Tag Archives: Rainbow Ridge

A Cortes Island view: the local election campaign on September 30

338Canada’s latest projection for North Island Riding, taken on September 30, shows the Conservative party of BC having just taken the lead in the popular vote. Nineteen days from the election, they may currently be supported by 47% of the electorate as opposed to 42% for the NDP. The media website uses data from recent polls and the riding’s history. They have covered 13 general elections and, so far, 338Canada claims to have successfully identified the winner in 1,657 electoral districts 89.9% of the time. That said, this is essentially a ‘point in time’ analysis and yesterday showed these two parties virtually tied.

 “We know this is going to be a really close election, so we’re rolling up our sleeves and we’re not taking anything for granted,” said Michele Babchuk, the NDP candidate and current MLA for our riding. 

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MLA Michele Babchuk visits Cortes Island

MLA Michele Babchuk was on Cortes Island for a few days last week. She spoke to Cortes Currents after meeting with some of the island’s non-profits in the Village Commons. This was the third time she’s visited the island since she was elected in 2020. 

“I’m hearing that Cortes actually has a lot of capacity and we’ve known that for a long time. There’s a lot of not for profit groups here. A lot of them are feeling extremely underfunded,” she explained. 

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A Cortes Island Style Forum For Rental and Ownership Opportunities

Cortes Island’s Forum on ‘Rental and Ownership Opportunities’ came to Mansons Hall on Thursday June 13. There were breakout groups on what people were looking for in rentals, affordable ways to become an owner and renting your property out. Regional Director Mark Vonesh brought pizza. The whole board of the Cortes Community Housing Society appears to have turned out. 

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Raising Waste Management Fees, A Road into Rainbow Ridge and a 5 Year Contract For The Cortes Fire department

At their May 22 Board meeting, the Strathcona Regional Distrct (SRD) passed 3 important monetary decisions for Cortes Island.

Firstly, the SRD will be increasing the annual fee for waste collection by $10 a year. This will be paid through our property taxes.

Regional Director Mark Vonesch explained, “we’re basically being forced to do this because Recycling BC changed their support for the solid waste collection fees so that we’re having to make up that loss through increasing our fees, which we’re going to be doing over the next couple of years.”

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A Property For Cortes Island’s New Land Trust & Other Housing Alternatives

Cortes Community Housing purchased a property with two houses at 671 Sutil Point Road. This will be the first property to go into the island’s new land trust, formed in response to Cortes Island’s housing forum last December. 

“The housing society has been active on Cortes for 6 or 7 years and made a lot of progress in buying Rainbow Ridge. Having that acreage for housing and community needs is a really great opportunity and sets us apart in many ways from some of our other island neighbors like Quadra, for instance, where they’re working to acquire land,” explained Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of Cortes Community Housing. 

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