First Responses to the 2026 Cortes Island Housing Survey

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Cortes Island's second housing survey was launched on Wednesday, February 11, 2026. Like the first housing survey conducted a little more than two years ago, this was a joint endeavour between Regional Director Mark Vonesch and the Cortes Housing Society, who together provided a look at the first responses to the 2026 survey. There had already been 70 respondents when Cortes Currents interviewed Sadhu Johnston a day after the release. Sadhu Johnston: "The first survey was really, really helpful for us in guiding the work of the Cortes Housing Society. We wanted to do another housing survey to gauge where people are at and how they're feeling about the housing challenges on Cortes. Also, for us, as we're building out Rainbow Ridge, it helps to get clarity on what people are looking for in terms of their housing needs. We want to make sure we're building the right size units, the right number of bedrooms, and things of that nature," he explained. Cortes Currents: By the time Mark Vonesch was available to comment on Sunday, the number of respondents had grown to 170. Mark Vonesch: "Having data helps us make good decisions. We did a housing survey two years ago and we just released a new housing survey earlier this week. We asked similar questions to understand people's lived experience with housing, both as owners and renters. Then we added a few more questions drilling down into some of the challenges that people are having, and we asked some opinion questions on policy decisions." "We've had 170 people fill out the survey so far, which is about 15% of the island. I would like to see at least another hundred people. So, if you're listening to this and you haven't filled out the housing survey, it just takes a few minutes. The link is on the Tideline. If you subscribe to my newsletter list, it's been released there, and through the Housing Society's social media and newsletter as well. I'm also putting it up on Tideline and we've mailed it out to all the mailboxes that receive drop mail on Cortes. We're hoping to increase the number of people that fill it out this year. Last time, we had almost 25% of the island fill it out, which is huge for a survey, but obviously the more people that fill it out, the better." Cortes Currents: How long do people have to fill it out? Mark Vonesch: "We are running the survey until March 6th. We're running it for a similar time as last time—roughly three weeks—so there's lots of time for people to fill it out, but the earlier the better. We've made a few changes this year."