Category: Story

September NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

City West Internet Update

At the DIRA public meeting Sept. 8, Peter Spurr, member of the Hornby/Denman Internet Committee (which is not the former DIRA Internet Committee) gave an update on City West’s progress in completing the installation of roadside infrastructure. The information comes from a briefing given by the CEO of City West.

• City West will be moving their equipment by end of September from Hornby onto Denman where they will be working until end of the year.
• The 2021 census listed 881 dwellings; the news release that City West put out earlier this year when they got the money to complete the installation on Denman, said they had road connections in front of 759 homes, so “its not as if they are doing nothing”.
• Also important to keep in mind is that when City West first got the money installation began on Denman, lasting about a year. This year City West has been working on Hornby which is why there has not been a lot of activity on island.
• The work on Denman will consist of continued installation of the road infrastructure to the “flowerpots” in front of houses so that a home connection can be completed.
• Most of the cable will be on poles rather than buried. They will also be dealing with situations where it is necessary to drill under the road in order to connect houses on the opposite side to the cable.
• Areas to be completed by year-end are expected to be:
o Northwest Road
o Entrance road off Denman Rd. beside the Old School. Saturday Market area
o Wren Rd to Lake Farm
o Coho Landing
o North Central Rd
o Swan Road from Beadnell
o Owl Crescent
• Two areas are still waiting on approvals: extension of East Road and the Danes Rd-Point Rd area. If these approvals are not received, then work could be delayed when City West returns to Hornby at year-end.
• After some problems with outages, Denman’s cable connection will now be more secure with increased redundancy. Where Denman is now connected to Vancouver, Hornby will now be connected to Prince Rupert with an existing cable between the islands. Redundancy may further be reinforced by a connection from Texada.
• City West has now added a security program which can be found on their website.
• Peter Spurr provided a clarification further to the DIRA meeting on the question of the profits from the Hornby/Denman City West service that were promised to be returned to the islands at the time of the referendum. “For twenty years, City West was to rebate the CVRD 20 per cent of the net income from Denman/Hornby. In turn, CVRD is to provide this money to Denman/Hornby. The present plan is for the money to come to Denman/Hornby through the Rural Community Grants program. At this time, it is not known what, if any, funds will be rebated this year.”

The public meeting also learned of two other matters regarding committees where public participation is urgently required.

Pesticide Free Committee:
The committee has struggled to find members, to the point where long-serving Chair Ann Page was the only person left. With Ann’ s impending departure announced last June now in effect, Pesticide Free is legally defunct and ineligible to apply for the CVRD funding that has paid for broom removal. Under DIRA rules, a committee must have a minimum of three officers to legally function.
It is unfortunate because the role of the Pesticide Free committee members is not onerous. Their role is only to plan the broom removal which is carried out by a paid contractor. At a meeting of September 8th, DIRA executive decided to take a more direct approach with personal requests to various stakeholders on island, including ADIMS, the Garden Club, Denman Conservancy, and the Trails Committee.

Neighbourhood Emergency Preparedness:
With the Edi Jonston stepping down, the committee is now looking for a new chair. Over the past five years, Edi has built up a network of neighbourhood coordinators who try to prepare themselves and their neighbours for emergencies such as earthquake. No one has stepped up to fill Edi’s place as yet and it is unclear if the CVRD, which funds the information program, is prepared to step in.

Denman Island Fire Rescue

Wildfires can be a scary prospect. Should there be a wildfire on Denman Island, Denman Island Fire Rescue will be working with the BC Wildfire Service to fight and contain the fire. The BC Wildfire Service is based in Parksville and is on standby 24/7. There are additional resources such as 22 man crews in Port Alberni, and/or water bombers that can be called on in the event of a wildfire emergency. Denman Island Fire Rescue has mutual aid agreements with Hornby Island Fire Rescue, Union Bay Fire Rescue, Fanny Bay Fire Rescue as well as Oyster River Fire Rescue. Denman Island Fire Rescue can call upon these mutual aid partners to come to Denman Island to assist in the firefighting efforts.

