Podcast
Cortes Currents
Hosted by Cortes Currents (https://cortescurrents.ca/) · EN
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
34episodes
Episodes
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Fire Chief interview Jul 2026 part 3_ Tooling Up 20m21s
4w ago00:20:21Tap to summarizeDe Clarke / Cortes Currents - the third interview with Fire Chief Eli McKenty
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Part 2 of interview with Fire Chief Eli McKenty
4w ago00:20:22Tap to summarizeDe Clarke/ Cortes Currents - the second of four broadcasts taken from an interview with f=Fire Chief Eli McKenty
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Village Commons Music Series: Owyn Pengelly, Denise Wolda, and Basil Aerie Thomas
4w ago01:45:31Tap to summarizeManda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Thanks for joining us on July 17, 2026 for the third week of our Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. This week it poured with rain! The SCCA generously lent the Manson’s Hall deck so we could all stay dry and cozy. Host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Owyn Pengelly, Denise Wolda, and Basil Aerie Thomas - 3 amazing local musicians in-the-round! The Village Commons Music Series is produced by Jemma Hicken, Sean Coyote, and Bryan McKinnon. It is made possible by the Cortes Island Community Foundation, Cortes Community Radio, and FolkU. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 3 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.
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Wildfire Risk on Cortes: interview with Fire Chief Eli McKenty
4w ago00:13:55Tap to summarizeDe Clarke/ Cortes Currents - A couple of weeks ago, Cortes Currents ran a story about an emergency preparedness workshop offered on Cortes Island by SRD staffer Sarah Rosen. In the course of that workshop, volunteer firefighter Mike Brown and Fire Chief Eli McKenty made some comments about wildfire risk on the island, which they saw as the biggest potential emergency islanders face. In early July, I conducted an in-depth interview with Eli, in which we discussed wildfire risk in greater detail. I had a lot of questions: Why and how has this risk intensified over the last 20 years? How is our fire department responding to the growing hazard? What can Cortes Islanders do to protect themselves and their homes?
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Ann Vriend at the Village Commons Music Series
Jul 1601:25:50Tap to summarizeManda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Thanks for joining us on July 10, 2026 for another week of the Village Commons Music Series, a simultaneously live and live-broadcast show, happening on Fridays from 1 - 2:30pm on the new Pavilion stage. Host Manda Aufochs-Gillespie was joined by Ann Vriend (AV) from Edmonton. The Village Commons Music Series is produced by Jemma Hicken, Sean Coyote, and Bryan McKinnon. It is made possible by the Cortes Island Community Foundation, Cortes Community Radio, and FolkU. Folk U Radio is taking old school viral every Friday at 1 p.m. and Mondays at 3 p.m./Wednesday at 6 a.m. @CKTZ89.5FM or livestreamed at cortesradio.ca. Find repeats anytime at www.folku.ca/podcasts.
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Q & A WIth CityWest
Jul 1500:05:36Tap to summarizeRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - There are a lot of would-be customers who were not connected to CityWest for various reasons. In Tiber Bay and Red Granite Road, for example, the problem was allegedly that the route was across solid rock. I do not know why some of the customers in the southern tip of Cortes (like Siskin Lane and South Point Road) were not connected, only that there were a large number of them. I'm also aware that CityWest customers in the Whaletown area have recently been connected. Are there parts of Cortes that, for one reason or another, you will not be able to service? The Cortes fibre project is being built in phases, so not every eligible property is connected at the same time. As each phase of construction is completed, additional homes become eligible for service. While some areas present more complex engineering or construction challenges than others, our goal is to make fibre internet available to as many residents as possible. This is an aerial fibre build, which allows us to reach the vast majority of homes on Cortes Island. There may be a small number of properties in particularly remote or difficult-to-access locations that won’t have service. Residents may notice that one neighbourhood is connected while another is still waiting. That's a normal part of a phased infrastructure project. We appreciate the community's patience as construction continues. Q: I heard rumours of a grant to enable you to finish the job. Is there any truth to this rumour and, if so, will it be enough to connect all of Cortes Island? Or are parts of the island too difficult to connect? Yes. In 2021, CityWest entered into a funding agreement to bring fibre internet to households on Cortes Island. In January 2026, that agreement was amended to provide funding for an additional 186 households that were not included in the original scope. The additional funding allows us to expand the network and reach significantly more residents than originally planned. Construction will continue in phases as engineering, permitting and build work progresses.
