Category Archives: Housing

SRD To Meet With Cortes Housing Society About Possible Loan

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) will be meeting with the Cortes Housing Society to discuss the possibility of making a short term loan to help bring power, water and sewage to some lots in the Rainbow Ridge affordable housing project. 

While the SRD created a Housing Service earlier this year, it has yet to requisition any funds and the request prompted some discussion at the Wednesday October 30 board meeting. 

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Area C Director’s Report: Official Community Plan meeting on Read Island + more

From the desk of Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney

Hello, In this report is news on two recent meetings, the first Official Community Plan meeting at Surge Narrows and a recent SRD-SD72 Liaison Committee meeting, as well as a link & reminder about the Area C Active Transportation survey.

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The 2024 Vital Signs Report for Cortes Island

The Cortes Island Community Foundation (CICF) just published the Cortes Island’s Vital Signs report.  

“ When I started with the Community Foundation a few years ago, I  was already in the community, trying to make things happen. In particular, I tried to make things happen in the most grassroots  small nonprofit ways possible, but often in the area where I saw that there was a lot of need. Very quickly, I was in the process of writing grants and trying to figure out how to bring in those resources that I knew were out there somewhere,” explained Manda Aufochs Gillespie, Executive Director of the Cortes Foundation. 

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Cortes Housing talks about Aquifers, Rental Opportunities & More

There has been a lot going on at the Cortes Community Housing Society. They are starting to provide housing for the community, are supporting changes to the island’s bylaws and are acting as a matchmaker for potential renters and landlords. However the first story I want to cover this morning is about the aquifer study that is about to begin.  

“We just received a grant from the Real Estate Foundation to develop an aquifer health assessment for our island. A lot of the islands south of us are having water problems and we really want to get ahead of this by being proactive and understanding what’s happening on our own island.  With climate change, obviously many of the assumptions of how things work are changing, but getting baseline and putting in together some things that we as a community can do to protect our water systems seems important to do before we have the kind of problems that we’ve seen  in other communities,” explained Sadhu Johnston, Executive Director of the Housing Society.  

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‘Tis the season for promises ahead of this weekend’s BC election

By Sidney Coles, Capital Daily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Come election season, politicians seeking reelection or office for the first time make a lot of promises. Some we know they’ll keep. Others? It depends. Politicians make promises because they will impact voters’ beliefs about the policies they will implement if elected and serve as an indicator of their capabilities to govern. Incumbents have the advantage of the rearview mirror. They can ask voters to look at past performance. Even freshmen candidates for an incumbent  party seeking to prove their mettle to constituents can bank on that party’s record, in part or in whole—but that also means being accountable for the promises it has broken. In all cases, promises are a kind of promissory note in exchange for representation.

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