On Monday, May 15, Rami Rothkop and Oliver Scholfield unveiled their ‘Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products’ on Cortes Island at Mansons Hall.
Most of what they presented has been discussed before, the difference being that they were not just talking about ‘ideas.’ These were things they had already accomplished. That is why the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative hired them.
Continue reading Cortes Island’s Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products
By Rachelle Stein-Wotten, Gabriola Sounder, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Local elected representatives are disappointed in the province’s response to appeals to address local government’s concerns around supporting tiny homes as an affordable housing option.
Continue reading Provincial response to tiny homes resolution elicits disappointment
Wits End: Design and Fabrication is setting up shop on Cortes Island. Arne Olafson was looking for a space to use his equipment, when he walked into the Squirrel Cove General Store last December.
“Curt’s a really friendly guy and he’s super helpful. I was asking who had room for such a big machine, and Curt said that I could move into the shop here. I moved in. There was just some sweeping up, and then I had to build a table for my machine because I couldn’t move my whole table from Hornby Island. I did move the top part of the machine, which fits in my van,” he said.
Olafson has been living on Hornby Island for the past 7 years, but is well known to many Cortes Island residents.
Continue reading Wit’s End: Design and Fabrication on Cortes Island
On Sat. Jan. 28, Cortes Community Forest Cooperative (CCFC) public meeting succeeded in providing a “local knowledge download” for the external consulting team, who are now working on a plan for CCFC to keep more of its cut wood on island, simultaneously creating jobs through tapping the value-added wood products sector.
The meeting was held at the Klahoose First Nation’s Multi-Purpose Building. The Nation is a strategic partner with the non-indigenous side of the island in holding and guiding development on approximately 3,869 hectares of Crown land that makes up the Forest’s tenure.
Continue reading Highly generative community forest meeting launches next phase of opportunity roadmap
Currents interviewed Mark Vonesch in early December. This is the second half of that interview, in which we dig a lot more deeply into issues related to housing on Cortes and in the local area: homelessness, employment, property values, AirBnB and much more.
We present here some excerpts from nearly 30 minutes of audio. Our interview covered quite a bit more ground: homelessness in Campbell River, and their approach to it; property tax structures and how they could be made more equitable; the related issue of a real estate market in which, as with rent, locals cannot compete with tourists and rusticators; the fundamental problem of treating housing as a speculative investment commodity. We recommend listening to the entire podcast for the most complete information.
Continue reading Housing on Cortes: an Interview with Mark Vonesch (part two)
