Greetings.  Happy New Year everyone.

I just came back to the Island and found us in the middle of a conversation about whether we were well represented in the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), or whether we should explore going our own way as a Municipality. 

Yes, we have had this conversation before but, as the negatives always seemed to outweigh the positives, nothing ever happened.  The question keeps coming up, though, so there's likely something structurally wrong here that needs fixing.  I hope this somewhat historical perspective is a useful sharing.

Structurally, if you look at the composition of the SRD Board, it has 14 members: 4 elected rural directors. 9 appointed municipal directors and a treaty first nations appointee.  If you are a rural director, with concerns about voting power and funding decisions and the ability to represent unique rural needs (as Mark seems to be saying) then this composition doesn't work for you, especially if the all-powered municipality gets demanding. 

Cortes Directors have survived by being either generally invisible or by being loud and noisy.  The question has been asked before as to whether or not we should join neighbours to the West or the South-East.  Generally to the South and East of us is another RD; formerly the Powell River RD, now called the Qathet RD.  Pronounced "KAW-thet", this Indigenous word from the Tla'amin Nation translates as "working together".  The name change was initiated because of concerns that Powell River was dominating the RD.  The Qathet RD has 7 Board members and is composed of 5 elected area directors and 1 elected and 1 appointed member from the Tla'amin Nation. 

The tone and structure of this QRD seems like it would work better for us (it is inherently more rural) and I would encourage that this option be thoroughly explored.  After all, the Area E Director on the QRD represents Lasqueti Island and folks from there may be wilder and weirder than us., and this representation seems to work for them. Maybe if asked, the Qathet RD would be receptive, even enthusiastic, about an offer for us to join them. It seems like a better place for us to be.

The idea to explore the municipal route seems to have banged its head up against two facts: first, becoming a municipality would mean more government not less and the added costs for staff, roads and infrastructure are truly huge. Speaking frankly, we do not have any great reservoir of management competency to call on or even a social culture that leans toward getting things done. Sure, our Housing co-op is actively building rental housing but the Community Forest idea has failed because the lobby to protect what we have is bigger than the one to work our assets and leave better forests for our kids. Business things are happening on the Island especially where the Klahoose FN take initiative. Sure, the money thing can be finessed but at a social cost; we could ask the City of London business folks to help us create some Bahamian tax haven or we could drown in money as a Monte Carlo North; a place for the super wealthy to hide-out and party-on. What seems clear is that without such changes we will not be able to self-fund the journey to becoming a municipality.

I wish you all the best in your deliberations and that your wisdom and tenacity take us to a better place. 

Thank you for the read.
John
January 4, 2026