Tag Archives: Whaletown

Transportation

Four Years Later: DIY E-trike Meets Builder’s Needs

In 2019 and 2020, Cortes Currents ran a series of articles about e-bikes on the island, interviewing owners about the pros and cons of their electric-assisted rides. One of the featured bikes was quite unusual: an electric sidecar cargo trike, designed and built by local resident Gabriel Dinim.

It’s now four years later, and Currents checked in with Gabriel about his DIY personal EV. It has been his primary transportation for the last four years, and he’s quite satisfied. We asked him whether he’s ever found the trike inadequate and needed to borrow a car:

The only time I’ve borrowed a car, was when I had to go to the clinic for early blood work and they had to measure the cortisol — and I didn’t want to arrive there all stressed out from riding. And it was cold — so I borrowed a car to do that. Aside from that, No…

I mean, I did borrow a car sometimes to move firewood around — which I could do with the bike, but it takes so many trips, you know. I can put 80, 90 pounds of firewood in the bike. But it’s so much easier to borrow a van and put a thousand pounds of firewood in it and just transport it.

Otherwise, yes, it’s met all of my needs. In the winter, too, I’ve ridden in two, three below zero. Just long johns, wool pants — just lots of gear.

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Community, Opinion

Before and After: Impacts of the “Hall Tax” on Gorge Hall

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Originally published April 17, 2024

It has now been four and a half years since the 2019 referendum in which a solid majority of Cortes Islanders voted in favour of bylaw 341. This bylaw established a property tax service that would provide basic operational support for the islands two community halls.

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Arts

Elevenses: A Creative Writing Workshop At the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

Elevenses will be coming to the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery.

“A lot of people are like, ‘Elevenses? What is Elevenses?’ Well, Elevenses is the time of day.  I believe it’s a Harry Potter thing, but it’s not really why I like it. I like it because it’s a great name for the time of day. We’re going to meet at 11 and really the whole intent of doing this is to spark imagination. It really is not so much about creative writing and preparing something that’s going to come to completion. It’s about a process. So we’re going to enter this evocative  experiential  installation space at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery at 11 o’clock Wednesday, July 24th as a group,” explained Jane Newman, who will lead this creative writing workshop. 

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Arts

Painting with Eyes Closed at the Art Gallery: Passing the test

Tests in art school are rarely what we imagine.  In Painting with Eyes Closed, the current exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse art gallery, Filipe Figueria has taken up the challenge of this test: a painting should be satisfying at a distance of both 12 inches and 12 feet.  So, what does it mean to be “satisfying?”

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Business, Indigenous Nations

QXMC Squirrel Cove: The Next Phase

As anyone passing through Squirrel Cove in recent months knows, there has been a great clearing in the upper part of the new Klahoose property. QXMC, the business arm of the Klahoose First Nation, hopes to open a store and gas bar there by March 2025.

Ron Buchhorn, Chair of the Board of QXMC, explained, ”We retained a project manager back in November of last year and we have signed a letter of intent with Chevron for the gas station component of the store and gas bar. We have a commitment from Co-op that they will assist us with stocking the store and helping us basically manage to their standards.  Co-op will supply us with all the products in the store through their wholesale distributor TGF. We’re very happy about that. It won’t be branded Co-op because obviously with the Chevron branding on the facility, you can’t have two brands.” 

“The footprint of the store will be about 4,000 square feet. Full service with everything from groceries to produce, to meat, to deli to some prepared warm foods. It looks as though we’ll have four suites upstairs. A 2 bedroom and three 1 bedroom suites, to ensure that we have accommodation for staff at the store.” 

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