While lineups appear to have virtually disappeared since Island Nagalis took over the BC Ferries Cortes–Quadra run, there are often three-ferry waits at midday for people sailing between Quadra Island and Campbell River.
My personal experience of this comes from a trip to Campbell River on Monday, June 28. The lineup to leave Whaletown Terminal at 9:55 AM seemed normal, but we only filled half the ferry.
“We’re living through a time of great disruption. The global trading system, in which we’ve long relied as a country, is being dramatically restructured. Global conflicts have sharpely increased gas and food prices around the world and right here at home. The rapid rise of artifical intelligence is beginning to transform how we live and how we work. Climate change is worsening, with bigger storms, heavier flooding, more devastating wildfires. Canadians are feeling the impacts at their kitchen tables, at the pimps and on their factory floors. The good news is that unlike many countries, we can control our future, but that will require doing things differently – movng faster, building bigger and working together. And nowhere is that more the case than energy.” – Mark Carney
The new West Coast Pipeline will closely follow the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) route. BC has been promised billions of dollars through a new prosperity agreement, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has stepped back from Canada’s emissions targets because they are too divisive.
In this morning’s broadcast, two experts provide their insights into these matters. Jennifer Lash is a former senior analyst with Environment and Climate Change Canada and ran as a Liberal candidate in the 2025 election. She endorses the Prime Minister’s actions. Ian Sanderson, a senior analyst in the oil and gas division at the Pembina Institute, explains his reservations.
Their events program started Monday June 28 with Misty Isles, and the Secret Shelf Exploration. Executive Director Helen Hall recently explained, “That’s a guided visit to a really amazing intertidal area off southern Cortes. People will get the chance to explore by snorkel and learn all about the marine environment there.” It was fully booked, and unfortunately, those who might have liked to go along have now missed the opportunity.
The radio version of this story opens with a short clip from the documentary NameSake in which Dr Evan Adams welcomes viewers to Tla-amin territory. Then he adds, ”A lot of people who live here now don’t know us. They forget that all of this used to be ours, and that this city is still in our territory.”
NameSake will be playing in the House of the Klahoose People, on Cortes Island, at 2 PM on Tuesday, June 30. It is about the Tla’amin People’s connection to the ancestral village site that was taken away from them and renamed Powell River. Then they asked the city to change its name back to Tiskʷat. The film was screened at Hot Docs in Toronto, the DOXA Festival in Vancouver and will be shown at the Victoria Film Festival this coming July. In this morning’s interview we talk to Dr Evan Adams, who just welcomed you to Tla’amin territory, and Executive Producer Claudia Medina.
The SRD Board unanimously passed a resolution that Cortes residents will vote on whether to fund the island’s youth and senior organizations at the upcoming October 17, 2026 election.
Regional Director Mark Vonesh explained, “There was a little bit of a rush because I realized that, in order to get this onto the referendum—which I think is the fairest way to consult with the community—it needs to go through a process. It goes to the board, a draft bylaw is created, the draft bylaw is reviewed, and then it goes to the Inspector of Municipalities for approval. That comes back to the referendum at the election. The time period for this one was tight. It basically had to happen in the month that I introduced it, but the beauty of it is that we’ve got four months to talk about it.”
“I’m going to be holding a public meeting in the Fall, before the election, so we can come together and talk about it, and so I can share information that I have about the services. We’ll also make it available online, so it’s really accessible for people.”
