COASTAL NEWS
BRITISH COLUMBIA'S COASTAL COMMUNITY NETWORK
As
Senator for British Columbia, a primary concern of mine has been to ensure that BC’s coastal communities enjoy a sustainable
and vibrant future. One of my partners in this work is BC’s Coastal
Community Network, a representative council for coastal regional districts and tribal councils, and host of the annual Conference
of Coastal Communities.
British Columbia’s coast is home to twelve regional districts, ten tribal councils and dozens of municipalities and First
Nations communities. Of the twelve regional districts, nine fall outside the large urban centres of Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo.
Communities on our “rural coast” are heavily dependent on resource industries, such as forestry, fishing and mining.
Over the past decade a number of factors, including volatility in the resource sector and significant government and industrial
downsizing, have caused severe economic decline and a debilitating loss of population in coastal communities as people move to
larger centres in search of work.
The downturn of the pacific salmon fishery in the early 1990s first brought a group of coastal British Columbians together to
find ways of turning these tides and promoting economic development in BC’s coastal communities. In April of 1993, representatives
from local governments, First Nations and the fishing industry came together in Port Alberni, at what became the founding conference
of the Coastal Community Network (CCN).
The CCN was created at this time as a representative council with a mandate to promote the economic and social well being of
West Coast communities and ensure local access to the natural resources that have sustained them for generations. Since then,
the focus of the organization has broadened to include other resource and industrial sectors in coastal BC – fisheries,
forestry, offshore oil and gas development, information technology, tourism, and related transportation and infrastructure issues.
The Coastal Community Network held its most recent Annual General Meeting on March 10, 2007, In Richmond.
At the meeting, CCN members elected a new executive and board of directors: Ucluelet Mayor Dianne St. Jacques was elected as
the group’s new chair. Other 2007-2008 CCN executive members are: Vice-chairperson Herb Pond, Mayor of Prince Rupert; Secretary
Glen Timbers, CEO of Central Coast Health Services; and Treasurer Ken McRae, Mayor of Port Alberni; and Past Chair Gibsons Mayor
Barry Janyk.
Other board members include Brian Lande, Chair of the Central Coast Regional District; Stan McLennan, Director, Mount Waddington
Regional District; Dr. Ralph Matthews, UBC; and Eric Enno Tamm of Ecotrust Canada.
Senator Pat chairing the closing plenary session of the 2005 Conference of Coastal Communities, with BC Treaty Commissioner Jack Weisgerber and David Marshall, Executive Director of the Fraser Basin Council (pictured here at right).
For more on the CCN's 2005 Conference of Coastal Communities, click here. You'll also find information about the 2005 Conference and upcoming CCN conferences on their website: www.coastalcommunitynetwork.ca.