Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - At their December 11 meeting, the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) Board passed a bylaw to regulate bulk water processing, bottling and sales on Maurelle, Sonora, Stuart, and the Rendezvous islands.

Three Campbell River Directors voted against receiving the staff report for this bylaw.

Director Susan Sinnott explained,  “I just want to hear from staff, the reasons necessary. Is there a pending application for people to bulk water in the distillation sound area? Is there an imminent issue?” 

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch replied,  “The impetus of this. Bylaws came from the directors. So I think it's probably more appropriate for the director to speak to it.” 

Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch pointed out,  “This is the same bylaw we already passed for Area D, Cortes and Quadra Islands.” 

Director Sinnott:  “Well, thank you, my recollection was there was concerns about water usage and aquifer protection.  I just wanted to know if this was similar. I don't know if there's an issue in the Desolation Sound area that's similar.” 

Robyn Mawhinney is the Regional Director for Area C, which includes Quadra, Maurelle, Sonora, Stuart, and the Rendezvous islands:

 “Although it says the Desolation Sound Rural Land Use Bylaw it's funnily enough, not in Desolation Sound. It's Read, Maurelle, Sonora, Stuart, and the Rendezvous Islands. If you look at the bylaws, it's really about providing an opportunity for community to have a public hearing If there is an application for a commercial water extraction enterprise.”  

 Director Sinnot: So raising my question again, are we regulating something that's not ever going to happen? I can't imagine there's ever going to be a person that wants to bulk water bottling or any type of extraction of a very remote area without ferry service. So one, I don't like the idea of regulating things if we don't have to, but second of all, we're intruding into an area outside our jurisdiction if it's about water preservation.”  

Director Mawhinney: “I would suggest that providing an opportunity for the community to have input on a commercial enterprise, which could drastically affect their drinking water is reasonable.  I think when you look at what happened in Merville, if you wait until an application  is coming forward it's too late.” 

The concern about bulk water extraction can be traced back to a Merville property owner’s idea to bottle and sell the water beneath his property. 

On March 8, 2023, two weeks before CVRD approved MacKenzie’s application, Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney asked the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) to report on the possibilities for limiting groundwater extraction within Area C. The District had just gone through the severest drought in Campbell River’s records and it was about to  go through the drought of 2023.

On September 25, 2024, the SRD passed bylaws prohibiting ‘bulk water sales, bulk water processing and bulk water bottling’ on any upland or foreshore area of Cortes or Quadra except where expressly permitted within a zone.

That was when Director Mawhinney then introduced what has erroneously been called the Desolation Sound Bulk Water Regulation.

Director Mawhinney: “ We've had a public hearing and the community was in support of it, as they have been for Area D, Area B (Cortes Island) and the Quadra island portion of Area C.” 


Bulk Water Regulations for the Outer Islands

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - Campbell River’s Strathcona Gardens is in the midst of re-development. Following a successful Alternative Approval Process (APP) in Campbell River and Area D, whose residents use this complex, in 2023 the Board authorized borrowing up to $64.6 million for this project. Crews are currently building the foundations. 

The SRD is exploring the possibility of using Area C property tax dollars to support this complex, but has not yet decided upon a course of action. This sparked a great deal of resistance from Area C residents who do not want to see their property taxes increased to pay for a ‘Campbell River’ project. 

In a motion made by Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney in November, she referred to hundreds of items of correspondence to that effect. The flow of correspondence continues. Emails and scanned letters from 65 Quadra residents, 2 Read Island residents and 1 Maurelle Island resident were received as correspondence at the January 22, 2025 SRD Board Meeting.

None of the 68 correspondents supported the project. One admitted to using the Strathcona Gardens approximately 4 times during her 40 years on Quadra Island.


Area C Taxpayers Resistant to paying for Strathcona Gardens Re-Development

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) may have a nasty surprise for property owners in Campbell River and Area D. They may soon be asked to approve an additional $54 million debt to finance the second phase of the new REC-REATE Strathcona Gardens project. When they originally consented through an Alternative Approval Process (which automatically passes unless 10% of the electorate object), taxpayers were informed the cost was almost half of what is now being put forward

“The April 2023 staff report indicated that both phases of the REC-CREATE project were going to be included. They had a Class A estimate they were using for the swimming pool and Wellness Center and they had a  2019 Class D estimate for the ice arena. They also said that the Class D estimate for the ice arena had been escalated. So you would assume by reading that the April  2023 staff report was costed up to be based on current construction costs and inflation.  In addition to that, what I found in the staff report was that they said that the $73 million would include both phases and that staff would strive to deliver the project within the $73 million budget.  That staff report, since it was in April 2023, was less than two years ago,” explained Deborah Rasnick, a professional accountant who worked in senior budget positions of BC public sector organizations for 15 years.

