By Regional Director Mark Vonesch
As we settle into the darker months of winter on Cortes, I hope this finds you warm and cozy. It’s been a busy fall so far and there’s lots to update you on!
Roads
Some good news – the Ministry of Transportation and Transit (MOTT) has confirmed that they will paint the yellow line and crosswalks in the spring of 2026, rather than 2027 as they originally stated.
Many of you have written to me about the state of our roads, specifically about the number of potholes and the lack of yellow centre line and I have been strongly advocating to the province for improvements.
In my May newsletter, I shared that MOTT had committed spending $500,000 per year for the next four years on chip sealing 3.5km of road each year and that they would paint the yellow line centre line in 2027.
Waiting 18 months to get the yellow line painted was unacceptable and I am grateful to a group of Cortes seniors who took matters into their own hands and painted yellow lines and one of the crosswalks themselves. I sent these pictures to the province as part of my advocacy and it helped:
The first 3.5 km section of chip seal is now complete (T junction near Linnaea to the Seaford Rd turn off) and in a recent meeting with MOTT, I asked that in addition to staying on top of spot patching potholes, they speed up the remaining chip seal work and complete it over the next two years instead of four. I’m still waiting for this confirmation and will update you when I have more news.
Thank you to everyone that has spoken out about this issue to me!
Cortes Zoning Bylaw Review
It was fabulous to see 140+ people come to the zoning bylaw public hearing at the beginning of September. Staff at the SRD have made some adjustments to the bylaw based on your feedback and those changes are outlined here:
Here is a link to all of the feedback that was made at the public hearing:
https://agenda.strathconard.ca/SRDAttachments/SRDBoard/Open/BRD/22-Oct-25/PH-Report—Bylaw-No_-598-FINAL-with-Written-Comments.pdf
The item will be on the next SRD board agenda, where I can ask more questions and discuss the feedback from the public hearing. I deferred the decision by a month because I thought it was prudent to let you all have more time to see the comments before the board makes a decision.
More details about the Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw review process can be found here: https://srd.ca/cortes-zoning-bylaw-review/
Control of Land Use Decisions
In my last newsletter I shared a call to action around the issue of Campbell River considering joining our planning service. The Electoral Area Planning Service is where all land use decisions are made on Cortes and it is currently controlled by the votes of the four Electoral Area Directors. If Campbell River joined the service (at a cost of $500,000 per year to their own taxpayers) they would get five votes and could override the wishes of our community regarding important land use decisions.
A huge thanks to everyone that put work into this campaign. The response has been strong and speaks to our fierce independence as a community. Campbell River has received approximately 100 letters from their own constituents letting them know this is a waste of their tax payer money and to please spend the funds on more important projects in Campbell River – like downtown safety.
We have also received the following media coverage:
CBC Radio: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1JWVdeCSDJ/
Campbell River Mirror: https://campbellrivermirror.com/2025/10/03/electoral-area-directors-up-in-arms-as-campbell-river-mulls-joining-rural-planning-service/
Cortes Currents: https://cortescurrents.ca/srd-municipalities-wanting-control-of-the-electoral-areas-planning-service/
I had a constituent email me the other day with $10,000 ready to spend on a media campaign in Campbell River – flooding their social media, radio, and newspapers with ads that speak to this potential waste of tax payer money the Campbell River council is considering. I have also had many people across the rural parts of the SRD reach out to me wanting to start a boycott of Campbell River businesses.
I am asking everyone to stand down at this point, but to be ready with future action if necessary. A bigger war with our neighbours is not in the best interest of anyone and I’m hoping this issue can be solved with Campbell River quietly deciding not to join our planning service. I am keeping an eye on the City of Campbell River council agenda and will keep you updated and let you know if further action is required.
BC Ferries Shutdown
BC Ferries has provided an update for the planned terminal shutdowns in 2026 and, for those that missed the in person meeting, here are the details:
The ferry will shut down on Feb 9th, 2026 and will be running again by March 1st.
A landing craft will transport essential service vehicles and dangerous cargo and can hold up to 16 regular sized vehicles and 12 passengers. The plan is for this landing craft to leave full by allowing a limited number of other personal vehicles when possible. The application process for this will be released to the community soon.
A free water taxi with room for up to 40 people will leave from Manson’s dock 6 times per day with a free shuttle back and forth across Quadra.
For those that want to leave a vehicle on Quadra there will be parking available.
BC Ferries is also working on a shuttle service that will pick us up from designated spots around Cortes for rides to the water taxi at Manson’s dock. Stay tuned for more details.
These terminal upgrades are being done so that we can get a new ferry with approximately 50% more capacity starting in the summer of 2026.
There is a stay updated email list that you can sign up for on the BC Ferries website here:
https://www.bcferriesprojects.ca/heriot-bay-whaletown-tp
If you have any other concerns about this ferry service disruption, please reach out!
Grant in Aid
With the support of the Cortes Island Community Foundation (CICF), I am excited to announce that the grant in aid process has begun and applications are due at midnight on Nov 16th.
This year CICF has raised an additional $25,000 so there will be a total of $50,000 available for non profit projects that benefit Cortes Island. For larger grants (up to $10K), we are looking for collaborative projects shared between more than one non profit organization.
Details about the Grant in Aid process, and links to the application form can be found here:
https://cortesfoundation.ca/grants/grants-in-aid/
Here is a link to the 2024 Cortes Island Vital Signs report that outlines some of the challenges we face on Cortes:
https://cortesfoundation.ca/vitalsigns2024/
Thanks to those that have already signed up to be on the jury! Please reach out if you have any questions or want to chat about a potential project.
Should Cortes Become a Municipality?
There have been a lot of calls for Cortes to be more independent from the SRD and to take action on options for autonomy. If we chose to incorporate what would that mean and what would the pros and cons be?
These are questions we cannot answer until studies are done and we can make an informed choice. The first step is to make a formal request to the province asking for them to lead us through a process that provides us with all the facts, including what the impact on our taxes could be.
This is a 2-4 year process that involves community consultation, negotiation with the province, the public release of studies, and finishes with a referendum vote, where we can choose whether it’s a good fit for us or not.
At this point, I think it’s something worth at least considering and making an informed choice about. Later this week, I will be releasing a petition on Cortes to measure the interest in asking the province to start working with us on this.
Here is a link to the SRD staff report I requested that outlines the process of a community incorporating:
https://agenda.strathconard.ca/SRDAttachments/SRDBoard/Open/BRD/22-Oct-25/20251009-Community-Incorporation-Overview.pdf
At this point, we are NOT deciding whether we want to become a municipality. We would simply be asking the province to work with us so we can make an informed choice.
Thanks for reading and please reach out if you have questions or comments. I always appreciate hearing from you!
In service,
Mark
Mark Vonesch
Regional Director – Cortes Island
mb: 250-202-4422