On June 6, 2019, Chair Michele Babchuk and three members of the Strathcona Regional District staff caught a water taxi from Campbell River to Cortes Island. Around 80 local inhabitants were waiting for them in Mansons Hall. I doubt anyone could have guessed what was to follow. The resulting Cortes Island Hall Tax consultation was refreshing.
SRD sent four representatives to Cortes island by water taxi on June 6th to conduct a community consultation meeting on two tax service referenda: the long-delayed and controversial hall tax, and the first-responders training tax. Present at the meeting from SRD were: Chair Michele Babchuk, CAO David Leitch, Tom Yates (Senior Manager), and Aniko Nelson [Parks and Planning Manager]. Present at the meeting from Cortes were approximately 80 community members.
More than four million people participated in the Global Climate strike on Friday, September 20, 2019. There were over 2,500 separate events, on all seven continents. At least two of these were in our area. Five hundred signatures were collected at the Campbell River Climate March and close to fifty people gathered to show their support on Cortes Island.
Cortes Island’s All Candidates Meeting will be at Mansons Hall on October 12. The Liberals, Green Party, and NDP candidates will all be there. However the Conservatives refuse to participate.
Coming to Cortes Island was Jane Dudley’s idea. She had woofed at Bluejay Lake Farm before and talked about the experience ever since. To her zoologist husband, Alexander, this was a challenge. His special passion is weird and wonderful creatures. Alexander simply has to have his “lizard fix” every day. Canada isn’t especially famous for its reptiles, yet he could see how important this was to Jane. For the first week after their arrival, he didn’t know what to do. Then he saw an alligator lizard. (He didn’t know there were any in Canada!) Since then the couple made an important observation about the lives of red legged frogs. (They will leave the photographs and GPS locations with FOCI.) The Dudleys have been blown away by the beauty of our forest – and are embraced by Cortesians everywhere they go. For good reason, Alexander & Jane Dudley introduce us to a whole new world of ecological wisdom through songs, deep ecological knowledge, quirky poetry & stunning photography of the Australian bush