SRD staff have been instructed to prepare studies on residential waste collection, the legal status of short-term rentals and roadside parking on Quadra Island. These topics arose at the Electoral Areas Services Committee (EASC) meeting on May 10th. Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney made the following motions, all of which were seconded by Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch.
Continue reading Quadra reports coming: residential waste collection, short term rentals, roadside parking
On May 16, Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island issued a press release stating, “I’m excited to let you know that the provincial government has approved Cortes Island’s short term rental tax application. Starting on July 1st, tourists will pay an extra 3% on their short term rental bookings and the funds will be collected by the provincial government and sent to the Cortes Housing Society on a monthly basis to contribute to the development of Rainbow Ridge rental housing.”
“This is the first time in BC history that a community is using the tax entirely for housing and the provincial government had to amend their legislation to make it possible.”
Continue reading BC Government approves 3% tax on Cortes Island short term rentals
More than a third of the ‘housing insecure’ respondents to the survey on Quadra Island and 15% on Cortes Island were seniors. The percentage was lower throughout the Strathcona Regional District, but a significant number of residents are paying more for rent or mortgages than they can afford. In the second half of an interview with North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney, she talks about ways the government can help seniors living below the poverty line.
Continue reading Blaney: Seniors living below the poverty line, GST rebates & carbon pricing
There may be more than 1,200 ‘housing unstable’ people in the Strathcona Regional District.
This figure arises from a statement Emma Wallace, of the Rural Development Network, made when she released the comments from the ‘Collecting Stories of Where you Live’ data collection project.
Wallace’s organization was commissioned by the Campbell River & District Coalition to End Homelessness (CRDCEH) and the Urban Indigenous Housing and Wellness Coalition (UIHWC) to conduct the housing and service needs estimation in the Strathcona Regional District earlier this year. The ‘stories’ her organization collected were written responses to the housing needs survey.
Continue reading Potentially More than 1200 ‘housing unstable’ in the SRD
There are probably a dozen abandoned boats on Cortes Island right now, and Dominic dos Santos would like to have them towed away.
“A lot of them are floating. Some of them just have no names on them. People just leave them there. it’s just been 15 years of ‘not my problem.’ We have fiberglass shards on every beach now because they abandon the boats and let ’em get destroyed on the rocks . All this stuff is gonna wind up on the beach in the next five, 10 years?” he said.
Continue reading Trying to clean up Cortes Island’s abandoned boats and provide homes for the homeless
