The News
The latest articles and news relating to rural living...
BC Government Releases Rural Strategy
The BC Government, represented by Premier Christy Clark and Secretary of State for Rural Economic Development Donna Barnett, announced the release of the provincial government’s rural strategy in Merritt on March 3rd. To access the strategy document,…
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Economic development in the Lower Columbia region — a chat with Terry Van Horn of LCIC
Economic development in the Lower Columbia region has been bolstered since 2010 by an organization formed through a partnership featuring the City of Rossland, the City of Trail, the Village of Warfield, the Village of Montrose, the Village of Fruitvale…
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Rural revitalization & the arts — a conversation with John Davis
Rural revitalization and the arts — few places have linked the two more successfully than the small Minnesota towns of New York Mills and Lanesboro. So what do these communities have in common? Among other things,…
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Rural schools are vital, says Kaslo principal Dan Rude
Rural schools are vital — it’s difficult to imagine a rural community prospering without offering its children access to an adequate school. This fact was hammered home at a open house on February 24th in…
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China Creek Micro-Hydro — Hupacasath First Nation leads the green energy charge
The Hupacasath First Nation pioneered the development of a First Nation micro-hydro operation with the China Creek Micro-Hydro Power Plant that has been in operation since 2006. The China Creek Micro-Hydro Project began in 2001,…
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Robin Billy of SX Cloud Services talks tech
Sexqeltkemc Cloud Services (“SX Cloud Services” for short) co-founder Robin Billy is a young man on a mission. He and his colleagues are determined to grow SX Cloud Services into a significant technology provider to Shuswap…
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Sicamous mayor Terry Rysz speaks out on rural economic development & a new community forest initiative
Sicamous mayor Terry Rysz candidly admits that his community — like many other small, rural, forestry-dependent communities across BC — was hard-hit when the major sawmill in the area closed, taking with it around 200…
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Food, glorious food, Shuswap style
Surveys show a sizeable majority of British Columbians would prefer to buy and consume food grown close to home. Yet no more than five percent of the food we eat is locally sourced. Some see…
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CBT is looking for a new Chief Operating Officer for Columbia Basin Broadband
Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) is looking for a Chief Operating Officer for its Columbia Basin Broadband Corporation (CBBC) subsidiary — certainly one of the most important technology positions in rural British Columbia. CBT is looking for someone…
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Small, Remote — and Successful!
Small can be beautiful. Remoteness and rugged surroundings are often cited as negatives in discussions regarding rural communities and regions. But there are cases where these apparent challenges are turned into positives. Mountain Trek, a…
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Should Rural British Columbians Accept Sub-Par Emergency Services?
In this CBC News report (including the full podcast interview), BC’s Forest Safety Ombudsman Roger Harris says “many in charge think people in rural areas ‘made a choice’ to get worse care in emergencies.” A…
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Some Canadian Towns Give Away Land to Attract New Residents
Large parts of Canada were settled thanks to government policies of giving out free land to anyone willing to show up and farm it. And although the federal government largely stopped giving out Crown land…
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Harrop-Procter Community Forest shines
This article by Virginia Rasch excerpted from Kootenay Business highlights the Harrop-Procter Community Forest, one of the most innovative community forestry initiatives in the country. From conflict comes success. That’s the origin of the Harrop-Procter Community…
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Yale First Nation & Britco team up to create a new generation of energy efficient housing
In the Fall of 2016, Yale First Nation signed on with modular builder, Britco, one of the largest commercial modular construction companies in North America, to start a housing revolution. For the past few years,…
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Seabird Island First Nation showcases its capacity for partnerships
The Seabird Island community is well positioned within British Columbia with natural beauty, abundant natural resources, and sound agricultural and light industry business sectors. The community has a population of 850 people and is located…
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Harrop-Procter Community Forest: The Podcast
In this podcast, Dave Johnson, Erik Leslie, Rami Rothkop, and Ramona Faust discuss the origins and operating philosophy of the Harrop-Procter Community Forest Cooperative, one of the most interesting Community Forests operations in British Columbia.
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How to create a community investment vehicle
These video modules comes to us courtesy of the Alberta Community & Co-operative Association. Each video provides useful information for rural community leaders interested in raising local capital for community-based investment. While the investment vehicle…
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Unleashing Local Capital
The Alberta Community & Cooperative Association’s Unleashing Local Capital project empowers communities to invest locally, direct their own economic development and reduce dependency on government supports by directing outward-bound investments toward local businesses, keeping local capital flowing…
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Decent health care, an ongoing rural challenge
It’s difficult to imagine a functioning community without access to a school, basic infrastructure, and a critical mass of businesses and services — chief among them, decent rural health care. For most communities, the standard…
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How Malakwa Saved Its School
Seven years ago, the small community of Malakwa, located just off the Trans-Canada Highway east of Sicamous in British Columbia’s Columbia-Shuswap region, feared it was about to lose its school. Many feared if the school…
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Rural citizens investing in themselves in Creston
Rural citizens investing in themselves in Creston? What does that mean? Every year, rural Canadians place hundreds of millions of dollars into RRSPs. Most of this money ends up financing economic development “somewhere else” —…
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Fields Forward is putting a cherry on top!
Rural revitalization. Rural renewal. Leveraging local strengths. These are all easier said than done for many rural communities struggling to reinvent themselves in the context of a rapidly urbanizing 21st century. An innovative agriculture-based…
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Community investment in Creston & district
As more and more economic power flows to major urban regions and large cities, small towns and rural regions find it increasing difficult to find the funds necessary to fuel economic growth. That’s certainly true…
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Dr. Laurie Moss on rural population attraction
We ask Dr, Laurie Moss to explain rural population attraction in this video Dr. Moss is uniquely qualified to tackle this question. The co-founder of the International Amenity Migration Centre, he has spent decades studying individuals…
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