“ The new business case that was presented in December of 2024, and approved tentatively by the Strathcona Gardens Commission now, has an estimated cost for phase two only of $58 million. That's on top of The previous approval. So the total cost now of the entire REC-REATE project could increase to around $130 million, and that's an 80% increase from the prior amount.” 

“Same thing goes with debt. The original approval allowed for the SRD to borrow Up to $64.67 million and that was approved through AAP. Now this new REC-REATE project phase two, as they're calling it,  wants to allow for an additional $54 million, creating a total debt of up to $118 million, providing they get authority to do that from the participants in the Strathcona Gardens service area.  That increase to total debt reflects an over 80% increase from the prior balance as well.” 


The (Almost) Secret Budget for REC-Reate Strathcona Gardens

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - It is only two weeks until President Donald Trump decides whether to impose 25% tarrifs on Canada and Mexico. There is some question whether he will follow through. Trump was initially going to impose the tarrifs on February 4, but the previous day Wall Street's three main indices fell sharply over concerns about the global economy. The stock market recovered that afternoon after Trump announced he would postpone the tarrifs for a month. However Canadians are preparing for the worst and, on the local level, one of the topics discussed at yesterday’s Strathcona Gardens Commission meeting is impact Trump’s proposed tarrifs could have on Campbell River’s $130 million REC-reate Strathcona Gardens project. 

Commissioner Cal Grunerud raised the question: “ What's happening with America.”

Commissioner Ron Kerr stressed,  “This is a tariff that is definitely going to raise our costs.” 

Wolfgang Parada, Senior Engineering Manager with the Strathcona Regional District,  assured the Comissioners that steps are already being taken to minimize any impact. 

 “The first thing is looking at the contracts, what type of contract the general contractor has with the trades. It's under the duties and taxes, basically the trades are only responsible for those duties and taxes when they bid for the project. Anything extra will be billed to the general contractor. The general contractor will pass it to us.” 

“We need to work carefully  to minimize the impact to the project and the first thing that we have done is we asked the General Contractor to compile a list of materials and equipment coming from the States.” 

“This is very preliminary right now because if the tariffs are implemented to Canada, that doesn't affect the project. It will only affect the project when Canada retaliates and put tariffs on the States,  if those tariffs are related to some of the  materials that are coming for this project. That list is being  developed at this point. We need to understand what suppliers we have here in Canada, if there are alternatives. We need to look at  the status of the solutions.”

“This is not an easy process. When we hire a trade, that trade needs to submit shop drawings. Those shop drawings are approved. They need to procure the equipment. Once they buy the equipment, they ship the equipment from the States. Once they cross the border, that's when they pay the tax.” 

Parada explained they are trying to assess which materials can be brought into Canada before the tarrifs are implemented. They are also trying to identify Canadian alternatives for some products.

“I'm happy to provide an update as soon as I have more information, but we know it's critical. We're ahead of the game and we're hoping that the project budget and as well as the schedule doesn't get impacted by the tariffs.” 

David Leitch, CAO of the SRD, added, “If there's going to be a negative impact, we're going to let our MP, MLA and the province know because they will be hurting us.” 


Minimizing the impact Trump's tarrifs could on the $130 million REC-reate Strathcona Garden project

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - While most of the Strathcona Regional District’s costs can be directly allocated to specific areas, others are labelled administration costs and need to be shared among the 10 communities. At their February 19 meeting the SRD Board discussed ways to make a more fair allocation of this expense. 

Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “ To put this in perspective, let's say the SRD's total budget is $20 million or whatever it may be this year, we're talking about $2.8 million for admin costs.”

Campbell River has close to three quarters of the SRD’s population, but only contributes $1.6 million towards the $2.8 million administration bill. That’s just under 56%. Some Campbell River Directors dispute that number and most appear to think they are paying too much for a service they derive very little benefit from. Mayor Kermit Dahl served notice that at the next SRD Board meeting he will move to slash Campbell River’s contribution by 82%.

