Mark Vonesch is very passionate about Cortes Island and his activities as Regional Director. If this were a video, rather than a radio broadcast, you would see this it in his facial expressions. There is a hint of this passion in the words he chose and the tone of his voice.
Cortes Currents asked him for a recap of this past year and what to expect going forward into 2024.
Continue reading Mark Vonesch’s First Year In Office: Things ‘Accomplished’ and ‘In Process’Former Regional Director Jim Abram may have been confusing the proposed SRD Housing Service with a Federal grant program when he criticized it during an interview with CKTZ News.
Abram claimed that building permits are required under the new housing initiative, and the islands are ‘going to get nothing, most likely, other than, you know, a little less money in your pocketbook because it’s going to go into your taxes.’
He also spoke against the ‘affordable housing bandwagon’: ‘There’s only so many people that you can accommodate with your existing infrastructure.’
Continue reading Misinformation About The SRD Housing Service
At the November 22nd meeting, the SRD board approved a report to explore the possibility of using Cortes Island’s gas tax reserve to help build the access road into the Rainbow Ridge Affordable Housing project.
“It’s really great to see the SRD jumping in to work on housing using all the different tools that they have access to. This was led by our Regional Director, Mark Vonesch, who brought this to the SRD board. What was approved at this point is the request to have staff work on a report,” explained Sadhu Johnson, Executive Director of the Cortes Community Housing Society.
Continue reading SRD Looking Into Providing Preliminary Road For Rainbow RidgeEditor’s note: The following report consists of highlights from a segment of the SRD Board Meeting of Nov 22, 2023.
The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board approved all but one of Cortes Island’s 2023 Grant-in Aid applications. It was a long, often confusing, debate. The SRD Board denied the Cortes Island Academy’s application because, as Chief Administration Officer (CAO) David Leitch explained “this Grant in Aid is in contradiction to our policy in terms of awarding money to other senior levels of government.” The Board initially granted the other Cortes applications, then seemed on the verge of rescinding them. Their decision to pass most of the applications was followed by a motion to change the manner in which Grants-in-Aid are processed.
Continue reading SRD Approved all but one of Cortes Island’s Grants in Aid
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.
Continue reading SRD Seeks Electoral Approval To Raise Up To $10 Million For A Housing Service
