Canadian negotiators, Indigenous communities and local government representatives are sitting across the table from US counterparts as both sides continue their aims to negotiate a new version of the Columbia River Treaty.

The BC provincial minister who speaks to the critical water sharing agreement and its vital economic development juggernaut, the Columbia Basin Trust, is Kootenay West’s Katrine Conroy.

Conroy, after the NDP election win last fall, was named the province’s first female minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.

In addition to preparing for the Columbia Basin’s upcoming virtual town hall meeting and update on the treaty re-negotiations, Conroy spoke with Kootenay Co-op Radio’s Kootenay Morning current affairs show about the plight of the endangered mountain caribou and the future of rural BC’s economy.