Tag Archives: Director Area B

Housing, Politics

Mark Vonesch: How A Little Government Can Address The Housing Crisis

At 9:30 AM on Dec 2, Regional Director Mark Vonesch will be joining the Cortes Housing Society to host a community forum in Mansons Hall.* In today’s interview, he gave a sampling of how a little government could help make housing more affordable 

“We are in a housing crisis. Housing is expensive to build and we don’t have enough of it. What can we do as a community in Cortes to get more affordable housing done? Like a lot of issues, we have to approach this from multiple angles. There’s not one thing that’s going to  solve the problem. It’s basically three things.”

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Housing, Politics

SRD Seeks Electoral Approval To Raise Up To $10 Million For A Housing Service

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) wants to set up its own housing service. They hope to raise up to $10,000,000 for applicable projects and non-profits. This is to be administered through loans, which projects must pay back, but would initially be funded through property taxes. The cost to individual homeowners is small, up to $25 a year for a house assessed at $500,000 until the service pays for itself. The SRD will be seeking your approval through an Alternate Approval Process. If 10% of the electorate (i.e.- 3,456 people) notify the SRD that they are opposed to this new service before 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, it will be considered defeated and the SRD will have to consider other ways of raising the money.

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Politics

SRD Re-elects Baker Chair, Sinnott New Vice Chair

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board held its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, November 8. Provincial legislation requires regional districts to annually elect a Chair and a Vice-Chair for a one-year term at the first meeting of the Board after November 1.

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Transportation

Ferry Advisory Committee: Cortes and Quadra talk to BC Ferries

Cortes Island’s Ferry Advisory committee met (via Webex, a Zoom-like conferencing app) on the afternoon of Wednesday September 27th at 12:30pm. The meeting had originally been scheduled as a “town hall” style event at Mansons Hall; however, at the last minute BC Ferries announced that their FAC meetings would be held online, due to threats of violence from the public.

Though such threatening behaviour seemed unlikely on Cortes Island, BCF’s policy apparently applies across the board. The last-minute change of venue caused some confusion, but approximately thirty people joined the videoconference call on Wednesday (including BC Ferries staff and FAC members).

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Clothing, Waste

A regional model: free stores and other waste reducing facilities

At a time when the average Canadian spends more than $3,000 a year on clothing, many Cortes Island residents are satisying their personal needs and disposing of clothing through the local freestore. Similarly, Creative Deconstruction has supplied materials used in ten new homes on Cortes Island. Mark Vonesch, the Regional Director for Cortes Island, suggests that centres like this may offer a model that needs to be promoted throughout the Comox and Strathcona Regional Districts. 

“I’m just getting back from the Comox Strathcona Waste Management Board meeting. This is a board that I sit on as a director, and we provide guidance and leadership to the waste management services in the Comox Valley District and the Strathcona Regional Districts,” he explained. 

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