Tag Archives: Radio

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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Indigenous Nations

RIEP Presentation: Ways To Further Support The Success Of BC’s Indigenous Economy

Editor’s note: Some of the SENĆOŦEN words do not appear in the following text, but can be inserted when the correct spelling is known. 

One of the most popular presentations at RIEP’s 2025 Virtual forum was Former Green Party MLA Adam Olsen’s identification of ways to further support the success of BC’s Indigenous economy.

Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Island Economic Partnership (RIEP) introduced Olsen, “ Adam is a proud member of the Tsartlip Nation. He currently serves as the lead negotiator for the Tsartlip, representing the nation’s interests on land and resource management, governance and the treaty land entitlement process. His leadership and negotiation plays a crucial role and advancing the nation’s rights and self determination, Adam’s expertise of bridging gaps between environmental concerns, indigenous rights and sustainable development makes him a true champion of the greater good.”

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Business, Politics

RIEP Presentation: US Tariffs & How Island Economies Can Respond

Around 100 people signed up for the Rural Islands Economic Partnership 2025 Virtual Forum. At least 10 were from Cortes Island and there were others from Quadra, Bowen, Texada, Hornby, Denman, Cormorant, Malcolm and the Gulf Islands, as well as the Broughton Archipelago. Several of the topics were of great importance to islanders. One of the foremost was Aaron Cruikshank’s analysis of the impact US tariffs will have on island economies and what we can do about it.

Cruikshank is the founder of CTRS, a Market intelligence company from the Lower Mainland that has worked with hundreds of organizations and governments over the past 20 years.

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Politics

Liberal Candidate Comments: Choosing Mark Carney 

On Sunday, March 9th, the Liberal Party chose Mark Carney as their new leader.

While there have been no polls taken since his election, EKOS carried out a survey just prior to the Convention that suggests Carney may be able to lead the Liberal Party to a majority government. 42% of the respondents between March 2 and 5 chose the Liberal Party, while the Conservatives slipped back to 33%. The NDP was at 13% and the Greens 4%. 

 Cortes Currents reached out to Jennifer Lash, the Liberal candidate in North Island Powell River for her perspective. 

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