{"id":41039,"date":"2021-02-23T11:22:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T16:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=41039"},"modified":"2021-03-12T10:59:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T15:59:15","slug":"will-north-island-powell-river-host-a-branch-of-canadas-seventh-regional-development-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/will-north-island-powell-river-host-a-branch-of-canadas-seventh-regional-development-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Will North Island-Powell River host a branch of Canada’s Regional Development Agency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales<\/p>\n

MP Rachel Blaney<\/a>\u00a0is inviting the Federal Government to set up a branch of\u00a0Canada\u2019s seventh Regional Development Agency (RDA)<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0North Island-Powell River<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/a>

Minister of Economic Development M\u00e9lanie Joly by Pierre5018 via Wikipedia (CC BY SA, 4.0 License)<\/p><\/div>\n

Regional Development Agency in BC<\/h2>\n

Minister of Economic Development M\u00e9lanie Joly<\/a>\u00a0is currently in the midst of regional roundtables throughout\u00a0British Columbia, listening to key business and community leaders about their realities. A\u00a0government press release<\/a>\u00a0identified \u201cstakeholders from the South Okanagan, Kootenays, Vancouver Island and Central Coast regions.\u201d These include\u00a0eleven key BC innovation organizations<\/a>, like the\u00a0BC Tech Association<\/a>,\u00a0SFU venture labs<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Accelerate Okanagan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prior to this, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were all lumped together in\u00a0Western Economic Diversification Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It has been almost three months since Joly<\/a>\u00a0acknowledged British Columbia needs a separate Regional Development Agency.<\/p>\n

Joly describes Regional Development Agencies as a \u201ckind of a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs.\u201d Her ministry currently has\u00a0an office in Vancouver<\/a>, but none across the different regions.<\/p>\n

In a public letter released yesterday, Blaney stated, \u201cthere is no region more fitting of this mandate than the one I represent.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described a series of negative economic blows. No sooner had the region\u2019s 10-month long forestry strike ended, than the COVID-19 pandemic began. A thriving tourism industry was put on hold. The\u00a0paper mill in Powell River was shut down<\/a> due to a lack of fibre. The region\u2019s already sport fishing industry was hit by new restrictions on chinook salmon retention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen in December, your government announced the decision to phase out the\u00a0licenses for the open-pen salmon farms in the Discovery Islands<\/a>. The aquaculture industry is a significant employer in the region, and while I respect Minister Jordan\u2019s decision, it will impact many sectors and businesses in my riding,\u201d said Blaney.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/a>

Rachel BlaneyQuestion Period \/ P\u00e9riode des questions Ottawa, Ontario, on 02 December, 2020. \u00a9 HOC-CDCCredit: Bernard Thibodeau, House of Commons Photo ServicesPage Program, Pages at work \/ Programme des pages, pages au travail Ottawa, Ontario, on December 20th, 2020. \u00a9 HOC-CDCCredit: Bernard Thibodeau, House of Commons Photo Services.<\/p><\/div>\n

Blaney invited the government to consider North-Island-Powell River for the next location.<\/p>\n

\"I invite you to consider North Island\u2014Powell River for a branch location of the new regional economic development agency for BC. It makes sense that your department will want to target economic growth in rural and remote areas of the province because these are the places that need to break the long-suffering cycle of boom and bust resource economies,\" she said. \"Having a government office in one of our communities would allow your department to experience first- hand the challenges of connectivity and transportation in rural and remote regions, which can only lead to better local economic outcomes for all who are to be served by this agency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy L Hales MP Rachel Blaney\u00a0is inviting the Federal Government to set up a branch of\u00a0Canada\u2019s seventh Regional Development Agency (RDA)\u00a0in\u00a0North Island-Powell River. Regional Development Agency in BC Minister of Economic Development M\u00e9lanie Joly\u00a0is currently in the midst of regional roundtables throughout\u00a0British Columbia, listening to key business and community leaders about their realities. A\u00a0government…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":41053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,225],"tags":[6391,7087,1628],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41039"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=41039"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=41039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}