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Economic support organizations reach into region
Thar’s investment potential in them thar hills!
That was one of the messages being delivered by a conglomeration of Kootenay-based organizations during gatherings in Kimberley and Fernie last week.
Providing updates and situation reports on investment opportunities and business potential in the Kootenays were the Kootenay Rockies Innovation Council (KRIC), the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute (RDI), Invest Kootenay, Basin Business Advisors, Community Futures East Kootenay, the Columbia Basin Trust, the National Research Council Industrial Research Assistance Program and chambers of commerce Nov. 2 and 3 in Kimberley and Fernie.
The Nov. 3 meeting in Fernie, at the lavish and luxuriously restored school that is now Parastone Development and Construction’s 901 Fernie project, was attended by numerous Fernie area and regional business owners and members of economy-driving organizations.
Highlighting the evening was an update on efforts being made by the organizations mentioned, capped by an interesting fact-stuffed presentation by Dr. Kerri MacDonald, Regional Innovation Chair in Rural Economic Development with RDI, and Selkirk College.
The RDI was established last year by the Columbia Basin Trust and Selkirk College, with the goal of promoting and supporting” informed planning and decision-making in the Columbia Basin through region-specific information and applied research,” notes the RDI website.
“The RDI, housed at Selkirk College, will monitor and report on a wide range of community indicators and trends in the Columbia Basin—including employment levels, environmental conditions, charitable donations, local crime rates and many more—as well as undertake new and relevant research about issues that are impacting the region. The RDI will then ensure this information and research is broadly shared and understood so that communities can apply the knowledge to their particular situation.”
Attendees at the events learned about the partnering being done by these organizations and how each one can provide businesses or entrepreneurs with services designed to make them more successful.
For more go to www.kric.ca or www.investkootenay.com or www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/irap or www.cbt.org or www.cfek.ca or www.steeleoneil.com or www.selkirk.ca/research/ric .
Pictured above are: From left, Tara Penner, Nikki Bradshaw, Jill Bain, Larry Sykes, Will Nixon, Dr. Kerri MacDonald and Schaun Goodeve, all with the above-named organizations.
Ian Cobb/e-KNOW
