid funding every year, and they’re often struggling to meet their budgets to be able to do everything that’s needed. This provides a secure, stable source of funding to support that.”

Cortes Currents: “What organizations are we talking about?”

Mark Vonesh: “There’s the Southern Cortes Community Association, the Cortes Community Health Association, the Parent Advisory Council, the Cortes Island Academy, the Whaletown Community Club, Klahoose First Nation, and the Cortes Community Foundation. There’s a lot of organizations supporting young people, and the idea is to come together, strengthen what we’re already doing, and look at the gaps we’re not yet addressing.”

Cortes Currents: “What organizations for seniors?”

Mark Vonesh: “There’s Better At Home or the Support Seniors Society. There’s the Cortes Senior Society, which is run through Cortes Housing Society. There’s Klahoose First Nation, the Cortes Community Health Association, the Cortes Deathcare Collective, the Southern Cortes Community Association, and the Whaletown Community Club. Folk U also works with seniors.”

“They’re all working in the space of seniors to different degrees and at different levels and doing different things. If the community decides to support this, I think it’s a real opportunity for everyone who cares about young people and older people in Cortes to work together and come up with something that will have a real impact.”

Everyone Does Not Agree

Cortes Currents: There already has been some concerted pushback. The agenda for yesterday’s board meeting contained three letters (Click here, here and here) complaining about a lack of consultation and stating a significant portion  of this funding will go to salaries. One stated that, as a result of the 2019 referendum, Cortes taxpayers have already been forced to provide funding for Mansons and Gorge Halls, as well the Firehall’s First responders program.   

They also phoned up at least three of the SRD’s other directors prior to yesterday’s meeting. 

Kermit Dahl (Mayor of Campbell River): “We’ve received a lot of correspondence from the residents of Cortes, and they’ve all only asked for public consultation before this motion goes forward. I think it sounds like a reasonable ask. I don’t live on Cortes, but I promised that I was going to bring this up and ask the director to consider their wishes.”

John Rice (Director of Area D): “I also received phone calls from people on Cortes, which is a shock to me. My first response was that I’m not the director for that area, but I did give them an opportunity to speak.”

Gerald Whalley (Director of Area A): “I was just going to say the same people that phoned you also phoned me. From my take, the main concern was taxation in general. They didn’t really like the size of the Grant in Aid funds, and they saw this as just the same kind of thing. Realistically, for efforts of this dimension, you can’t do a Grant in Aid year after year. You might as well make it a service. That’s what we agreed was appropriate in our policy, and that’s what Director Vonesh is doing. I think this is appropriate.”

“Sure, when you put anything up to a vote, you’re going to get a large segment of the population not happy with it. But in our democracy, 51 percent wins. That’s the way it should be, and that’s the way it is.”

Further Comments from the SRD Board

Susan Sinnott (Director, Campbell River): “I actually was quite pleased when Director Vonesh mentioned that this is to regularize what’s happening on an ad hoc basis over and over. We talked about the good governance of putting it through staff to reduce any potential bias or missing people who might actually deserve services because they don’t know the system well enough and don’t come forward to a director who does it under a Grants in Aids package. So I’m actually quite pleased.”

Ben Lanyon (Director, Campbell River): “Where’s the decision-making authority, in terms of which programs or not-for-profits are eligible for funding?”

Director Vonesh: “Decision-making authority is at the board, similar to any other service. Any proposals or projects would come here and we would discuss them.”

Director Lanyon: “It seems like it’s too small—like each individual thing is too small for this board. So I think it would actually be at budget time, with the area director making those recommendations into the budget, and then it would be up to the board to parse those if we cared enough, which we don’t, and then pull out the things that we thought were ideological or preferential treatment.”

Cortes Currents: “When the vote was called, the motion was passed unanimously.”

Looking forward to the Oct 17, 2026 Referendum

Director Vonesh: “People have lots of questions, and I think there are lots of conversations that are good to happen. The more people that know what it’s about and what the intention is, the better positioned they’ll be to make an informed vote and decide whether they want to support it or not.”

“At the board meeting today, we also received some letters from the community. Three letters were on the agenda for us to review. There are some folks on Cortes that don’t want to pay any more taxes for anything, and I get that—that’s a valid opinion. There are other folks that are happy to contribute a little bit each year to support youth and seniors.”

“Cortes will never agree on 100% consensus about everything, and that’s a fact. We live in a democratic society where people can voice their opinions and have those conversations. My hope is that those conversations happen respectfully and factually, and that we can actually have meaningful conversations where we’re learning from each other. That’s not always the case, but it’s certainly a hope. I’m really trying to make this a democratic process where it’s in the hands of Cortes Islanders to decide whether they want this.” 

Links of Interest:

• Staff reports for Bylaw 651 (A Cortes Island Seniors Support Service)
• Staff Reports for Bylaw 652 (A Cortes Island Youth Support Service)

Top image credit: AI generated image voters lined up at the polls

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