The Comox Valley Regional District has developed an emergency alert system that will send out Denman Island specific alerts to landlines, emails and mobile phones. You can sign up for these alerts by going to: https:comoxvalley.connectrocket.com

You can also sign up by phoning the Comox Valley Regional District at 250.334.6000

Please do not rely on rumours or social media postings (unless they come from Denman Island Fire Rescue) as the source of information about evacuations.

We recommend that all households have grab and go bags on the ready so that in the event of an emergency you can leave in a timely manner. Evacuations can be stressful times so having a grab and go bag already prepared will not only save time but will also reduce the chances that in the rush to leave that you forget some items.

Grab and go bags should contain:
Food and water for at least 3 days (don’t forget the pets) and a can opener
Change of clothes (some people will switch out the clothes in the grab and go bags each summer and winter)
Medications for both humans and pets
Feminine hygiene products and adult incontinence pads
A cell phone charger and portable battery pack
Cash (if the electricity is not working then ATM, debit and credit cards will also not be working)
Photocopies of your drivers’ licenses, health care cards and passports
Reading materials
Flashlights and spare batteries for the flashlights

This is only a very basic kit. Check online under “grab and go” for more detailed lists.

A great proactive thing you can do, if you’ve not already done so, is to sign up for a free and confidential FiresmartTM assessment of your property. These assessments are carried out by Denman Island Fire Rescue firefighters who have taken the FiresmartTM Assessment course. These assessments will offer you tips and suggestions on things you can do to reduce the chances of a wildfire impacting your property. Firefighters find it easier to protect a ‘Firesmarted’ property. For more information and/or to sign up for a FiresmartTM assessment please email Denman Island Fire Rescue at: divfd@island.net

Concerts Denman

THE ELIOT QUARTETT
Saturday, Oct 4, 2pm, doors at 1:30
The Hall

Hailing from Germany, Russia and Canada, the Eliot Quartett has established itself as a cornerstone of the music scene in its hometown of Frankfurt, Germany, having won numerous international music competitions including the Mozart International Competition in Salzburg and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. And now Concerts Denman is proud to present them right here on Denman Island.

The Eliot Quartett is named after the American poet T.S. Eliot whose famous work “Four Quartets” was inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven. Eliot, like Beethoven, attempted to establish a connection between past, present and future by breaking away from the accepted classical forms of the time.

The program will include Schubert’s poignant Rosemunde quartet, along with two shorter quartets, one by Shostakovich and one by Anton Webern. The Rosemunde is characterized by beautiful melodies, deep emotional directness, and a signature Schubertian blend of hope and despair. This quartet is notable as the only one Schubert had published and publicly performed during his lifetime.

The Eliot Quartett will be performing at the Hornby Community Hall the night before with an entirely different program, if anyone wants to experience both!
This is the first of the five performances included in the Classical Pass, available at concertsdenman.com. Individual tickets are also available on the website and at Abraxas and the General Store.

Shane Nelson

At The Barnacle’s submission deadline I was announcing the closing of the Free Shack on 30 Sept, and removal of all donations. As you read this, we should know how that played out.

If you aren’t familiar with the Free Shack, it was in the smallish plastic garden shed at the driveway to Elkhaven at 2325 Northwest Road. As Elkhaven’s resident caretaker, I opened the Shack as a reuse / repurpose way for islanders to share stuff, when COVID had forced closure of the Free Store at the Old School.

Elkhaven was sold effective July 1st, and my contract was was ended by the new owners from Sept 30th. That’s when I moved out.

I hope by now that fans of the the Shack are on the way to finding a new place and new structure. And looking at the whole concept. For sure, our community has shown it’s needed. It’s a huge financial benefit to the community. For donors, easy downsizing. For re-users / re-purposers, free used goods. For both, the 24/7/365 access and curbside location have made it very easy to use. The financial benefit is surely growing, as prices rise due to Trumpanomics. There’s also the “Sale Day” thrill of wondering what you might find on each visit.

