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From the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
VALEMOUNT — The Province is providing a $600,000 grant to help the Village of Valemount upgrade local roads impacted by the harvest of mountain pine beetle infested wood, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Kevin Falcon announced today.
“We know the road network in the rural communities has been hard hit by logging trucks carrying mountain pine beetle wood to market,” said Falcon. “This funding will help alleviate the wear and tear caused by heavy truck traffic and help ensure a safe, reliable road for the travelling public.”
The grant to Valemount is part of a $10-million one-time contribution to smaller communities to improve key local roads impacted by the mountain pine beetle harvest. Municipalities are required to continue to maintain these roads for industrial use.
“Support for small communities has always been a priority for me,” said Prince George-Mount Robson MLA Shirley Bond. “This investment will help Valemount deal with the impact on roads caused by increased truck traffic from the harvest of pine beetle infested wood.”
In addition to this funding, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is investing $30 million this year for the rehabilitation of provincial roads that are affected by the harvest of mountain pine beetle infested timber.
Falcon was visiting Valemount as part of a 10-day provincial tour.
From Western Economic Diversification Canada.
The Government of Canada is helping Valemount revitalize their downtown core, thanks to an investment through Western Economic Diversification Canada.
Federal funding of $600,000 was announced today by Betty Hinton, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Veteran Affairs and Member of Parliament for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo, on behalf of the Honourable Rona Ambrose, President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Western Economic Diversification, and the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources. The funding is provided through the Community Economic Diversification Initiative (CEDI), a component of the Federal Mountain Pine Beetle Program.
"This investment will improve Valemount's tourism opportunities by profiling and strengthening its downtown core," said Hinton. "This investment will mean improved stormwater drainage works and street beautification for Valemount."
"The projects announced today are an example of how the Government of Canada is addressing the needs of communities affected by the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation," said Minister Lunn. "Through this support, our government is helping impacted communities turn challenges into economic opportunities."
Funding will help the Village of Valemount hire consultants to conduct the engineering, planning and project management necessary to revitalize 5th Avenue between Cedar and Dogwood streets. The revitalization will consist of removing, and repaving roads and sidewalks, improving the storm-water drainage works and street beautification.
"The Downtown Revitalization Project creates the right conditions to stimulate interest in Valemount", said Mayor Jeannette Townsend. "With the assistance of the Government of Canada, the Village can implement a strategic objective that gives a clear signal to local businesses and relocating entrepreneurs that Valemount is actively changing from a one-industry-town to a mountain resort community with a mixed and diversified economy."
Managed by Western Economic Diversification Canada, CEDI will invest more than $33 million over two years in communities most at risk from the Pine Beetle infestation. The program supports a wide range of projects that further economic growth, job creation and future community sustainability.
The CEDI program is part of the Government of Canada's $200 million comprehensive response to mitigate the short-term and long-term effects of the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation on B.C.'s forestry sector. This Federal Mountain Pine Beetle Program is led by Natural Resources Canada, in collaboration with Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) and Transport Canada.
Western Economic Diversification Canada is a department of the Government of Canada that works in partnership with the provinces, industry associations and communities to promote the development and diversification of the western economy as well as to represent the interests of the West in national decision-making.
From the Ministry of Community Services.
VALEMOUNT — The Village of Valemount is the latest community to sign a Resort Municipality Revenue Sharing agreement with the Province, allowing it to share a portion of hotel room tax to invest in local resort-oriented projects and programs, Community Services Minister Ida Chong has announced.
"Resort municipalities like Valemount have unique demands and a limited tax base, but this agreement gives those communities additional resources for new local projects and amenities," said Chong. "We continue to work closely with local governments to create vibrant, sustainable resort-based communities across B.C., which, in turn, provide tourism options, jobs and economic development opportunities."
Under the agreement, it is estimated that the Village of Valemount will receive $260,000 over five years. Valemount will redevelop and revitalize the Cranberry Marsh-Starratt Wildlife Sanctuary by building new trails into new habitat, completing the circle route and upgrading existing trails for wheelchair accessibility. As well, two new seasonal festivals will be launched: the Valemount Bird Watching Festival and an annual Winter Festival.
"These investments mean we'll have so much more to offer visitors to our community and we'll be able to establish ourselves as a favourite stop along Highway 5," said Valemount Mayor Jeannette Townsend. "We're pleased that by enhancing our pedestrian network with additional walkways, trails and boardwalks, we're also helping to reduce greenhouse gases."
"Valemount has all the important attributes to attract visitors from British Columbia and around the world," said Shirley Bond, Prince-George-Mount Robson MLA. "Our support for resort municipalities like Valemount means that these communities will be able to provide improved amenities, attracting more visitors and moving us toward our goal of doubling B.C. tourism by 2015."
Under the Resort Municipality Revenue Sharing program, an eligible community receives a share of the provincial hotel room tax, an amount based on a formula that takes into account the level of tourist accommodation in the community, relative to other B.C. communities. To be eligible, municipalities must have tourism economies or be designated as a "mountain resort municipality" under the Local Government Act.
Communities must be prepared to put in place an additional two per cent hotel room tax, prepare a Resort Development Strategy that reflects the input of stakeholders and enter into a five-year results-based tourism development agreement that sets out what will be achieved through revenue sharing.
To date, Whistler, Golden, Rossland, Radium Hot Springs and Harrison Hot Springs have reached similar agreements with the Province. Seven other municipalities are currently eligible to enter into agreements: Fernie, Invermere, Kimberley, Osoyoos, Revelstoke, Tofino and Ucluelet.
From the Ministry of Economic Development.
VANCOUVER — The Province of B.C. and the Northern Development Initiative Trust will each invest $250,000 to support two initiatives designed to help B.C. communities take advantage of opportunities created by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The announcement was made today by Colin Hansen, Minister of Economic Development and Minister responsible for the Asia Pacific Initiative and the Olympics, and Northern Development Initiative Trust chair Bruce Sutherland at the 2007 Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention.
"The B.C. Stories and B.C. Explorer projects are video-production pieces that showcase British Columbia people, places and businesses to the world leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Games," said Hansen. "Local communities will have a chance to market themselves to journalists from around the world at the B.C. Canada Pavilion in Beijing at the 2008 Summer Games and again in 2010."
This funding will help reach the goal of adding at least 25 new B.C. Stories and 50 new communities to the B.C. Explorer project in time for the Beijing 2008 Summer Games. Participating communities will each receive copies of their footage to use in future marketing campaigns.
"This will be fantastic marketing for our communities from Lytton north to Fort Nelson, and Valemount west to the Village of Queen Charlotte to showcase their unique lifestyle, business, tourism and Pacific Gateway opportunities to the world," said Sutherland. "The Northern Development Initiative Trust is a catalyst for our regions to reach their economic potential and this is the right marketing product on the Olympic stage to welcome the world to our backyard."
B.C. Stories and B.C. Explorer were both introduced during the 2006 Torino Olympics in conjunction with B.C.-Canada Place and helped to generate more than $30 million in editorial coverage during those Games.
B.C. Stories is journalism media-focused and can be easily adapted to news programs, newspapers and magazines worldwide. The program creates stories that will help generate awareness of British Columbia as a preferred place to visit, conduct business and invest.
B.C. Explorer highlights various aspects of communities throughout British Columbia as touch screen kiosks allow visitors and investors to virtually explore the province and experience the many tourism, business and community features.
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