What CityWest will be on Cortes for the next 4-6 months

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - A CityWest construction crew will be on Cortes Island for the first four to six months of 2022, to hook individual homes for high-speed Internet.

“Now that we've been issued a permit from the ministry of transport (MOTI), we have a green light to proceed with the provincial government's mandate of connecting Cortes Islanders under the ERI grant program,” said Eric Geall, Operations Manager for West Connect Infrastructure (WCI).

He said Cortesians should receive high speed internet sometime between next summer and the end of 2023. There are too many variables to be more specific.

Geall’s 18-person-WCI-crew is currently working in Haida Gwaii, but expect to finish on January 4th and arrive on Cortes on the 6th or 7th.

As they are bringing some fairly large pieces of equipment and do not want to disrupt traffic or ‘take over two ferries at once,’ they will stagger that mobilization.

They will be staying at the Cortes Island Motel and other local accommodation.

Most Cortes residents have filled out the online forms, or been engaged in one way or the other, thanks to CityWest Regional Manager Dino Tsakonas.

Taskonas will continue to be the local contact.

Geall explained, “We'll be working with individual landowners on an individual basis to make sure that the installs are performed timely and efficiently and leave everything looking nice at the end of the day.”

They will also employ a number of local subcontractors. (Geall could not say who, as the contracts have not yet been awarded, but described the applicants as ‘eager.’)

Work will start at the Klahoose First Nation village, where the crew will install a seven millimetre conduit into every single home. After that they will proceed to what is left of the Klahoose plant, Squirrel Cove and Seaford.

“We will at that point be inspected by MOTI,” said Geall. “MOTI has everything lined up to issue the Whaletown and Manson's permits once there's a comfort level between our construction crew, and how they leave the roads post construction.”

Geall asks that people follow directions as they drive through construction areas, as his crew will literally be working on the shoulder.

“Just slow down, give a wave, know what's going on there, big orange reels and we'll try and get in and out of there as quickly and federally as possible,” he said.

After they have finished, the crew will probably move on to Denman and Hornby Islands.