I’ve never seen the Shack as mine and would love to hand it off (maybe that’s already happened). On average I spent many hours a week on managing it. Also, I did a weekly trip to Courtenay. Sometimes took the Free Store’s surplus too. Gave unwanted good stuff to thrift stores (sometimes I brought back their stuff). Some weeks, I also visited Cumberland dump with stuff that was clearly not usable, or could not be recycled here, or was just plain old, bagged household trash (summer visitors were guilty every year…).

Some of this work will surely be needed in a new version, and I’ve been urging fans to share ideas on how it could be continued. Though I don’t have the energy or skill to manage the discussion process.

If you haven’t already, see Facebook’s bulletin board for the community discussion—maybe write letters to the papers?
If you used the Shack even rarely, you would know the problems with that space. It was only just OK for a rack of clothing, 2—3 shelf units with books / DVD’s, kitchen stuff / small household gear, etc. Stuff was always overflowing on the floor and outside. The bigger pieces (furniture etc.) got damaged by rain. It needs a much bigger space – covered – plus backup storage. Has anyone stepped up yet to offer a new location? Maybe someone could do some fundraising / grant writing for new buildings etc?
Could it be staffed by volunteers? Although the 24/7 access is a big plus, making it lockable might prevent the problems of trash dumping and the town trips for disposal. We could look at Hornby’s recycle centre / free store for ideas.

A new place would need backup storage at least as big as a garage – like we had at Elkhaven. Ideally this would be located very near the open shelves. User traffic needs proper off-street parking so that the bottleneck at the old Shack doesn’t create the same traffic hazard. This happened who-knows-how-often on the bend where Elkhaven driveway is located.

I’ve found a new place to live, thanks. Thanks, too, for the help in moving the donated stuff, wherever it landed —my temporary storage, the Free Store, Recycling, or Cumberland dump.
We’ve been doing something awesome here! And thanks for practising RRR. It helps reduce climate change too.

Steve Ireland

Radio, being a form of light not visible to us, we’re awash in radio waves all the time.  Radio astronomy has given us a look at developing solar systems, and a few supermassive black holes including the one holding this galaxy together.  If an alien landed here who could see in radio waves (with eyes or otherwise), they could be overwhelmed.  I like to imagine what it would be like to see a different range of the spectrum than what we know as visible light.

As with so much technology, radio transmission made its greatest advances during wartime.  Soon adapted for entertainment and commerce, this is the radio we know best.  I’ve been fascinated by the medium for as long as I can remember, with a clock radio bedside easing me to sleep as a child.  Not a great practice for brain health, but what’s done is done and that listening time helped make me.  I consumed mainly talk radio, until the advent of podcasts and the corporate destruction of commercial radio shifted my habits.  I’ll still scan the dial while driving, but it’s harder than ever to feel connected this way on the more powerful, profit-driven channels.

Great stations do still exist in our listening reach; community-minded, volunteer-run, musically-eclectic, not always a match to my tastes but certainly worth a check.  Powell River’s 90.1, Hornby’s 96.5, Nanaimo’s 101.7 are great options, but one needs to have a static-free signal to enjoy any radio program.  With a bit of attention to receiver position and the antenna, we can enjoy many stations coming in loud and clear.

Best of all, there’s a local low-power community station run by islanders; a clean audio slate for us to enjoy as listener, or as programmer.  Tree Frog Radio has been broadcasting at 89.1fm for 20 years, providing a place for locals to connect with old fashioned one-way engagement.  I was thrilled to learn about the station after moving here, having left behind a fun job in commercial radio.  It was hard to leave, as radio was once my dream job.  Tree Frog was an unexpected treat, a charming aspect of this semi-weird community.  I’m ever-grateful to TFR’s founders, hosts, and those who’ve kept it running this long.

