Category Archives: Housing

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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Housing

Low income prevalence dropping on Gabriola

Editor’s note: This appears to be another example of high living costs driving away working age families. Gabriola is becoming an island for seniors and tourists.

By Rachelle Stein-Wotten, Gabriola Sounder, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

More people on Gabriola appear to have higher incomes, according Statistics Canada data.

The prevalence of low-income dropped between the 2020 and 2016 censuses. In 2015, 24.9 per cent of people in the Gabriola Local Trust Area were considered low income while in 2020, that was reduced to 17.8 per cent.

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Housing, Politics

How Marc Doll wants to tackle the housing crisis in Area C

In the second of a series of articles outlining what he would like to bring to Area C if elected Regional Director, Marc Doll spoke about tackling the housing crisis.

He began by pointing out the solutions are not easy. 

“The principle that I’m standing on is that one person, me or anybody else holding the Regional Director position, isn’t in a place to be able to say, ‘okay, this is what we want to fight for.’ Whether it be a vacancy tax, some type of licensing for Airbnbs, or how we approach development, these decisions are more complicated than  any one person sitting on a small committee can come to any conclusion on. Every one of these examples has a downside,” explained Doll.

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Housing

Tiny home park development is complicated: local housing society

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

As Cortes Island wrestles with demand for affordable housing, the creation of a tiny home park is being considered as one short term solution.

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Housing, Politics

Mawhinney identifies housing as the #1 issue in Area C

Robyn Mawhinney identified housing as the #1 issue in this upcoming October 15 election.

“There are already two levels of government, federal and provincial, which are working on housing. I’m not sure that we can ever completely solve it, but it’s really important that we tackle it and there’s many small shifts that could happen,” explained the candidate for Regional Director in Area C.

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