Tag Archives: North Island-Powell River

Housing, Politics, Seniors

Blaney: Seniors living below the poverty line, GST rebates & carbon pricing

More than a third of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the survey on Quadra Island and 15% on Cortes Island were seniors. The percentage was lower throughout the Strathcona Regional District, but a significant number of residents are paying more for rent or mortgages than they can afford.  In the second half of an interview with North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney, she talks about ways the government can help seniors living below the poverty line.

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Housing, Politics

Rachel Blaney: Canada needs a ‘Bar of Dignity’

According to data from the 2016 census, 20% of Quadra Island residents and 27% of Cortes Island residents are paying more for their homes in rent or mortgages than they can afford. More recent studies suggest that a significant number of families throughout the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) are so financially stretched that they are at risk of becoming homeless. 75% of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the ‘Collecting Stories of Where We Live’ survey on Cortes Island, and 33% on Quadra Island, are working. These are some of the people North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney is referring to, when she talks about the need for a bar of dignity.

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Rivers & Oceans

It’s been a long lobby; it just might be worth it

qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Editor’s note: This was one of the last stories that Abby Francis filed in qathet Living before heading off to take the broadcast journalism course at BCIT.

Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Joyce Murray said that the Powell River Salmon Society and other community hatcheries will be receiving more money through the $647.1 million Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative; she did not specify when or how much money would be given however.

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Health, Housing

With no place to live, some B.C. seniors are couch-surfing

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

One senior spoke about the anxiety she feels not having a family doctor after losing four in the past eight years. 

Another, the president of the local seniors centre, asked what she should tell a woman in her 80s crying on the phone because she’s got nowhere to live and is reduced to the indignity of couch-surfing with friends after a lifetime of paying taxes. 

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Rivers & Oceans

Powell River Salmon Society: C’mon DFO – Fund us!

qathet Living, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Powell River Salmon Society has recieved zero increase in funding from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the federal government over the past 40 years. 

With the federal announcement of the $647.1 million investment towards saving Pacific wild salmon last year, the Powell River Salmon Society had heard nothing about receiving any of this, despite North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney writing a letter to the Department of Fisheries Oceans (DFO) minister last July. After no response to the letter, Rachel and the Salmon Society worked together to create a petition.

Continue reading Powell River Salmon Society: C’mon DFO – Fund us! →