I cherish my Friday nights at the studio, just me and kilograms of music, alone with no distraction — this is the best way I’ve found to concentrate fully on recorded music.  As everyone ditches their collections, I’m making a happy problem in my home:  A CD jewel case is almost 11 square inches, LPs a heavy 12 inches that stack up quickly.  I’ll never run out of songs to explore, taking on the challenge of making songs flow, one to the next.  Catching the handoff from Barry can be tricky, but I’m game.  Playing locally-produced music is a unique thrill, so I try to weave that into every show.

89.1fm has live programming four evenings each week, Wednesday through Saturday Flip it on sometime and have a listen!  We hope the recently-upgraded equipment is sending the signal to places it didn’t reach well before.  We’re looking to add more voices, with lots of room on the schedule.  Please reach out if you’d like to learn more about joining our local radio station!  Audio artists, we hope to have something to offer daily on Tree Frog and we could use your help to get there.

Wed 7p—The Yo Bro Bob Show w/Bob Morley
Thurs 7p—How’s the Weather Up There? w/Bethany & Katrina
Fri 5-730p—Jazz and Beyond w/Barry
Fri 730p—Hertz So Good w/Steve
Sat 430p—The Old Friends Show

Steve can be reached at 335-1330

Geoffrey Donaldson

While the social blast furnace south of the border fuses “political violence” with “partisan violence” like a red-hot, slag-encrusted bloom, we, my friends, are reminded that our own country will continue to need economic, diplomatic and strategic skill. The “art of the possible” is more discernible now that we’re between elections just about everywhere across the country—except half a mandate later in Newfoundland (the incumbent Liberal government faces a scheduled election in October).

The sultry curtains of wildfire smoke have parted as the spotlight falls upon the stage of real political theatre we’ve all been waiting for. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney remains popular coming off tours in Europe and Mexico to confer with allied leaders about US foreign policy under its mercurial presidunce, Donald Trump. As of mid-September the House of Commons has resumed sitting where the leaders of the other two official parties will scratch their heads and, after three months of recess, ask of Carney: How’s he do it? The main-event budget won’t be tabled until November so we’ll have to make do with Conservative Opposition leader’s HoC debut, his second in 21 years as MP—which is probably what everybody’s been waiting for anyway.

In our last episode, Pierre Poilievre was fighting for his political life after his party blew a 20+point lead over the 3-term incumbent, coming up 25 seats short of the victorious Liberals, and he losing his own Ottawa seat which he won seven times in a row until the Liberal candidate finally waxed him but good. Eschewing resignation of his leadership after such an embarrassing double-drubbing, he instead decided to contest a by-election in Alberta, filling out our last bit of summer political respite.

Battle River-Crowfoot being the safest CPC seat in the country, Poilievre’s certain win would have been a yawner but for his main opponent, Bonnie Critchley, retired Canadian Army veteran, self-described conservative, and a real Alberta gal who spelled off stretching barbwire around her farm to run in protest against the parachuted “stranger” from Ottawa. She entered the race with the same determination as someone who could wrestle a Brahman bull to the ground—of which she also looks quite capable.

Critchley was runner-up with 10% of the vote, of course, but bonus features included the risk that Poilievre might step in the cow-patty of secessionism in the Wexit heartland; even the premier has tied on a bib for a sniff but, given the contrasting political suicide such a misstep would have on a federal leader, Poilievre was granted a Get-Out-of-Albertario-Free card and 80% of the vote. The MP who vacated his seat for the by-election emphasized he would run in this riding next time, while Critchley warned it would be the last Battle River residents would see of their newer MP once he was ensconced back in Ottawa where he’s lived for the last 25 of his 46 years. Both prognoses are virtually assured since it’s doubtful Poilievre’s leadership would survive any more setbacks (HoC floor-crossings, defections, resignations, gaffs and gotchas, anti-Canada polemic or Poilievre praise from Trump, &c).

