Denise Smith cherishes her childhood memories of her parents harvesting and preparing traditional ɬaʔəmen (Tla’amin) foods — from hunting deer in the forest, to fishing for perch on their territories, and for cod in the ocean.
Though her mother passed away when she was young, Smith remembers her “being that person that was always doing something with food.”
BC Hydro is replacing the switches on pole-mounted transformers set up beside private residences and buildings on Cortes Island.
They subcontracted this work to Allteck, an electric ransmission & distribution services company with a branch office in Nanaimo. A three-person crew arrived in Squirrel Cove on Tuesday, March 10. Two of them either use a bucket truck or climb the pole, while the third supports them from the ground. Once set up, the whole procedure typically takes about half an hour per transformer.
The BC Seniors Advocate is calling upon the province to address a critical shortfall in long term care beds. There were 7,212 people on the waiting list during 2025 and the average wait time was 290 days. The number of seniors is increasing and the need for long term beds is expected to grow 49% by 2035. “We are in trouble,” warns Anna Kindy, MLA for North Island and Health Critic for the Conservative Party, “This is why I am pushing for ‘aging in place.’
On February 27, 2026, host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Regional Director, Mark Vonesch, for a live check-in about priorities, current issues, and other updates for Cortes Island residents. Phone-in and mail-in questions were welcomed.
Global energy demand continues to rise faster than the deployment of renewables, and emissions reached new heights in 2025. The world is consuming more energy than it did in 1990, the baseline from which most nations measure progress toward their energy and climate targets. While only 47% of our energy is now derived from fossil fuels, the world is using more coal, gas and oil than ever before.
