The Electoral Areas Housing Needs Report identified an immediate demand for 75 rental and 40 retail units on Cortes Island.
In a previous interview, Mark Vonesch from the Cortes Community Housing Society, said, “I hear stories of people having to quit their jobs because they can’t find housing for the summer. I know people that are living under a tarp. I know seniors that are living in a tent.”
Continue reading Mark Vonesch 6: Housing, The number one issue in this electionMark Vonesch hopes to bring a new kind of politics to Cortes Island if he is elected Regional Director on October 15, 2022.
“One of the biggest things I want to do with this campaign is bring people together who think differently than each other,” he explained. “What I can do is initiate conversations and get people talking about them.”
He then went on to outline the same issues that our current Director has been wrestling with: housing, climate change, ecosystem protection, economic development, land use planning, parks and recreation, and truth and reconciliation.
Continue reading Mark Vonesch 5: Issues that divide usThe October 15 election is in a little less than two months. So far, Mark Vonesch is the only candidate for Cortes Island Regional Director.
In the fourth of a series arising from an interview with Vonesch, he was asked what he would bring to the office from his years of experience working in Cortes Island’s volunteer community.
Continue reading Mark Vonesch 4: Working with Cortes Island’s Volunteer Community
Cortes Islanders will be going to the polls on October 15th and Mark Vonesch hopes they will elect him as their next Regional Director. In the third of a series of interviews, he talks about how the example of former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson inspired him to enter politics.
Continue reading Mark Vonesch 3: the Gregor Robertson connectionIn the second of a series of programs about his running for Regional Director of Cortes Island, Mark Vonesch talks about growing up on a farm and what his rural background could mean when it comes to representing Cortes on the Strathcona Regional District Board.
His family operated a dairy farm, with 50 cows, outside Olds, Alberta. Mark is the oldest of six children, which he jokes may have been a strategic move by his parents to have more help on the farm!
Continue reading Mark Vonesch 2: Supporting Cortes Island farmers
