Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) Virtual Forum is coming up Thursday and Friday, March 6th and 7th. 

Two of the organizers, Francine Carlin and Kate Maddigan are my guests today.

“ It's going to be a jam packed two half days, 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM.  Our virtual events are really unique because we all live on islands or coastal remote communities and don't have the opportunity to get together as a collaborative regional grouping. So it's important to have these virtual events that bring together people from all across the coast and the islands, up from North Island as far as Alert Bay, to Sooke and beyond. So we have a pretty broad reach and this year it's really important, particularly with the events in the world around economic  issues that relate to  our local  economic and social wellbeing,” explained Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Islands Economic Partnership. 

“Our theme this year  is adaptation, innovation, and resilience, because in these times you need to be able to adapt to change. You need to be innovative in terms of what you are doing to keep small businesses vibrant and alive during these challenging times and to be resilient.  It's an ongoing process to ensure that we have our sovereignty as a nation. And that we have our local communities and our local economies thriving as best they can.”

“The opening sessions will be looking at our economic snapshot in terms of what exactly and who exactly are we in terms of our population, our economy, our, our health and wellbeing. We're going to follow up with a program around how we share our services. How we can leverage our economies of scale to be more resilient in times of change. Then moving into using  artificial intelligence” Is it a friend or an enemy? Or fremony? (laughter)  You have to find a way to use it so that it doesn't overpower and that we can take advantage of the technologies that have been evolving for the last 30 years.”

 “Day two is looking at economic reconciliation. What is that all about in terms of how we're going to work collaboratively and in concert with the indigenous communities that live and work on these islands and across the remote coast. We're having former MLA, Adam Olson, who is now the Chief Negotiator for the Tsartlip Nation.  One of the reasons that our Southern Gulf Islands got into the Island Coast Economic Trust and was able to apply for funds there was because of his advocacy with the province.  He's going to be speaking to us about working together with Indigenous communities to ensure a diverse and integrated economy over time. The most difficult thing to pull together was what we're calling this Learning Exchange. We're bringing together about nine Representatives of organizations from across the islands and the coast to share everything from housing initiatives and solutions to climate adaptation to food security and social enterprise.” 

Coming This Week _The Rural Islands Economic Partnership Virtual Forum

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Around 100 people signed up for the Rural Islands Economic Partnership 2025 Virtual Forum. At least 10 were from Cortes Island and there were others from Quadra, Texada, Hornby, Denman, Cormorant, Malcolm and the Gulf Islands, as well as the Broughton Archipelago. Several of the topics were of great importance to islanders. One of the foremost was Aaron Cruikshank’s analysis of the impact US tariffs will have on island economies and what we can do about it.

Cruikshank is the founder of CTRS, a Market intelligence company from the Lower Mainland that has worked with hundreds of organizations and governments over the past 20 years.

He began his analysis of President Trump’s actions by stating,  “People are really focused on the tariffs, but the message I want to leave with everybody is it's actually trade policy uncertainty disrupting economic patterns. It creates volatility in global markets. It leads to reduced investment, supply chain disruptions, and a contraction in economic activity which hurts everybody. I don't care where you are in Canada, all of that is bad news, but I wanted to make clear that tariffs are just one example of something that contributes to trade policy uncertainty.  We're seeing others, and we'll continue to see others that are going to make these numbers rise.” 

 He put up a chart showing the relative uncertainty that Trump and some of the previous U. S. presidents have created in international trade markets.

Aaron Cruikshank: “This chart goes back to 1960 and the index is based on the impact of policies. You see the baseline jumping up from 25 points to 100 points under Nixon and Ford, that was considered a very big deal in the 60s and 70s. Then in the 80s and 90s you had some spikes with Reagan and Bush. I believe the one with Reagan, or maybe it was Bush Sr., was to do with NAFTA.” 

“If you look at these spikes that are happening  during the first Trump presidency, where we're getting into the 250 range. Very, very, very significant trade uncertainty policy. Then the most recent hockey stick growth there is just in the last couple of months where we're getting up into the 450, 500 range.  We're talking  more than an order of magnitude above baseline for trade policy uncertainty.  We also are hearing talk of President Trump or as I call him, ‘the orange turd,’ wanting to renegotiate the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, what some people refer to as NAFTA 2.0. That uncertainty makes people freak out. Threatening to withdraw from certain trade agreements makes the chart do this. Putting export controls on specific technologies or goods, that makes the chart do this, saying the US is only going to allow X amount of this good.”