Possible SRD Breakdown_ Campbell River Vows To Cut Admin Payments

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - A quick question just came up in regard to Cortes Island’s ongoing Zoning Bylaw Review. Cortes Island residents have up until noon on Friday, March 7, to make their thoughts known on possible limits to house sizes known. 

 “Do we want to put a limit on the maximum house size on Cortes?  It's a basic yes or no question.” asked Regional Director Mark Vonesch.   

“If you do agree, what is the maximum size you would like to see happen? Everything from 2,500 square feet to 4,300 square feet. I've certainly heard from a lot of people that this is something that's important to consider.  Basically do we want to have folks buy land here and build mega mansions?  Do we want to have Cortes be a place where the ultra wealthy can buy a piece of land and build a summer mansion?”

 “There's probably going to be quite heated thoughts on both sides of this question and rather than me just making a decision I want to understand what the wishes of the community are.”

 “If this new regulation goes through and we do say Cortes agrees that we should limit the size of the houses that are built, one of the questions people have is what does that mean for houses that are already larger than whatever square footage that we choose? The answer for that is simple, they’ll be grandfathered in. The bylaw does affect new builds only. If the house burns down, they won't be able to build to that same size.” 

“If this regulation does go through and anyone decides to build a house that's larger than the square footage that Cortes Wants, then the SRD can create a court injunction and have them either go through the process of reducing the size of their house to conform to the regulation, or take the house down.” 

 “Is this something we want?  How do we want to have land use on, on Cortez B? I'm really excited to hear people's answers.”


Should there be a Maximum Size for Houses on Cortes?

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - CityWest’s internet service for Cortes Island was cut off again, sometime after 10:44 on Saturday, March 8, and not restored until after 9:00 on Monday, March 10. This is the third or fourth time in the last 12 months. 

The outage did not affect CKTZ, which relies upon Mascon de TELUS, but did shut down numerous CityWest customers (including Cortes Currents).

‘Rumour’ has it that the fibre cable was cut somewhere on the underwater stretch between Denman Island and Williams Beach.  

“They require a special "marine team" to take care of it and it will be weather dependent. Hopefully the break will be near shore, but they may have to pull up the entire length of cable to find the break and fix it.”

One of CityWest’s public relations people confirmed there was a break in the cable, but could not say where. However the recorded announcement on their phone in line stated:

 “We are seeing services affected in Williams Beach, Stories Beach, Manson's Landing, Bold Point, Heriot Bay, Whaletown, Open Bay, Granite Bay, Chatham Point, Blink Channel, Bliss Landing, Seaford, Klahoose, and Gillies Bay.”

So the rumour was true, at least in regard to where the break occured. 

There are some questions about CityWest’s recorded announcement.

For starters, it says services are affected in Bold Point, Open Bay, Granite Bay and Heriot Bay - which are all Quadra Island locations.   

Only Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney, who lives on Quadra, has yet to hear of ANYONE being connected on Quadra Island and, up until this point, there has been no mention of Heriot Bay being served.  

A number of Cortes Island residents have been connected for over a year, but a lot of people have not. It is not clear which group is in the majority. 
In a previous post, Cortes Currents mentioned that numerous households in Squirrel Cove, Whaletown and Mansons Landing have yet to be connected. 

Since then, a source who wishes to remain anonyomous, claims that service has yet to be brought to Seaford Road.  

Don Hall, from Tiber Bay, recently stated there is no service in his area either. 

“We expressed interest early on to get hooked up. They used to phone us and they used to try to sell us things. They ran a line from our local road to our house, but they never ran the line from the main  fiber optic network into where we live at Tiber Bay. They never hooked up our house either. The last time I ever heard anything from them was three years ago when they scheduled an appointment to hook up the internal to our house. They never showed up for that and we never heard from them again.”

The Strathcona Regional District has not been talking about the connected coast project very much lately, but according to the press release on their website, this is “a joint venture between the Strathcona Regional District (SRD) and CityWest" which “will be managed and implemented by CityWest and the Strathcona Regional District.”