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The Shape of Solace Jul 2026 20m16s
Jul 1400:20:16Tap to summarizeDe Clarke/ Cortes Currents - And the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition by three local artists: Melanie Boyle, Karen McDarmid, and Jane Newman. They have just opened a joint show called The Shape of Solace. It opened a few days ago, drawing a crowd of over 100 people, and will continue through July twenty-sixth. Gallery hours are Fridays from six to nine PM and Saturdays and Sundays from two to six PM. The exhibition also involves some related events: an Artists' Talk on July 17th from seven to eight-thirty PM, a Collage Writing Workshop on July 19th from noon to two PM, and a Solace Show-and-Tell on July 24th from seven to eight-thirty PM. The three artists arrived on Cortes by quite different routes. Karen and Jane's friendship goes back decades, to years when both lived in Banff. Karen says that "a series of misadventures" landed her on Cortes in early 2020. At that point in her career as a counselor, thanks to COVID, a job contract fell through -- and a month-long stay with her friend Jane on Cortes turned into staying for good. Jane had made her own move to the island a few years earlier, in 2017. After four decades of a life shaped by the Rockies she found a new relationship with wilderness, trading the inland mountains for the coastal ranges. She made a good landing on Cortes, and eventually became the museum director. Melanie's path was a bit more circuitous. Raised in Vancouver and Prince George, she spent twenty years in Michigan raising her own family before circling back to the BC coast -- literally, by means of a BC Ferry circle ticket. The island drew her in, and she settled on Cortes a little earlier than her fellow artists, in 2014. One day she met Jane walking her dog on the beach, started volunteering at the Cortes Island Museum, and later became its managing director herself when Jane moved on from that job. The artists are three friends who took three different paths to the same small island. But this is the first time all three have shown their work together. Until now, each had only exhibited solo or -- in the case of Karen and Jane — together, but a while back, in Banff
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A Week at Hollyhock
Jul 1300:23:01Tap to summarizeRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - I was the only male among eighteen female writers at a retreat called Tapping the Stream. One of the things that set this program apart was the relaxed atmosphere in which widely recognized writers mixed with would-be authors. Personally, I might have totally frozen up had I known more about the company I was with. (That came as a series of surprises, which continues as I google their names.) Instead, we got to know each other as people as we all worked to improve our craft. This was only one of three programs during the week I was at Hollyhock. Coming To Hollyhock As preparation, I interviewed Chief Executive Director Katia Sol, who has just finished the 18 month transition from her old life in California. The trips back and forth are largely over. "We just arrived back on the island a few weeks ago, and I'm really excited to be here now for the indefinite future."
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No Lineups for Island Nagalis, But Up to Three-Ferry Waits on the Campbell River Run
Jul 600:04:41Tap to summarizeRoy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - While lineups appear to have virtually disappeared since Island Nagalis took over the BC Ferries Cortes–Quadra run, there are often three-ferry waits at midday for people sailing between Quadra Island and Campbell River.
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The West Coast Pipeline, BC's Prosperity Agreement and Canada aborts its emission targets
Jul 500:24:15Tap to summarizeRoy L Hales / Cortes Currents - The new West Coast Pipeline will closely follow the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX) route. BC has been promised billions of dollars through a new prosperity agreement, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has stepped back from Canada’s emissions targets because they are too divisive. In this morning’s broadcast, two experts provide their insights into these matters. Jennifer Lash is a former senior analyst with Environment and Climate Change Canada and ran as a Liberal candidate in the 2025 election. She endorses the Prime Minister’s actions. Ian Sanderson, a senior analyst in the oil and gas division at the Pembina Institute, explains his reservations.
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