Tag Archives: Radio

Communications

Mascon By Telus Cuts Off Some Cortes Customers, CityWest Update

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Mascon by TELUS informed at least 10 Cortes Island residents that their internet service will be terminated on June 2, 2025.

A dozen people were chatting about it on the Cortes Island Is Home Facebook page, where one typed a message to Regional Director Mark Vonesch, “The SRD was part of the whole CityWest to insure all communities were connected? Most of us do not have access to CityWest yet and now we are losing access to our only other option.” 

Nancy Kendel posted a comment on the Tideline, “A LOT OF GOVERNMENT MONEY was given to the Connected Coast Partnership of CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District, but THE JOB IS NOT FINISHED! When will Cortes Island be connected?” 

She also emailed Cortes Currents, which is what led to this story. 

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Energy

Pembina Institute: Why Canada Needs An Emissions Cap for the Oil and Gas Sector

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the oil and gas sector is a major contributor to Canada’s economy, employing 182,000 people and generating $209 billion in GDP during 2023, yet it is also the source of 31% of Canada’’s Greenhouse gas emissions.

 “Demand for oil and gas is not going to go to zero tomorrow.  It is a transition that takes decades  to undergo.  There will be a role for oil and gas as we move forward along that transition, but it is likely to be a  cleaner oil and gas sector as the rest of the world stops buying  the oil and gas products that Canada and other countries produce. Which, I think, really underlines the importance of investing in decarbonization now while we’re still using oil and gas  to 2050 and a little bit beyond  if we get on a net zero trajectory,” explained Janetta McKenzie  from the Pembina Institute, a Canadian think tank and non-profit focused on energy. 

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Sports

Wave And Range Cortes Island: Broadening Out Into The Community

Wave and Range Cortes Island has decided it’s time to go public. 

“This year we’re going to be putting on the Cortes adventure challenge, essentially a Cortes triathlon:  It’s a kayak or a canoe, a swim and a trek.  We’ve got a short course, and a long course. That’ll be on the 12th and the 21st of July, tentatively. I’ll need to confirm those dates with you, but  we’ll advertise that. We’ll do a little bit of lead up training for that,” explained Kay Hope.

“There’s an opportunity with where we live to have not so much a love affair, but like a marriage with the physical place that we live in.  I think  a majority of us are really disconnected from our biophysical reality. All sorts of things have unfortunately corrupted a lot of people away from a connection with their body  and the environment. I’m just trying to foray back into that. I think there’s a big opportunity for all of us to just keep doubling down on hiking up Easter Bluff, going to Mansons Lagoon, getting a sweat on, but then exploring in, around and up Desolation Sound. The beauty we have around us, it’s really underutilized by us as a community together.  I don’t want to go out and just be exploring by myself. I’d love to go out on the weekend and see more kayaks than I see power boaters. That’s my wish, and my wish for my baby boy.”

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Housing

Land Sharing on Cortes Island

Tune in on March 14th for another collaborative monthly housing forum presented by the Cortes Housing Society, and supported by Folk University. Themed “Land Sharing”, this forum featured 5 local Cortesian guest speakers chatting about different land-sharing formats (Tiber Bay, Siskin Lane, land partnerships, living estates, and more!), what has worked for them, and what hasn’t. This hybrid-style forum took place on March 8, 2025, in-person at Manson’s Hall and over Zoom.

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Housing

RIEP Presentation: Affordable Housing Across The Islands

One of the 2025 RIEP Virtual Forum presentations was a panel discussion of how the affordable housing societies were faring on six rural islands. There were a lot of common themes running throughout their stories: difficulties obtaining funding through BC Housing, CMHC and other organizations whose requirements are drawn up for urban rather than rural areas; the cost of building on remote islands; relationships with regional districts and Islands Trust; and water issues. The moderator was Mike Hoebel from the  Galiano Affordable Living Initiative Society (GALI).

Mike Hoebel: “The lack of affordable housing is truly a crisis in our communities and housing policy was a major item for discussion back at the RIEP 2023 In-Person Forum Gabriola. Today we’re going to hear from a number of people about housing related initiatives underway in their communities.”

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