Tag Archives: SRD

Environment

Cash rebates encourage residents to switch from wood stoves, reducing air pollution

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Vancouver Island’s Strathcona Regional District (SRD), in partnership with the BC Lung Association, has evolved its wood stove exchange program. It now offers rebates, ranging from $300-$750, for upgrading stoves to less polluting, more efficient models and converting to natural gas or pellet sources—or to heat pumps—in an effort to reduce air pollution. The program is underway and runs through until the end of 2022.

Continue reading Cash rebates encourage residents to switch from wood stoves, reducing air pollution →
Finances

Where did Cortes Island’s property tax dollars go in 2021?

How our local government works – Part 1 of 5 from the Feb 5 SRD Board Meeting

The proposed budget for 2022 was one of the principle topics at the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board Meeting on Wednesday, February 9th. Part of this process involved looking into the finances for 2021. So in the first of a five part series arising from that meeting, Cortes Currents is looking into how the SRD is spending the portion of our tax dollars under their control. 

Continue reading Where did Cortes Island’s property tax dollars go in 2021? →
Communications

Connectivity gap closing for B.C.’s isolated coastal communities

National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

It’s a landmark moment for an ambitious project to bring rapid internet to a swath of remote communities along the B.C. coast.  

The first 50 kilometres of subsea fibre-optic cable was recently laid at the northern reach of the $45.4-million Connected Coast project that will hook up 139 rural remote communities, including 48 Indigenous communities, to high-speed internet. 

Continue reading Connectivity gap closing for B.C.’s isolated coastal communities →
Community

Design concept for the Village Commons in Mansons Landing

The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) released their site design concept for the ‘Village Commons,’ in Mansons Landing, last week. This is the fruition of a public consultation process which actually began in 2004, more than a decade before CCEDA purchased the property. In today’s interview, project leader Kate Maddigan talks about the six months of community meetings and input that led to the current design.

Continue reading Design concept for the Village Commons in Mansons Landing →
Communications

Cortes Island Fibre Project Underway

Cortes residents on their travels about the island will have noticed some new roadside sights this January. Several sandwich boards bearing the CityWest logo have appeared in scattered locations, as well as road-work crews with some unusual, specialised heavy equipment.

All this activity is part of the initial phase of the Connected Coast project on Cortes Island.

Continue reading Cortes Island Fibre Project Underway →