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.
Continue reading SRD Will Not Use Gas Tax Funds for Cortes Food BankThe numbers are not in yet, but there are enough returning Chum in Basil Creek to justify milking them for eggs. A group of nine Klahoose employees and Cortes Island Streamkeepers carried this out on Tuesday, November 4, 2025.
No one wished to comment at this time.
Continue reading Milking the Chum in Basil Creek
Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Local governments on Vancouver Island are frustrated after finally receiving a long-awaited answer to when legislative changes are coming to the law governing how some forest lands are managed in BC.
The answer: with the trade war targeting BC lumber, the priority is protecting forestry jobs. In short, after years of fighting, change is not coming.
Continue reading Long-awaited changes to BC’s private forests not coming, government confirmsBy Natasha Bulowski, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
BC Premier David Eby is putting his anti-tariff ads on ice after an emergency summit with federal ministers on Monday morning.
“We’ve committed to the federal government that when the time comes to be speaking directly to Americans, we’ll do it in partnership with them,” Eby told reporters at a press conference in Vancouver immediately after the emergency softwood lumber summit.
“We will not be running the ads by ourselves.”
Continue reading BC won’t run anti-tariff ads, Eby says after emergency summitAnnie Smith and Katy Lepine were members of the organizing committee for the David Suzuki Event on October 17, 2025 at the Florence Filberg Centre in Courtenay, BC. David Suzuki’s presentation was titled: Humanity at a Crossroads: Transformation or Extinction. It was a huge undertaking for the small group of volunteers with the North Island – Powell River Greens. Annie and Katy share their reflections and photos from the event.
Continue reading Staging an International Celebrity Event in Courtenay
