The News
The latest articles and news relating to rural living...
Contest aims to lure city folk to small-town B.C.
Contest aims to lure city folk… The BC Rural Centre’s Escape the City contest is beginning to create some significant media buzz, witness this CBC blogpost with nearly 1,000 shares & over 40 comments…
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Escape the City!
Escape the City — that’s a concept that’s likely to become increasingly common as our major centres become increasing crowded — and expensive. Life in a major urban area isn’t always all it’s cracked…
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Webinar — BC Farming’s Future!
BC farming’s future is the subject of an upcoming BC Rural Centre webinar, Tuesday, February 27, at 11AM Pacific, featuring Heather Pritchard of the Foodlands Cooperative of BC. Join us to listen, learn, and pose…
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B.C. Government Invites Rural Strategy Suggestions
If you’re concerned about the future of rural B.C.’s communities and First Nations, you’ll be interested in the following invitation from B.C. Government to share your ideas and suggestions. Note that the deadline for submissions…
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Cape Breton Business Offers ‘Land for Jobs’
Angela Antle is a producer who works from St. John’s and is the host of Atlantic Voice, a Sunday morning documentary program on CBC Radio. In the following blogpost and podcast, Angela describes one Cape…
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Farmers Have a Future — Lindsey Shute
Farmers have a future. At least according to Lindsey Lusher Shute, Executive Director and co-founder of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, (NYFC) a membership-based organization dedicated to the success of the next generation of…
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BC’s FoodLands Cooperative Launches
FarmFolk CityFolk’s Foodlands Trust Project has been approved by the BC government. We are officially the Foodlands Cooperative of BC. Its founding members — FarmFolk CityFolk Society, Vancity Community Foundation, Fraser Common Farm Cooperative,…
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Rosebud, AB Shows the Arts Can Transform a Small Town
Rosebud, AB is tiny (fewer than 100 citizens) but mighty — at least when it comes to using the arts as an effective means of economic transformation. Every year upwards of 40,000 patrons flock to…
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Community Investment Sessions Coming to Southern Interior Communities
Community investment is the process of connecting local investors to local investment opportunities. While the demand for investing locally is increasing, traditional options available to investors limit where they can invest. The result is that…
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BC Rural Centre’s Recommendations for Rural Development
What kind of provincial policies and tools would help us with rural development in BC? This is an issue the BC Rural Centre/SIBAC has spent a lot of time and effort researching. We have developed…
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Community Impact Investing – Putting Your Money Where Your Life Is!
Community impact investing? In today’s interconnected world, it’s easy to see how your hard-earned money can end up going toward projects and businesses all around the world. In 2013, British Columbians contributed $4.5 billion of new…
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Enderby Hails a Ride
As B.C. mulls the future of ride-hailing services like Uber, one small town — Enderby — is making the case to welcome the service with open arms. Much of the ride-hailing discussion in our procince has been…
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Local Manufacturing Big in Rural America
Local manufacturing matters in rural America, employing more than 3.5 million workers. As rural America’s second largest sector, manufacturing employs 14% of rural civilian employees and produces 15% of total rural US earnings – that…
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Province Partners with CBT for New Affordable Housing
People struggling to find an affordable place to live in the Columbia Basin region will have access to new rental housing, thanks to a partnership announced between the BC government and Columbia Basin Trust (CBT),…
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Cooperation At the Heart of One Small Community’s Success
Community — pulling together collectively to affect real change — is often the key in small town turn-arounds. In this informative article written by Spotify’s Dayna Winter, we’re introduced to Almonte, Ontario, a town…
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B.C. small farms are booming, despite fickle buyers and extreme weather
B.C.’s small farms are booming, despite market and climate challenges, according to this article from CBC News. High winds slammed a tree into Paul Dumais’ chicken coop Tuesday while he was collecting eggs inside,…
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Olds, Alberta Goes High Tech
Olds, Alberta agrees with the following statement: “It’s difficult to argue against the observation that the 21st economy is increasingly dominated by new and emerging technologies. Cities and towns that fail to acknowledge and act…
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Digital Nomads Are Redefining Work in the Kootenays
A year ago, the Revelstoke Mountaineer noted that the workplace is changing beyond recognition, thanks to new technologies like web collaboration tools, smartphones, and next generation internet connectivity, freeing folks to work from wherever they…
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Off-Grid in Northern BC
In this video, we meet Jeff, Rose, and their five girls who are living completely off-grid on a 40-acre piece of land in northern BC. They built their own off-grid house for less than $25,000…
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Rural Transportation Proposal from Greyhound Canada
Providing rural transportation is a challenge across BC. Four months after making a request to the B.C. Transportation Board to drop several routes, Greyhound Canada has proposed a solution to save inter-city bus service in rural areas. The transportation…
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Aging BC Doctors an Issue
The phenomenon of aging BC doctors and its implications for patients, especially in rural BC, is looming as a real challenge, . Almost 15 per cent of British Columbians don’t have access to a regular…
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Rural Schools Matter — a Brief Summary
Rural schools matter — a small town without a school is often a community without hope. This brief BC Rural Centre summary will be of interest to anyone who cares about the future of rural…
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Kaslo First Impressions Summary
A brief summary of the impressions and suggestions registered by a “secret” team of visitors to Kaslo from New Denver and the Slocan Valley is now available.
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