Economic Development February meeting

This was 2011 first Economic Development meeting which includes Tourism also. There is a desire to have agriculture groups have input into a economic development and as well  a suggestion that they, be represented as an agricultural committee- to the CSRD. Then they could then advise the CSRD Board on issues such as ALR applications and other agriculture issues that come up. Agriculture is one of the fastest growing industries with the First nations; it was thought that they should be invited to participate in agriculture committee. It is best to have all the participants in the agricultural community that want to be on this committee. If it there is an agricultural committee and it wants to be part of regional economic plan it will takes 2 years at least to complete.

Land Inventory has created a sense of frustration for Economic Development officer (Robyn). There is a need to have the land inventory show the different types of potential land uses there is available, in the Shuswap. In this way if an industry, agricultural or arts use(for example) was needed they could easily be steered to an area that could support that proposal.  There needs to be a way to pull data from CSRD files to create the data base for the land inventory. The GIS manager is over worked as it is and does not have the time to do it. There are some very large projects that are going on in the GIS department that have to be completed before the land inventory can be dealt with.  The one solution is to have a summer student who can do this; Robyn will look and see if this can be arranged.  It was suggested that rather than a detailed inventory that a summary be made which might make it easier. The student could start in May other than that it could take a long time to get the inventory done.

The  CSRD Film Commission will contract out the services  for one year to update the data base of the film commission as well there will be some scouting for new filming spots. The proposed contractors are familiar with the filming business and already have a direct link to BC film commission. One of the problems for filming companies is that they need storage area for their equipment. Often this is the disincentive for films to come into the interior, the lack of storage for their equipment.

A Correction Facility for some areas in the Shuswap has some support. There are some limitations to having it in the Shuswap. The ease of transportation access (a good airport) being one of them. There are many places vying for the jail to put in their area. The spinoff of many good steady jobs boosting the economy and bringing of young families to rural areas is a big attraction to having the security prison. The North Shuswap is too far off the beaten track to have the jail as a viable choice, I think. I’m not sure if the residents would want a prison here if it was viable either.