Disruptions of CityWest’s Services on Cortes and Quadra Islands

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - While she recognizes DRIPA as a valuable document, MLA Anna Kindy recently informed the SRD Board that she does not support ‘article 26.’ The topic came up when she took part in the May 26 Board meeting. 

Kindy began by stating, “ Part of the reason I'm here is to actually learn how things are run.  I'm not going to pretend I know everything, far from it.  It's a steep learning curve, but my motivation is to truly represent my constituents. I ran for a party, but I'm apolitical now that I am an MLA,  I just look at issues separately and try to bring people's voices to the legislature, to whoever it needs to be brought to.  I'm not a public speaker by nature, but I do answer questions very readily, so I'm just going to pass it over to you guys if you have any questions."

Regional Director Mark Vonesch, of Cortes Island, responded,  “My question is about Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People's Act (DRIPA). During the election, your leader spoke about dropping it and since then, members of your party have denied the graves that have been found in some residential schools. That's raised a lot of concern and I'm just wondering if you could comment on that.”

Anna Kindy:  “Okay, first of all, let's go back to the first question, DRIPA. You have to look at unintended consequences of every bill that passes. UNDRIP is from the United Nation and we are the only, and I will repeat the only jurisdiction worldwide that has adopted it word per word (as DRIPA).”

“Most of DRIPA is fine, I'm a hundred percent for economic reconciliation. What we've done is terrible and we need to reconcile what we've done. It's about treaties, it's about economic reconciliation. What DRIPA does, if you look at section 26,  there's a question of what will be the private property rights of every British Columbian.”

Article 26
1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.
2. Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.
3. States shall give legal recognition and protection to these lands, territories and resources. Such recognition shall be conducted with due respect to the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of the Indigenous peoples concerned.
Anna KIndy:  “The entire aspect of crown land will be under the jurisdiction of 4% of the population potentially to make decisions and I am of the opinion that we all have equal rights. We are all Canadian.” 

“Economic reconciliation means that we need to make sure that we lift First Nations out of poverty.  In this region, what that means is to support industries that are lifting them out of poverty. I'm an addiction doctor. If you look at the GNN nation (Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw Nations), they had 10 or 11 overdoses and suicides in a two month period in 2024. So this is urgent, I don't talk about semantics.”

“The issue is section 26. This is in a democracy and we're an equal society, we all should have the same rights.” 


Anna Kindy explains why she does not endorse part of DRIPA and more

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents - SRD staff will prepare a staff report identifying public lands on Quadra Island that may be available for affordable housing development.

This is the second time that Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney of Area C brought forward a motion asking for a report and in both cases she was opposed by Directors from Campbell River and Area D. They successfully blocked it at the August 20th SRD Board meeting, but an amended motion passed on September 17

In the unedited audio of the meeting that follows, Campbell River Director Robert Kerr stated the Director of Area C should have filed a notice of motion, rather than making a motion from the floor. Campbell River Director Susan Sinnott claimed the report will not accomplish what Quadra wants and said they do things differently in Campbell River.

Regional Director Robyn Mawhinney of Area C described her relationship with the  Discovery Islands Affordable Housing Society, a volunteer organization on Quadra Island. She is not being familiar with the way  Campbell River does housing projects, but the SRD has a regional housing service and it would be great if they could support an affordable housing project on Quadra Island. 

Cortes Island Director Mark Vonesch supported the motion, reminding the board that we are in a housing crisis and there is more than one way to get housing projects done.

The motion passed despite opposing votes from Campbell River DIrectors Chapman, Kerr and Sinnott, as well as Alternate Director Browne for Area D. 

SRD staff will be looking for public lands within a reasonable distance from the Village Centres of Heriot Bay and Quathiaski Cove.
 

SRD Staff to identify public lands on Quadra for potential affordadable housing sites

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -There have been speculations about Cortes Island becoming a municipality and at the September 17 SRD Board meeting staff was instructed to prepare a report about the process.

In the unedited audio that follows Cortes Director Mark Vonesch makes the motion. Mayor Julie Colborne of Zeballos seconds it twice, to some laughter, and Campbell River Director Doug Chapman points out that Municipal Affairs will not consider applications from communities with a population under 500. (The population of Cortes Island is 1,100.) 

The audio begins with Chair Mark Baker speaking

The motion was passed with no opposing votes.   

SRD to prepare a report on how communities like Cortes incorporate

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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