Harbour Authority Cortes Island (HACI) has embarked upon a campaign to inform the public who they are and what they do. Harbourmaster Jenny Hartwick provided Cortes Currents with a concise description of the organization. 

“The Harbour Authority is a nonprofit organization, which is made up of an eight volunteer board of directors. All of whom are local year round, residents  and are actively involved in boating on Cortes, either commercial fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, or as recreational boaters. Under contract with Small Craft Harbours, the Harbour Authority is responsible for the operation and basic maintenance of the four government docks on the island: Squirrel Cove, Manson’s Landing, Cortes Bay, and Gorge Harbour,” she said. “We also operate the Whaletown Dock, which was formally divested from Transport Canada in 2009. The Harbour Authority actually owns that dock outright.” 

I asked one of the Directors, Andy Ellingsen, how the Harbour Authority came into being. 

“It was around 1997, at the instigation of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) who ran most of the docks on the island. They felt they weren’t getting good organization on the docks and the other thing that they were trying to do was  derive some income from the docks. The docks had been free prior to that.”

“Small Craft Harbours, a division of DFO, came up to the island and did a presentation.  They were interested in commercial fishermen primarily, but any dock users that were interested in seeing the docks operated on the island in a meaningful fashion were being consulted.”

“About 2000, maybe 2001, I attended a public meeting of the Harbour Authority group and was interested in what they were doing.  I put my name forward and  was elected to my first term as a director of the  Harbour Authority of Cortes Island.”

“I’ve been a director of the organization pretty well since then, with one exception. The bylaws used to call for a two year term for directors before they have to stand down to get out of the way for new blood. That has since been changed. So with a one year break, I’ve basically been a director of the Harbour Authority since about 2002.”

“The primary mission from the perspective of Small Craft Harbours is serving the commercial producers. That would be  the commercial fisherman.  Now with their new recognition of the shellfish industry’s contribution, they’re recognizing that as a core value to Small Craft Harbours.”

“By contrast, I would say that  the mission of the Harbour Authority of Cortes Island is to maintain the harbours because we are an island.  We have a lot of people who use the water in a number of ways, some of which are economic and some of which are recreational and some of them just for fun. Those kinds of things have a real value to the people in our community and we recognize that.”

“While we work with Small Craft Harbours to make sure that the harbours are there and in good condition for the commercial fishing and the shellfish industries, we have put a lot of emphasis  on making sure  that the people who live on the islands and the people who have ‘boat access only residences’ have a way to get from the roads to their homes.”

“We’ve developed quite good working relationships with the Small Craft Harbours division of DFO. We are their local eyes and ears. For example, the anchors on the dock at Cortes Bay occasionally don’t support the dock the way it needs to be supported.  We let them know that  the dock has shifted in the bad southeast wind and  needs some attention pretty quickly.”

“The responsibility for the repairs on the docks is divided. We do minor stuff, for example: replace  a plank on a float, which is just a piece of two by six.  When it comes to the major structural elements of the dock, that’s Small Craft Harbours, but we’re the ones that are pointing out that we see  some problem coming up.”

“We are anticipating presently, with our contacts at Small Craft Harbours, that we will be redecking the approach on the Squirrel Cove Dock.  A couple of years ago, Small Craft Harbours paid for the redecking of the dock head itself, where the winch is, and the walkways to the floats. Actually, our Warfinger Don Tennent  took a contract with Small Craft Harbours to do the physical work of replacing the planks. Small Craft Harbours supplied the planks and moved them in here for us. We moved them down onto the dock and Don placed them, with other physical help of course, because it’s not a one man job.”

“Small Craft Harbours has developed confidence in our ability to supervise those kinds of things and make sure that they’re done properly according to what Small Craft Harbours want.” 

“We have been in discussions with small craft Harbours to replace the dock at Gorge Harbour with  a  drive on floating unloading dock similar to the one that you may have seen  in Heriot Bay, where the shellfish producers are able to drive their truck right down onto the float. There is a hiab crane mounted on one of the pilings. They can take loads of shellfish right out of the boat, and swing them right onto the truck . It cuts down the work that’s needed for operators very substantially.  We’re hoping to get the same kind of a facility into Gorge Harbour. That’s a big project of course, but so far Small Craft Harbours seems to be supportive  of the shellfish industry here.” 

 “We’re trying to make sure that the communications  are good.  For example, we’re collecting local volumes of product and value of product information from the local  shellfish producers. I’m passing that information onto Small Craft Harbours because that’s the kind of information they need to justify an expenditure  like this project.”

“We’re hoping to get some kind of further information on that project shortly.  I don’t think the thing is going to be in the water before maybe 2025 at a guess, but  it will be a real asset to our shellfish operators.”

Top image credit: Crane approaching the dock during the upgrades at the Squirrel Cove dock in 2021 – Photo by Roy L Hales.

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