All posts by Roy Hales

Dr Anna Kindy: The State of Health Care in BC During 2025

January 21, 2026 Roy Hales Leave a comment

In addition to being the MLA for our North Island riding, Dr. Anna Kindy is also the Health Critic for the Conservative Party of British Columbia. She recently had a conversation with Cortes Currents about the state of healthcare in British Columbia.

Anna Kindy: “That portfolio has kept me quite busy, to be honest. There are issues throughout British Columbia, like we’ve heard on the news. I have my tentacles in all sorts of health authorities, and people are communicating with me from the front lines.”

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Community

Expanding Funding Opportunities for the Quadra Island Foundation

January 20, 2026 Roy Hales Leave a comment

Over the past few years, the Quadra Island Foundation has channeled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy. Now, thanks to a change in their charitable status, they may be able to do a great deal more.

Marc Doll, Vice President in Charge of Communications, explained:

“We have had charitable status since our inception. The change is in the scope of that status. Previously, we were only able to work with charities within a very, very defined set of parameters. Our charitable purposes really limited us to only working with established charities on the island. We couldn’t work with individuals or societies. It handcuffed us, so even when we gave out our small neighborhood grants, we had to work with the Rec Society because we didn’t actually have the ability to funnel that money directly to people who were not registered charities.”

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Arts, Politics

Film Night at Linnaea: Climate Action, Politics and Societal Change

January 19, 2026 Roy Hales Leave a comment

Two films by veteran journalist, educator, and NDP candidate Avi Lewis are being shown at the Linnaea Education Centre this weekend. At 7 PM on Friday, January 23, 2026, Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein tell the story of Argentinian workers who took control of a bankrupt auto plant and turned it into a cooperative. At 7 PM on the following night, their documentary ‘This Changes Everything’ connects climate action to economic justice.

Max Thaysen, who is organizing the showings, explained, “Avi Lewis is running for the leadership of the Federal NDP, and he has made a couple of awesome films that I actually haven’t seen yet. So, I thought that it would be interesting to see his films, learn more about him, share that with the community, and take the opportunity to chat about the leadership race and how people can get involved if they want to.”

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Rivers & Oceans

2025 Chum Run on Cortes Island

January 15, 2026 Roy Hales Leave a comment

Two months have passed since the 2025 Chum run. Unlike previous years, the Cortes Island Streamkeepers have not released a final count.

A Tideline post at the beginning of the run noted, “Basil Creek is usually the first on Cortes to receive returning salmon, and true to form, the first chum showed up on October 23. These first Chum are gorgeous, big, strong, with no decay, and moving steadily up the creek. The Chum typically have a 4-year cycle – we saw good returns in the fall of 2021, so we can expect this year to have a strong return of spawning Chum.”

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Housing

SRD Looking into developing two Provincial lots on Quadra Island

January 15, 2026 Roy Hales Leave a comment

Strathcona Regional District (SRD) staff will be asking the Ministry of Forests about the possibility of obtaining two provincial lots on Quadra Island for development. Three of the four Regional Directors at the Wednesday, January 14, 2026, Electoral Areas Services Committee meeting voted to proceed.

Meredith Starkey, Manager of Planning for the SRD, brought a list of 13 Federal, Provincial and Regional properties to the meeting. She explained that the report provides an overview of public land available near Quathiaski Cove and Heriot Bay on Quadra Island which could be considered for future affordable housing.

“There’s really only three sites that are currently undeveloped in a suitable size and some other conditions that make them more suitable than others. They all have constraints.”

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As Broadcast over CKTZ, Whats Current on Cortes and Beyond