Tag Archives: Radio

Housing

Short Term Rentals must be registered by May 1, 2025

There are approximately 100 short term rentals, collectively earning between $1 million and $1.5 million* a year, on Cortes Island. At of the end of 2021, there were 177 on Quadra.  As of May 1st, all  Airbnbs and short-term rentals in BC have to register with the provincial government.

 “It’s a process where the provincial government is asking short term rental operators and short term rental platform operators to register. Then they’re going to cross reference  and use that as a way to regulate Airbnbs,” explained Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island (Area B).

Continue reading Short Term Rentals must be registered by May 1, 2025 →
Environment

Paul Watson: Activist, Pirate, Friend

interview with Rex Weyler (All 5 Podcasts of an FM radio special feature originally airing January 21 -25, 2025).

In December 2024, the environmental activist Paul Watson was freed by Danish authorities from detention in Greenland.  He had been held there due to an Interpol red-notice (warrant) issued against him by the government of Japan. The Danish Ministry of Justice denied official requests to extradite Watson for trial in Japan, and he was released to rejoin his family.

What did Paul Watson do that so angered the Japanese government?  Watson, born in Canada, has spent most of his adult life — ever since the 1970s — protesting against the commercial slaughter of whales and other marine mammals.  He was a founding member of Greenpeace, and participated in their early actions to document and obstruct the Russian whaling fleet in the North Pacific.   One of his shipmates on these early campaigns was longtime Cortes resident Rex Weyler.

In this special feature, we offer an extended interview with Rex Weyler; he offers his personal memories of the early Greenpeace campaigns and of Paul Watson, who became a lifelong friend.

Continue reading Paul Watson: Activist, Pirate, Friend →
Development

Area C Taxpayers Resistant to paying for Strathcona Gardens Re-Development

2 Comments

Campbell River’s Strathcona Gardens is in the midst of re-development. Following a successful Alternative Approval Process (APP) in Campbell River and Area D, whose residents use this complex, in 2023 the Board authorized borrowing up to $64.6 million for this project. Crews are currently building the foundations. 

The SRD is exploring the possibility of using Area C property tax dollars to support this complex, but has not yet decided upon a course of action. This sparked a great deal of resistance from Area C residents who do not want to see their property taxes increased to pay for a ‘Campbell River’ project. 

Continue reading Area C Taxpayers Resistant to paying for Strathcona Gardens Re-Development →
Communications

Cortes Island Residents Waiting for CityWest To Connect Them

CityWest started hooking Cortes Island residents up to the internet in December 2023, but many homes are still waiting. As the evidence is anecdotal, it is difficult to say how many people are currently connected through CityWest and how many are not.

Sherman Barker just informed me that he has never met anyone who is connected. After waiting for two years of waiting, he was using Starlink by the time a CityWest crew showed up to do the final hook-up. 

“I have a pile of CityWest cable, all the way from my driveway to my yard, that they don’t want back.”  

Sean Coyote, a techie who works for Cortes Community Radio, said typically people who have yet to be serviced are told their names are on a list. Some, like Sherman, subsequently moved on to other internet providers. Sean added that there are a couple of CityWest trucks working on the island right now. 

Continue reading Cortes Island Residents Waiting for CityWest To Connect Them →
Education

Visit 2040 with The Cortes island Academy

The Cortes Island Academy’s third semester is wrapping up and in this year’s end showcase the students are taking the audience on an imaginative visit to the year 2040. It starts at 7:00 this Thursday, January 13, 2025 at Mansons Hall.  

 “A really important part of the Cortes Island Academy is our year end showcase where the students are  given the task of finding a way to share some of the  learning that they’ve gone through in the semester in a form that is digestible for the community at large. So they put on this big event which is supposed to be fun and compelling and also spark the imagination of the citizenry of Cortes and the surrounding islands.  We are really hoping that a lot of people will come out. I’m quite proud of the way the students have really taken things a different way this year,” explained Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie.

Continue reading Visit 2040 with The Cortes island Academy →