{"id":18723,"date":"2020-11-04T10:33:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=18723"},"modified":"2020-11-04T10:33:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:33:59","slug":"srd-released-funding-for-cortes-islands-community-halls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/srd-released-funding-for-cortes-islands-community-halls\/","title":{"rendered":"SRD released funding for Cortes Island’s community halls"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) released the funding for Cortes Island\u2019s community halls. Though they were to have received this money in quarterly instalments, it has been\u00a0close to a year since<\/a> the SRD passed the bylaw \u201cto establish a community hall service within and for the benefit of Electoral Area B (Cortes Island).\u201d The minutes of that meeting<\/a>\u00a0refer to the need for \u201ca further report outlining next steps for implementing the community hall service.\u201d \u00a0Former Chair Michele Babchuk and the SRD\u2019s Corporate Officer did not receive\u00a0authorization to \u2018execute the contracts\u2019<\/a>\u00a0until last August. A spokesperson from the\u00a0Whaletown Community Club (WCC)<\/a>, which operates\u00a0Gorge Hall<\/a>, said the funds needed for a year of operations have now been deposited directly into their bank account. Manson\u2019s Hall Manager, Mary Lavelle, confirmed that a similar deposit was made into the\u00a0Southern Cortes Community Association\u2019s (SCCA)<\/a>\u00a0account on Friday, October 30th, 2020.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"waiting<\/a>

waiting for their turn to be allowed inside Mansons Hall last summer - Roy L Hales photo<\/p><\/div>\n

Funded through property taxes<\/h2>\n

This money comes out of Cortes Island\u2019s property taxes and will be used for core operating expenses: electricity, heating, garbage collection, telephone and fax, internet service, property taxes, insurance, supplies and contract services related to operating and maintaining the two halls.<\/p>\n

De Clarke\u2019s 2018 study of twenty community halls<\/a>, between Haida Gwaii and the southern gulf islands, found that almost all of them were funded through property taxes. Three of these halls service populations of less than 200 people.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"Mansons

Mansons Hall parking lot when there is nothing happening inside. The hall is to the left, the Friends of Cortes Island and Cortes Radio Station building to the right \u2013 Roy L Hales photo<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Able to focus on what we do best<\/h2>\n

As WCC Director\u00a0Ashley Zarbatany<\/a>\u00a0said, in a recent interview, \u201cFor years we struggled to pay our bills due to a lack of stable funding sources. Now, we will be able to focus on what we do best, which is providing services that make our community better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SCCA Board of Directors appreciates that the SRD staff were able to respond to the Cortes Community\u2019s\u00a0 concerns about the Hall Tax funding being delayed,\u201d said\u00a0Myrna Kerr<\/a>, President of the SCCA Board of Directors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales The Strathcona Regional District (SRD) released the funding for Cortes Island\u2019s community halls. Though they were to have received this money in quarterly instalments, it has been\u00a0close to a year since the SRD passed the bylaw \u201cto establish a community hall service within and for the benefit of Electoral Area B…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":18730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,225],"tags":[314,965,2664,2665],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18723"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=18723"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=18723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}