Tag Archives: Bernice McGowan

Health

Proposed Discovery Island Community Health Centre.

 The Quadra, Cortes, and Surge Narrows communities, as well as the Klahoose and We Wai Kai First Nations, have sent the BC Ministry of Health an application for funding to set up a Discovery Island Community Health Centre. 

“It offers stability for practitioners. It offers leadership stability through a joint board and a hired executive director. It offers some economies of scale in terms of practitioners being shared and supplies being shared. It offers a shared medical record between the communities. Potentially, one of the things is using video conferencing as opposed to an in-person visit, if that’s appropriate. It’s community driven, it doesn’t involve Victoria telling remote communities what works for them, because that generally doesn’t work for them,” explained Bernice McGowan, President of the Cortes Community Health Association (CCHA) and a member of the planning committee for the proposed Health Centre. 

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Arts, Community

At The Museum: ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour’ Exhibit Explores Community Life In Cortes Island

What does it mean to be a neighbour on Cortes Island? This  question is at the heart of the new Cortes Island Museum exhibition ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbour?’ curated by Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the museum and Monica Hoffman. Opening Sunday May 4th the exhibit invites visitors on a visual and narrative journey through both the historical and contemporary communities that shaped life on the island.

“The  idea of focusing on neighbourhoods came from the prior exhibition, ‘From the Ground Up,” explained Hoffman.

Boyle added, “We did touch on how people work together to build structures, in terms of collaboration.  It was also about repurposing material and sharing of resources and, in a way, this is also what this new exhibition is about. Collective land arrangements are a way for people to live affordably on Cortes, to share  the land, but also to share the material, resources and work collaboratively. So there’s a lot of overlap.” 

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History

Genealogical Records for Klahoose, European and Asian Cortes Island Families

The Cortes Island Museum has a genealogical database. It was compiled by Bernice McGowan, whose interest in genealogy was sparked by her mother’s research of their family roots. Coming to Cortes Island some 50 odd years ago, she was intrigued by the fact that so many of the island’s older European families seemed to be related. She has also dug up some census records for Klahoose, Japanese and Chinese residents.  

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Indigenous Nations, Tourism

Gorge Harbour Marina Renovations Completed

The renovations at Gorge Harbour Marina are finished. This has been much more than a facelift. It includes a new water system, upgraded septic and electric systems, yet the face of the resort has also been dramatically improved. The RV sites, campsites, much of the grounds and internal layout of the lodge have all been redesigned. Six new visitor domes, 2 cooking stations, a new massage hut, a new bridge across the creek and a food truck have been added.  

There is one big decision remaining. Will QXMC, the business arm of the Klahoose First Nation, build a restaurant to take the place of the former Floathouse restaurant? General Manager Marco Bedetti says a decision is imminent and, for now, the food truck serves the resort’s needs.

The last three months at the resort have been a success story, which Bedetti insists starts at the board level.

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Health

Changes Coming To The Cortes Medical Clinic

British Columbia’s health care crisis has reached Cortes Island. A number of complex factors led to the resignation of all three doctors working out of the Cortes Island Medical Clinic. Their contract ends on Sunday, March 31, 2024. 

“The  physicians that we’ve had in our physicians group are moving on to do things in their own lives. They’re starting practices elsewhere and it no longer fits for them to come here,” explained Bernice McGowan, on behalf of the Cortes Community Health Association (CCHA) board.

“We will not be shutting the doors of the clinic on April 1st.  That’s not in the foreseeable future. If our physicians leave, the worst case scenario is that we have a whole bunch of locums coming and we’ve been in this position before, where the only people that we had covering the practice were locums.” 

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