Coming Referendum About Cortes Island Youth and Senior Services

Roy L Hales / Cortes Currents - The SRD Board unanimously passed a resolution that Cortes residents will vote on whether to fund the island’s youth and senior organizations at the upcoming October 17, 2026 election. Regional Director Mark Vonesh explained, “There was a little bit of a rush because I realized that, in order to get this onto the referendum—which I think is the fairest way to consult with the community—it needs to go through a process. It goes to the board, a draft bylaw is created, the draft bylaw is reviewed, and then it goes to the Inspector of Municipalities for approval. That comes back to the referendum at the election. The time period for this one was tight. It basically had to happen in the month that I introduced it, but the beauty of it is that we’ve got four months to talk about it.” “I’m going to be holding a public meeting in the Fall, before the election, so we can come together and talk about it, and so I can share information that I have about the services. We’ll also make it available online, so it’s really accessible for people.” “The two new services that passed the board today, unanimously, are about providing funding for programming on Cortes.” “We know that youth and older people on Cortes are important to the future—and the past—of our community. By supporting them, it’s going to make Cortes a better place to be. As a youth worker and someone who’s worked with seniors all over Canada doing nonprofit work, I know the impact that the organizations on Cortes are already having.” “We’re looking at $35,000 for each of the services, which really isn’t a lot of money, but I think it could go a long way toward filling some gaps and strengthening what we’re already doing on Cortes for younger people and older people.”