Tag Archives: Radio

Community

What does the community want from the Quadra Community Centre and the new Blenkin Park Pavilion?

The Quadra Island Recreation Society is asking the community for their input into what the Quadra Community Centre and a new pavilion at Blenkin Park should be used for.

Marc Doll, Vice Chair of the Society, explained: “We started by looking at one desperate need for the community centre, which was the lack of a proper kitchen facility. We came up with some solutions, but the price tag came in higher than what we wanted for a very small improvement. So, conversations continued, and we decided that we really had to look at the bigger picture. The Quadra Island Community Centre has been serving the community since 1985, and we felt it was time to go back to the public and ask: what do we need this building to do for the next 20 years?”

“At the same time, we’ve been working with the SRD for the last number of years to get an outdoor pavilion in Blenkin Park. The funding is in place, and we’re looking to start building as early as 2026.”

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Communications, Community, Housing

Teen Takeover on Housing, the Death Care Collective & Podcasting

In the first half of this episode, Cortes Island Academy students Elsie, Lacey, and Elias discuss the housing situation on Cortes, from three different angles. This includes tiny homes, Rainbow Ridge, the Seniors Village, and interviews with five different locals, as well as their own stories and observations on the topic. Travel with them as they learn about the challenges of finding housing on Cortes, and the creative solutions that are emerging  to try and solve the issue.

In part two, Nathaniel Maki interviews Margaret Verschuur and Fawn Baron from the Deathcare Collective, and discusses the importance of having a healthy culture and communication around the topic of death and dying.

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Education

Cortes Island Academy embraces the Laurels from Four Years past and begins a new season

The Cortes Island Academy offers an accredited 20 week experimental, project-based education to local students in grades 10 through 12. They just wrapped up their fourth year and, on February 9, are about to start taking applications for 2026-2027. In this morning’s interview Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie talks about the school and their recent annual showcase in Mansons hall. 

She explained, “It was an incredible display, not just by the students of the Academy, but by the community who came out in droves to be the most supportive, engaged, and encouraging audience I have ever experienced. It was truly heartwarming to see the relational aspects of what was happening there.” 

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Politics

Mark Carney’s Political Tightrope

In addition to being a former candidate in our area, Jennifer Lash is a former senior advisor to Canada’s Minister of Environment with a lot of insight into what motivates the Liberal government.  So Cortes Currents recently asked her,  “Tell us a little bit about the tightrope that Mark Carney has been walking with separatism rising in Alberta and Quebec; environmentalists saying that we should be adapting faster; the rising cost of living, needs for more housing, more jobs; Trump’s economic tantrums, the need to just diversify Canada’s economy and the threat of recession.”

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Indigenous Nations, Politics

Reconciliation: Two Regional Directors Speak Out on DRIPA and the Path of Reconciliation

With all the current hype about the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), Cortes Currents reached out to two rural politicians to ask how they see this legislation working at the local level. Mark Vonesch is the Regional Director for Area B (Cortes Island) and Robyn Mawhinney is the Regional Director for Area C, which includes Quadra and most of the other Discovery Islands. They both sit on the board of the Strathcona Regional District (SRD). 

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