“That affects countries like Canada a lot because we end up exporting a lot of raw materials into the US: lumber, oil, metals, minerals, things like that. We supply 80 percent of the US potash, which is used for fertilizer to grow their food. So, they might be putting import caps on things like that. That makes markets go “woo.’” 

RIEP Presentation: Us tariffs & How Island Economies Can Respond

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - One of the most popular presentations at RIEP’s 2025 Virtual forum was Former Green Party MLA Adam Olsen’s identification of ways to further support the success of BC’s Indigenous economy.

Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Island Economic Partnership (RIEP) introduced Olsen, “ Adam is a proud member of the Tsartlip Nation. He currently serves as the lead negotiator for the Tsartlip, representing the nation's interests on land and resource management, governance and the treaty land entitlement process. His leadership and negotiation plays a crucial role and advancing the nation's rights and self determination, Adam's expertise of bridging gaps between environmental concerns, indigenous rights and sustainable development makes him a true champion of the greater good.”

Adam Olsen: “ÍY ȻEĆIL. SȾHENEP TŦE NE SNÁ. ĆSE LÁ,E SEN ET W̱SÁNEC LÁ,E ET W̱JOȽEȽP ÁLEṈ. ZȺWIZUT TŦE NE MÁN. ZIȻOT E TELX̱ILEM TŦE NE SILE.” 

“My name is SȾHENEP (Adam Olsen) I am W̱SÁNEĆ from the Tsartlip village. My father is ZȺWIZUT (Carl Olsen) and my late grandparents are ZIȻOT (Laura Olsen) and TELX̱ILEM (Ernie Olsen).” 

“It’s an honour to be here working from my home. I want to acknowledge the territories of my relatives throughout the straights from south of the San Juan islands through Southern Gulf islands, through to the islands in the Northern straights. These spaces have been stewarded by my relatives and our ancestors  since time immemorial.  I raise my hands to the organizers, the brains and muscles of the Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP).”

“I've always appreciated how you've kept the economic well being of the rural islands centered in your work. At this moment, we're all facing extraordinary economic times. We're confused by the actions of our neighbour, concerned about the future of this territory, and  because it is unprecedented, it's difficult to visualize and plan for what may be next.”

“Whatever may unfold in the next few weeks and months, I believe our short, medium, and long term success is contingent on the resilience of our relationships with each other.  While some celebrate this term economic reconciliation, I argue that this catchy little phrase remains incomplete to our collective responsibility to First Nations and to our own Canadian identity.” 

“Reconciliation cannot be selective. It must be comprehensive addressing land governance and economic sovereignty together.  It is important to ground our discussion today in the fact that for the state niche, the rural islands that we know as the Gulf islands today.  The San Juan Islands are our relatives.” 


RIEP Presentation_ Identifying Ways To Further Support The Success Of BC’s Indigenous economy_

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - One of the 2025 RIEP Virtual Forum presentations was a panel discussion of how the affordable housing societies were faring on eight rural islands. There were a lot of common themes running throughout their stories: difficulties obtaining funding through BC Housing, CMHC and other organizations whose requirements are drawn up for urban rather than rural areas; the cost of builing on remote islands; relationships with regional districts and Island Trust; and water issues.  The moderator was Mike Hoebel from the Galiano Island Affordable Housing Society.

Mike Hoebel: “The lack of affordable housing is truly a crisis in our communities and housing policy was a major item for discussion back at RIEP's 2023 In-Person Porum Gabriola. Today we're going to hear from a number of people about housing related initiatives underway in their communities.”

“First we'll be hearing from Elizabeth FitzZaland from Salt Spring Solutions, then Adam, to talk about the Housing Now program,  Bruin Black is going to share some information about the Cortes Housing Society’s Initiatives. April Lewis from Hornby, Simon Palmer from Denman,  Deb Goldman from Mayne,  Avi Bryant here on Galiano and I'll share a bit of update about the Galiano Affordable Living Initiative Society's project on Galiano.  Following the panel presentations we'll touch briefly on some advocacy issues to the province.”


RIEP Presentation_ Affordable Housing Across The Islands

Cortes Currents is a news platform that asks what's current in Cortes and the Discovery Islands. Web articles & radio podcasts: Cortes Island, Quadra Island, Discovery Islands, Campbell River: news, lifestyle, local politics, affordable housing, economy, food security, health, ferries, tourism, history,  culture, environmental issues, sustainable forestry, oyster farming, the arts, First Nations, energy, climate change, overshoot

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