MP Aaron Gunn's April 9th Meeting on Cortes Island

Roy L Hales/ COrtes Currents - Aaron Gunn, the MP for North Island-Powell River came to Cortes Island on Thursday April 9. Jacob Mantle, the MP from York-Durham in Ontario, accompanied him. About 60 expectant Cortes residents showed up at Mansons Hall. The resulting town hall meeting covered everything from the cost of living to the future of the resource sector. The report that follows consists of highly edited audio clips from an hour and a half meeting. Cortes Island's Community Spirit  Aaron Gunn: "This is definitely the best turnout per capita that we've had of any of our town halls." " One thing that I really feel here on whether it's Cortes or Quadra, is there's a much stronger element of community. There's a much stronger element of volunteerism and there's a much stronger element of 'we're not going to rely on the government. We're going to go out and just do it ourselves as a community.' I think the whole country, quite frankly, could learn from that." "You guys have an absolutely amazing museum here, just an incredible group of volunteers. Then this (Rainbow Ridge) housing development that's getting put up here for families in need, I think that's just really incredible." Gunn's Team Samantha Storfie, Gunn's Office Manager, was the MC for this meeting. Mel, another one of his staff from the Campbell River office, was at the back of the room.  Aaron Gunn: "They're here to help you if you've got any issues with the CRA, with citizenship and immigration, veteran affairs, or any federal department. If you're running into a roadblock, we're here to try to help. Then if you're still running into the federal government not making a common sense decision, then that's when I come in to try to apply a little more pressure to try to guide them in the right direction for your guys' benefit. One thing I've definitely noticed is that Ottawa is very far from this riding and Cortes Island. We want to always put it on the radar whenever that can help." Format for the Evening The format for the evening was for Gunn to make his presentation, then he would accept written questions from the audience. His team believes this takes less time and is more efficient than having people speak out at meetings. Aaron Gunn:  "If you don't want to write your question down, I'm here as long as it takes. You can come up and ask your question. Also, if you want to have a private conversation, talk to Mel or Sam. We can arrange a phone call and of course, you're always welcome to come to our Campbell River office, and I'm sure I'll be back on Cortes this summer if you'd like an in-person meeting as well."