Tag Archives: Cleantech

Food

Resilience on Cortes Island

Originally published on Cortes Radio.ca

Folk U Friday for April 3, 2020: Resilience on Cortes Island 101: Food resilience and storage, energy systems, and much more! with Mark Lombard and Eli McKenty 

Mark Lombard and Eli McKenty are two members of a group of Cortesians interested in the infrastructure for resilience brought together by Karen Mahon and the Cortes Climate Hope organization. They spoke about some of the elements necessary to help create a Cortes that would be more self-sufficient and survive short term natural disasters such as fire, earthquake, and extended power outages. Of course, they had no idea when they started meeting that it would be just in time for a pandemic to hit, nevertheless their group had numerous practical suggestions that many are beginning to think about with new enthusiasm.

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Community, Finances

EASC Turned Down Linnaea’s Application For Funds To Purchase A Heat Pump

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In theory, Cortes Island receives a portion of the Provincial Gas Tax. A recent Strathcona Regional District report states, “as of January 1, 2020, the balance of Electoral Area B’s Gas Tax Reserve is approximately $565,325 and (this year) is expected to receive a 2020 transfer of $58,155 in addition to any interest earned on the balance.” According to Regional Director Noba Anderson, the amount keeps growing because Cortes has not been able to access these funds. “The SRD has still not developed any kind of application guide or internal policy around Gas Tax spending, although it has been on the CFO’s work plan I believe for at least five years.” On March 11, 2020, EASC turned down Linnaea’s application for $44,520 in Gas Tax dollars to purchase a heat pump.

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Transportation

What's Happening With The Cortes Transportation Committee?

In the Spring of 2019, the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) asked the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) for funding to hire a transportation coordinator, to look into a number of potential initiatives. Their application appears to have been caught up in some of the SRD’s Board’s internal politics and turned down. One of the committee members, Kate Maddigan, is also a member of the BC Community Bus Coalition. I recently asked her, “What’s happening with the Cortes Transportation Committee?”

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Transportation

Coming To BC Ferries' Campbell River – Quadra Run

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The first of BC Ferries’ new Island Class hybrid-electric vessels arrived in Victoria last Saturday. Their engines are currently powered by a combination of electric, with 800 kWh of battery energy storage capacity, and low sulphur diesel. When the cost of energy storage becomes more economical, BC ferries plans to upgrade to 2,000 kWh and go fully electric. Half a dozen electric ferries are expected to be in service by 2022. Two of these sleek new vessels are slated for our area as one of many improvements coming to BC Ferries’ Campbell River – Quadra run. 

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Transportation

Two Wheels good: E-Bikes on Cortes Island

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[Cortes Island E-Bike series]

Last April, some EV owners on Cortes Island held an “EV Faire” at Manson’s Hall; they brought their vehicles to show and discuss, and giving test rides to some attendees. Coverage of this event focussed on the big shiny cars; but there are actually more e-bikes than e-cars on Cortes Island, and I felt the bikes didn’t get enough page space.

I therefore asked e-bike owners to contact me if they would like to be interviewed, so I could profile them and their bikes. The first three respondents all had quite different bikes, so this article has three sections, one for each bike:

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