There was a Truth and Reconciliation ceremony at Gorge Harbour on Monday, September 30. It consisted of sacred songs and sharing experiences, as well as Chief Steven Brown’s perspectives on how the Klahoose are reclaiming their present and their future.
Continue reading Truth and Reconciliation Ceremony on Cortes Island338Canada’s latest projection for North Island Riding, taken on September 30, shows the Conservative party of BC having just taken the lead in the popular vote. Nineteen days from the election, they may currently be supported by 47% of the electorate as opposed to 42% for the NDP. The media website uses data from recent polls and the riding’s history. They have covered 13 general elections and, so far, 338Canada claims to have successfully identified the winner in 1,657 electoral districts 89.9% of the time. That said, this is essentially a ‘point in time’ analysis and yesterday showed these two parties virtually tied.
“We know this is going to be a really close election, so we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re not taking anything for granted,” said Michele Babchuk, the NDP candidate and current MLA for our riding.
Continue reading A Cortes Island view: the local election campaign on September 30The Active Transportation Network Planning grant that Quadra Island received, and both Cortes Island and Area D are applying for, opens the door to far larger opportunities.
As Meredith Starkey, Manager of Planning for the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), explained “Active transportation means anything human powered: walking, cycling, and rolling in the sense of skateboarding or some other type of device that you might use to roll.”
“This is the BC Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant Program that’s administered through the Ministry of Transportation (MOTI) and Infrastructure. They have a sub grant that is specifically for active transportation network planning.”
“What we have is the network planning grant.”
Continue reading The SRD’s Active Transportation Planing Grant opens the door for larger opportunitiesThe final report on the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) Western Screech Owl Project will be unveiled at Mansons Hall on Friday. The two biologists who were hired to write it will be giving an hour long talk that starts at 7 PM.
“Western Screech Owls are a beautiful little owl. They used to be one of the most common owls in coastal BC, but they’ve declined hugely in the last 20 years,” explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of FOCI.
“They’re a species that need attention. In the last three years we’ve been running a project on Cortes, Read, Maurelle and Sonora Islands to look for Screech Owls and to do what we can to help conserve them. We started the project in 2021. In the spring of 2022, we conducted our first audio surveys, mainly on Cortes Island. Then in 2023, we expanded our surveys onto Read, Maurelle and Sonora Islands. We did pick up Screech Owls in the north of Cortes and one on Read Island. We also went out put up nest boxes around all the islands to try and provide nesting habitats for the owls.”
Continue reading Final Report on FOCI’s Western Screech Owl ProjectThe Quadra Island Foundation (QIF) recently distributed $110,000 to four non-profit organizations. In today’s interview the foundation’s Vice Chair, Marc Doll, explains the rationale behind those choices and a little of what he expects the money to accomplish.
Marc Doll: “There was this recognition of how much this province uses and depends on nonprofits. So the government of British Columbia put together a pool of $25 million, which went to Vancouver Foundation. From the Vancouver Foundation, it trickled down to foundations like the Quadra Foundation, Cortes Island Community Foundation and Campbell River Foundation. It was administered at the local level by local foundations, but from a pool of money that came from the British Columbia government.”
“We advertised – online through local media, press releases etc – to indicate that we had this fund of $110,000 to distribute locally. We were almost triple subscribed, we had about $300,000 in total applications.”
Continue reading $110,000 in funding — What the Quadra Island Foundation Accomplished