The CPC will convene to review his leadership on January 29th so much of his HoC performance until Solstice break will be more about Conservative party politics than contributing to good public policy. During this critical period, Alberta premier Danielle Smith recently made nice with Mark Carney, a very conspicuous contrast to her usual, years-long, hateful rhetoric aimed at any and all federal Liberals; we may assume it’s to help, or at least not hurt Poilievre as he aims to reassure his own party that he can lead it to victory whenever the next election is. Thus his Question Period opportunity begins.

And thus it’s puzzling to hear him whip past opening niceties and immediately resume the kind of rhyming sloganeering widely thought to have cost him his seat and the CPC an election they were forecast to win by a landslide. Short of dulling Occam’s razor completely, it’s hard to explain why he didn’t pivot away from his perennial acerbic style when that 20+point lead began to evaporate after PM Justin Trudeau, then the sole target of Poilievre’s ad hominem, announced he would resign, or while a number of subsequent opportunities presented—except that he is incapable of anything else. This might also explain why Battle River-Crowfoot was picked when dozens of other, very safe CPC seats exist elsewhere across the country. This is one of the few ridings where PP’s kind of vitriol wouldn’t be so-questioned, where he could simply get away with it, where he wouldn’t be expected to say anything but what he’s always said.

Another broken Liberal promise. Another Liberal bait and switch. This Prime Minister is just another Liberal.” And this is just another example of typical PP rhetoric, if puzzling in these new and strange circumstances. But to hear every single CPC MP include these slogans, verbatim, in their opening addresses was nothing short of galling. Reminding that he’s playing to his party, not to parliamentarians or Canadians, it appears he wants to show he’s in charge and caucus is good and whipped. If so, expect more eye-glazing command performances of the PP’s trained seals for the remaining dozens of QPs before the Solstice break. The HoC reconvenes just three days before his mandatory party review—perfect for any addendum to party members he might feel is salutary.

This being the situation, don’t expect a snap election in the immediate future—at least not one precipitated by the CPC. It’s sometimes hard to remember, given the trust voters seem to have in Carney’s leadership so far, that this parliament is in fact “hung.” But that presents a quandary for the Poilievre who wouldn’t want to be forced into supporting a bill tabled by the very party he has habitually vilified his entire career if, by chance, other parties look like they might topple the minority before he’s ready. The Bloc Québécois has that potential, but the window is closing with respect to the Spring election in Quebec (the BQ would prefer not to confuse federal and provincial elections with the Parti Québécois leading in the polls). So what of the NDP which also could topple the government if it wanted to?

Well, so what of the NDP? Leaderless until March and without official party status for the first time—short five seats—it is currently wrestling with potential schism between social-justice-warrior and  workers’-party factions. Even though the prospect of a CPC win last April compelled many longtime NDP supporters to vote tactically for Liberal candidates, and that their first preference probably remains strong, there’s potential that Dippers could pick up five or more seats and return to official party status with all its privileges,  but it would depend on whether Poilievre remains such a threat that Dippers, some of Canadas most stalwart partisans, would loan their votes to second preferences. It might be a consideration if PP loses his review. Other than that, and considering the internal work Dippers need to do, it seems unlikely.

What of the Liberals, then? With only three seats short of a majority and both Carney and the party well into favourable numbers, mightn’t they precipitate an early election to take advantage? We don’t yet know Carney’s political mind. He’s both a rookie parliamentarian (and it shows without much damage to his popularity) and politician —and this is real politics; we get to watch all parties—including the Greens with the tireless Elizabeth May still holding a single seat, way in the back—posture and manoeuvre around fluctuating circumstances and each other in a hung parliament with the sword of democracy dangling above their heads.

It almost overshadows secondary housing “politics” on our little Island—almost, but not quite.

Enjoy what for many is the best season of the year, my friends, and be well.