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Socio-Economic Montage

Revelstoke Community Economic Development Strategy

Authored by: Westcoast Development Group

Commissioned by:
Revelstoke Economic Development Commission

June 1995

Location of Publication:
"Columbia Basin Trust Collection"
Revelstoke Economic Development Commission

The Revelstoke Community Economic Development Strategy, which will guide Revelstoke's economic development over the next 5-10 years, is built upon the community's vision and the organizational capacity of economic development organizations within Revelstoke. Its development involved personal interviews with 45 individuals, 14 group sessions (a total of 160 people in attendance) and a review of relevant background documents. The strategy includes the following initiatives:

Transportation

The Airport: Determine the cost and economic return of re-aligning the runway and installing navigational equipment.

The Proposed Four Laning of the Trans Canada Highway: Design entrance points to Revelstoke; assist local road construction firms to obtain successful bids for the project; and, establish plans to minimize the social impact of the construction crews on the community.

CPR: Maintain and enhance the presence of the CPR and its employees in Revelstoke.

Forestry

Tenure: Obtain more tenure; create a mechanism that either keeps more wood in the region for value-added processing and/or provides the financing to establish value-added manufacturers; and, assist the Ministry of Forests to pilot very small scale renewable tenure allocations for value-added processors.

Management and Planning: Carry out a leakage study to establish the magnitude and system of external contracting for planning and management expertise, followed by a local enhancement strategy.

Harvesting: Research environmentally-sensitive, financially-viable harvesting options for the Interior wet belt; training in environmentally sensitive harvesting; and, establish a venture to market the information and expertise related to establishing and operating a community forestry corporation.

Silviculture: Carry out a leakage study to discover how much silviculture contracting is going to contractors outside the region, and to learn if and how local firms could provide these services; and, research the skill mix possibilities for full time integrated forestry workers.

Secondary and Specialty Processing: Carry out an analysis and planning for old growth wood for specialty manufacturing in the region; access significant funding for debt financing, for value-added or specialty processing; and, continue contact with local artisans to explore viable products.

Model Forest Concept: Prepare a background paper that explores possibilities for research and integrated resource use.

Other Natural Resources

Mining: Review the mining opportunities and plans in the region; and, create a mitigation plan to minimize the impacts of the expected closure of the mine.

Tourism and Hospitality

Overall Strategy: Establish a mandate for tourism planning and development; prepare a tourism development strategy; create a "tourism information base" for niche market planning; identify key times of the year when additional tourist visits would be helpful; create "To Do in Revelstoke" packages focussed on the shoulder season; and, create a publication describing outdoor recreational activities in the region.

Road/Drive-by Traffic: Beautify and link the highway area to downtown; construct public washrooms downtown and on the highway; establish a year round hostel as part of the national/international hostelling network; establish a hostel at Roger's Pass; and, create a staff training plan for the industry to continue providing excellence.

Major Developments: Develop Mount Mackenzie as a destination ski hill; establish a funding mechanism for on-going grooming of snowmobile trails; prepare an analysis and development strategy of the backcountry site and route possibilities for a hut-to-hut system; and, establish a marina on the Columbia River at Revelstoke.

Government Services

Parks Canada: Assist with the development of commercial opportunities as part of their plan for cost recovery.

Business Development and Finance

Development/Finance: Continue to provide debt financing for small scale business ventures; increase the size of the existing loan portfolio; continue to provide business counselling for small scale business start ups; continue to inform the film industry about the qualities of Revelstoke for filming; and, establish a restaurant that takes advantage of the high quality setting in Revelstoke.

Electronic Commuting: Establish a DATAPAC entry point; and, investigate the possibility of a fibre optic dump.

Community, Organization and Human Resources

Visual and Performing Arts: Conduct a feasibility study on a visual and performing arts complex, integrating the needs of the tourism industry, education institutions and local performers; and, prepare a business plan for the establishment of a Piano Museum.

Industrial Land: Carry out an inventory and demand assessment.

Training: Enhance the Columbia Mountains Institute concept (subject areas related to mountains and mountain ecosystems) by integrating other education opportunities in Tourism and Forestry.

Heritage Expansion: Expand the heritage protection area to include the housing in the downtown core.

Targeting the Needs of Low Income Households: Develop a coordinated strategy for meeting the basic needs and access to income for low income households; and, establish a store front presence in the downtown core for walk in economic development traffic.

 
 

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