Tag Archives: Shaun Koopman

Community

Judy Hagen Lifeline Volunteer Achievement Award

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Quadra Island resident Judy Hagen is getting kudos from the B.C. government for 30-plus years of dedicated work aimed at keeping her community safe.

The 75-year-old volunteer extraordinaire says the formula for that kind of commitment is quite simple.

“My secret? Well, I think probably the biggest thing is a real genuine like for people,” Hagen said. “And, of course, wanting to help.”

Hagen received the Lifeline Volunteer Achievement Award from B.C.’s Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth on Wednesday in recognition of her exceptional contributions to emergency and disaster response.

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Fire

Updating the Cortes Island Community Wildfire Protection Plan

Most Cortes residents have now received a questionnaire, about the Cortes Island Community Wildfire Protection Plan, through the mail. According to the records we possess, going back to 1950, Cortes hasn’t had a fire larger than 10 hectares in extent – but our climate is changing, wildfires are getting bigger and however unlikely it seems at the moment, we need to be prepared in case there is a major wildfire.

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Food Security

SRD Delivered to 230 Households

The ‘Sayward Futures Society‘ application was turned down because they proposed to use the funding to hire a coordinator. Emergency Management BC (EMBC) did not feel the COVID situation on Vancouver Island was sufficiently desperate, but they did approve a study to see how the SRD Delivers program could be implemented on Cortes Island. More than 80% of the $10,370 obtained from the province was forwarded to organizations that “offered assistance with grocery shopping, the delivery of food, prescriptions and other essentials for the benefit of the elderly (65+) and other vulnerable persons.” The SRD delivered to 230 households in Campbell River, Read Island, Gold River and Tahsis. 

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Disaster, Fire

North Quadra Residents Divided About Wildfire Protection

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Dalyce Dogterom recalls the night a neighbouring house, in Quadra Island’s remote community of Bold Point, caught fire a couple of years ago.

She couldn’t see the blaze from her property, but the night sky glowed red, she said.

Residents’ calls to 911 brought out the police and the ambulance service to treat the residents for smoke inhalation.

But the Quadra Island Fire Department (QIFD) wasn’t called out because fire protection services in the less densely populated and more isolated northern part of the island falls to the BC Wildfire Service, Dogterom said Monday.

The provincial wildfire service does not fight structure or residence fires, but rather forest fires.

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Community

All Things Fire: The June 9th Cortes Virtual Community Meeting

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At the June 9th Cortes Virtual Community Meeting, Regional Director Noba Anderson and five guests talked about all things fire.

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