The outgoing Strathcona Regional District Board held its final meeting on Wednesday, October 26, 2022. This is the first time that most of the Directors have met around the table since the pandemic began. They shared their thoughts about the election and the preceding term, at a Directors Roundtable.
Continue reading Final meeting of the outgoing SRD Board
Noba Anderson was first elected as Regional Director for Strathcona Regional District Area B (Cortes Island) in 2008. She served 4 terms (two three-year and two four-year) for a total of 14 years in office, making her the longest-serving Regional Director in the island’s history.
Some other Strathcona Regional Directors (notably those from Oyster River and Quadra Island) have held office for far longer, running repeatedly for decades without successful challengers. In 2022, however, Oyster River’s Brenda Leigh was defeated at the polls and Jim Abram of Quadra chose not to run again. Noba Anderson also chose not to run again.
Cortes Currents asked Noba if she would be willing to participate in an “exit interview” — a look back over her long run as our representative at SRD. She was interviewed in mid October.
Continue reading Noba Anderson: The exit interviewMore than half of the familiar faces will not be returning to the SRD Board this term. The former Chair and Vice Chair, Brad Unger and Claire Moglove, were both defeated in their bids for re-election. So were Regional Director Brenda Leigh and former Campbell River Directors Charlie Cornfield and Colleen Evans. Neither Mayor Andy Adams (of Campbell River), Jim Abram (from Area C) or Noba Anderson (from Cortes Island) sought re-election. Only 5 of the 13 Directors from last term were re-elected. Two of the previous alternates from Campbell River will most likely take a seat at the SRD table.
Continue reading Election 2022: The new Strathcona Regional District BoardThe legitimacy of Regional Director Jim Abrams expenses was once again discussed at the last meeting of the SRD board prior to the election.
When the auditor submitted his report to the SRD Board at their May 11, 2022 meeting, Campbell River Director Claire Moglove, pointed out that there was a significant difference in what Directors were being paid.
“I think for the sake of transparency in particular to the public, that we have more of an explanation as to how that comes to be. So in particular, on the remuneration side, at some point I would love to see a breakdown of what is the regular stipend for Directors and what are the meeting fees that have been incurred,” she said.
Continue reading The Legitimacy of Jim Abram’s Expenses
In 2014, Transport Canada (CT) transferred administration of three wharves to the Strathcona Regional District (SRD). Owen Bay on Sonora Island, Surge Narrows on Read Island, and Port Neville on the northern shore of the Johnstone Strait are all within Area C. The SRD was also provided with $2.9 million for maintenance and upgrades that were to be completed by 2024. These upgrades have not yet occurred. Nor has a service to carry out operations and maintenance been established for Area C. In the face of local opposition, the SRD deferred discussion of this issue until next January.
Continue reading With the 2024 deadline approaching, SRD defers the CT wharves problem to the next administration
