Tag Archives: Squirrel Cove

Housing

Getting Rainbow Ridge ready for the next step

The Cortes Community Housing Society had a number of updates to announce as they work towards having a town hall meeting for their Rainbow Ridge project.

“We’re very much looking forward to having this town hall meeting, potentially near the end of October, but please stay tuned. We’ll announce the date, the time, and the place as soon as we can get all  the parties together and have all our documentation and designs ready to exhibit,”  said Executive Director, Sandra Wood.  

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Housing, Poverty, Rivers & Oceans

Trying to clean up Cortes Island’s abandoned boats and provide homes for the homeless 

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.

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Communications

High Speed Internet could reach Cortes Island as early as December

Cortes Island’s new high speed internet system could be live as early as December, otherwise early in 2023.

Randy, from CityWest, gave Cortes Currents a very graphic illustration of what this will mean. I am currently downloading data from the internet at a rate of 21.35 megabits per second (Mbps) and uploading at 6.50 Mbps.  Randy discussed plans for up to 100 or up to 500 Mbps, download and upload, depending on how much I wanted to pay. That ‘up to’ is important because customers might not experience these speeds at their computer terminals, but we are still talking about much faster service. He also said there are no limits for the number of gigabytes I could use in a month, hence no overage charges.

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Forests

Taxes waived for Lot 302 on Read Island; a brief respite for Cortes Island

Both the Campbell River Mirror and National Observer reported how the tiny Surge Narrows Community Association (SNCA) purchased 20 acres on Read Island in 2019. 

“We just couldn’t bear to see yet another clearcut,” explained Read Island resident Lannie Keller. “It was a beautiful piece of treed land along the main road where people travel to get mail, to the school or the dock.”

Continue reading Taxes waived for Lot 302 on Read Island; a brief respite for Cortes Island →
Health

The paramedic situation on Cortes and Quadra Islands

There have been numerous reports of BC ambulances being understaffed recently. According to Prince Rupert Northern View, the Bella Coola ambulance was only in service for 52% of July. Quadra Island volunteer firefighter Marc Doll recently informed Cortes Currents there are times when no paramedics are available on Quadra and ‘any firefighter that currently has a class four license is basically being put on standby because they no longer have the ability to have two people scheduled to keep the ambulance going.’ After receiving a couple of anonymous tips on Cortes Island, Cortes Currents asked BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) for an update on the local situation. 

Continue reading The paramedic situation on Cortes and Quadra Islands →