This column was going to be about the outcome of the Tlell Community Association AGM.
However, due to general disarray, we had to postpone that AGM to April 12 at 4:30 p.m. at the Tlell Firehall. If you doubted my assertion that we are in need of your support, this delay is evidence that I am not kidding. We need you.
The TCA should be about community connections, big and small, and with a little energy and structure behind it, it truly could be. Please consider getting involved if you live in the Tlell area.
Connections are vital to our survival as human beings. We are so interconnected to every living and non-living thing around us that it is almost hard to fully comprehend. We rely on these connections each and every day.
The connections go deep, from the interstitial space in our brains between neurons, where neurotransmitters carry messages that control how we function, to the connections between the elements that create those neurotransmitters.
Or connections that go wide, as big as the universe, and the stardust that makes up all of us from a single point of creation.
However, this Tlellian is more concerned about the practical and visible connections that we rely on, namely our highway. Most Tlellians commute one way or the other to do just about anything. Roads are our lifeline.
The North Coast Regional District has received a request for an audit of the highways contract here on Haida Gwaii. There have been noticeable disruptions to our paved connection since August last year. The culvert installed at Miller Creek created an off-roading adventure that, at times, challenged even the most competent Subaru.
Then there was the washout that resulted in the Great Divide at Jungle Beach. The implications of not being able to travel north or south were felt by all.
Driving over the large metal plates felt precarious at best, and it was with some relief that we got a second Subaru fun park on our daily commute. With the one at Miller Creek going into its sixth month, it really begged the question of how long we would have to contend with expanding potholes and sinking gravel.
So it was with a mixture of feelings that I sat and waited at Miller Creek for three songs, watching a paving crew when all I wanted was to get home after a very long day at work.
Overall, there was mostly joy that the paving crew had finally arrived. Civility would once again return.
I felt like I blinked and the Great Divide was also paved. Huzzah. No more slowing down, no more reminders of our tentative connection to the services and businesses that we need to function here on Haida Gwaii.
However, it was with some amusement that I noticed new culverts poised to find their positions just outside of Skidegate, where dangerous flooding has been regularly occurring on the highway. Would the paving crew still be here to patch those areas, or would we have new Subaru fun parks to enjoy for the next six months?
At the time of writing, this writer, who admittedly has not left Tlell in a few days, does not know the answer to that question. What I do know is that the work there severed an even more vital connection, the fibre optic cable that services both CityWest and Mascon internet services.
Sigh. While my internet is unaffected, the loss of that connectivity is having serious impacts for many here on Haida Gwaii. I also have a Starlink backup, well, the music festival does, and it lives at my house, but the connection of that infrastructure to Elon Musk’s worldview about whose interests should be in control makes me pause.
In all, it is about connection. How we connect. Who we connect with. And the interconnectedness of all things, as the Haida people have known for all time. Perhaps it is time to remember letters and face-to-face communication. Perhaps it is time to remember paper and oral storytelling. We cannot survive without connection, but we can adapt and diversify how we connect.
So, in closing, greetings from Tlell. I hope this
