Tag Archives: Power outages

Communications, Disaster

Loss of Electricity and CityWest Internet During Recent Storm

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Close to 400,000 BC Hydro customers, primarily on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, lost power during the recent windstorms. Gusts of up to 159 km/h were reported on November 19, the first night of the storm.  By 4 PM on Friday, November 22, all but about 5,000 customers on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands were back online. Parts of Cortes and Quadra Islands were among the last areas to be restored. 

BC Hydro identifies extreme storms like this with climate change and, in their 2023 Climate Change Accountability Report, states:

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Disaster

Hydro says BC is experiencing worse storms and the cause is climate change

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Editor’s note: By the time it was over on Nov 23, about 400,000 customers lost their power and CityWest could not provide internet to Cortes, Denman or Hornby Islands for two days.

With winds of up to 159 km/hr the ‘bomb cyclone’ hitting Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland is far from the worst we’ve seen in recent years. As of 3:43 AM this morning, 272,000 people had been deprived of power and that number is still increasing. According to BC Hydro, “Climate change has led to an increase in extreme weather events in British Columbia, and this is something BC Hydro has been preparing extensively for.”

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Energy

The Expanding Local Market For Solar Power

A Cortes Island based solar company has been installing more systems that tie into the grid. 

There is a lot of potential for solar energy production in British Columbia. It has been largely untouched because of the province’s reliance on hydro-power and natural gas. As of October 2023, BC Hydro had 8,500 net metering customers with a combined solar capacity of 71 MW. This was only a fraction of the 4,609.5 MW of solar capacity tied to Canada’s grid that year. 

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Communications

CityWest finally delivers: some Cortes Island homes already receiving service 

CityWest finally delivered on its promise to bring high speed fibre-optic internet to Cortes Island. 

It has been five years since Victoria Smith, then the  Strathcona Regional District’s Special Projects and Sustainability Manager, confirmed that Cortes Island was a proposed recipient for the Connected Coast Project.

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Politics

Mawhinney: Centering decisions on Island Values

“One of the core messages and core reasons that I am running for Regional Director is because I want decisions to be centered on island values. To me, island values are respect for First Nations, long term sustainability, also the rural nature that we all love. That’s why we live here. Quadra Island has a rich history of volunteerism. The role of the director is really to be an advocate for the majority of the community at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD),” said Robyn Mawhinney who hopes to be elected Regional Director of Area C (Discovery Islands and Mainland Inlets) on October 15th, 2022.

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