Tag Archives: SRD Board

Housing, Politics

Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw Passes

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The Strathcona Regional District Board passed the Cortes Island Zoning Bylaw. 

Regional Director Mark Vonesch gave an overview of the process at the Wednesday, November 19, 2025, board meeting:

“We’re at the last stage of potentially passing the Cortes Island zoning bylaw. It’s been almost a two year process of community consultation, both online and in person. It’s gone to the Advisory Planning Commission on Cortes, and it’s gone through a public hearing at the beginning of September. We had 140 plus folks attend that hearing, which is amazing. The reason I deferred it a month was that you have 200 pages of comments on this, and I wanted to take the time to read them all and to really assess what people’s challenges and also what they like about the bylaw before making my own personal recommendation.”

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Politics

Baker acclaimed Chair, Vonesch elected Vice Chair of the SRD

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Mark Baker is once again acclaimed Chair and Mark Vonesch was selected as the new Vice Chair of the Strathcona Regional District Board.

These offices are yearly appointments and were made at the board’s inaugural meeting on Wednesday November 19, 2025.  

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Food, Politics

SRD Will Not Use Gas Tax Funds for Cortes Food Bank

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The Strathcona Regional District will not use $28,000 of its gas tax funds to help the Cortes Island Food Bank. At their October 22 meeting, 7 of the 14 district directors voted against a motion to fund the food bank.

Directors opposed to the motion were concerned about the potential impact that supporting a third party organization could have on future SRD applications for gas tax funding. 

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Forests, Politics

BC’s Chief Forester Tells the SRD the State of BC’s Forests, or not

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Shane Berg, BC’s Chief Forester, has a message he is taking to trading partners around the world. On Thursday, October 2, 2025, he made a presentation to the Strathcona Regional District’s Natural Resources Committee. 

In today’s broadcast there are select clips from that presentation, including reactions from the committee. Also Bruce Ellingsen, one of the founding directors of the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative and a local thought leader on forestry matters, gave his opinion about the presentation and what he believes it lacks. 

Berg claims that the amount of old growth forests is increasing. According to Ellingsen what is not clear is that he is talking about the 80% of relatively small old growth trees growing in less productive areas, not the ‘big tree old growth’ that the environmental community is concerned about.  

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Politics

Special Area C Director’s Report: action needed to save rural independence

From the desk of Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney

This is a Special Edition Director’s Report with “breaking news” and an action request. Recently I reported that municipalities in the SRD were discussing joining the Electoral Area Land Use Planning Service, something which could impact the independence of our community. This item has now been referred to each of the SRD’s five municipalities & the Kyuquot-Checleseht Nation for their consideration.

As a reminder, the Land Use Planning Service controls all the land use decisions in the electoral areas. This includes applications for rezoning, official community plan amendments, development permits, and land use bylaws like our OCP.

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