SRD Will Not Use Gas Tax Funds For Cortes Food Bank

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The Strathcona Regional District will not use $28,000 of its gas tax funds to help the Cortes Island Food Bank. At their October 22, 2025 meeting, 7 of the 14 district directors voted against a motion to fund the food bank. Directors opposed to the motion were concerned about the potential impact that supporting a third party organization could have on future SRD applications for gas tax funding. As Chief Administrative Officer David Leitch explained, “  I'm not saying $28,000 is a dealbreaker. I don't honestly believe it is, but moving forward, I don't think we can take the same approach when the number is $200,000 or $500,000.” “If you're giving your gas tax money to third parties, are you saying you don't have any infrastructure need yourself?” Mark Vonesch, Regional Director for Cortes Island, responded,  “One of the challenges on Cortes is that we don't have SRD capital projects to invest gas tax lending. So we do have to take these extra steps to be able to provide it through a third party.” “I spoke with one of the folks involved with the food bank today, and they said that over the last three years, usage has gone up by a hundred percent every year. That's a lot of seniors, folks that are on pensions and really limited incomes. One of the interesting things he mentioned was that there's a mental health component to this as well, and that when folks get access to good healthy food and have some stability around food security, that really impacts other parts their life, including reducing the likelihood to need medical support and other costs to government systems. This is a grant request for $28,000 to help them finish this.”