August 2024 Cities Civil and Municipal Public Sector

Chetwynd, British Columbia – Canada

August 26, 2024

Chetwynd, British Columbia

A Beautiful Community in a Spectacular Province

Embracing Success and Community Engagement with a Forward-Thinking Approach

Situated at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, in British Columbia’s Peace River Country, the District of Chetwynd could be described as small but mighty. With a population of 3,100, the community is a trade area of the rural region, serving 7000 people. Gorgeous in all of its four seasons, Chetwynd is surrounded by stunning forestland, and sparkling lake and mountain views, making it a sought-after location for outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers. The community also has a full-service recreation center and many kilometers of walking trails.

“Our work-life balance is exceptional. We’re a resource-based economy, a lot of logging, some oil and gas, agriculture, coal mining, that kind of thing,” describes Chief Administrative Officer, Steve McLain, “But we’re kind of a sleeper because we’re a small community with a lot of amenities.”

Arts, Culture, and Diversity

“Chetwynd is an enjoyable community. We’re remote and rural, but we have a thriving art scene,” McLain shares, proudly noting that the municipality holds the title of the “Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World.” Each June, the community hosts an international chainsaw carving championship, resulting in an impressive collection of hundreds of ten-foot-high chainsaw carvings that line the streets.

Chetwynd is a diverse community, with Indigenous people comprising 30% of the population. “Our mayor is the first Indigenous mayor in the province of British Columbia, and he’s currently serving his second term,” McLain elaborates. “In the last election, Mayor Courtoreille had a strong majority vote. It was about 66% who voted for him.” The district partners with local First Nations communities on various initiatives including projects like the community forest, which is a collaboration between the West Moberly First Nations, the Saulteau First Nations, and the District of Chetwynd.

Promoting the Community

Supporting locals is a key focus in Chetwynd, and the district looks to area radio station Peace FM, along with media partner EnergeticCity in Fort St. John and CJDC-TV in Dawson Creek, to help promote shopping locally and highlight community events. The Chetwynd Visitor’s Center, which is affiliated with B.C. Tourism is another valuable resource, helping to promote the businesses and events in the area.

“Our economic development officer really helps us, and we have a very active Chamber of Commerce in Chetwynd as well,” McLain portrays. “We’re always there to help welcome business to town. And I’m lucky to have a mayor and council that I work for that are strong in promoting business and opportunities.”

Industry and Workforce

Located in the Peace River Regional District of British Columbia, Chetwynd is positioned at a strategic junction north of Pine Pass, an area connecting the province’s Northeastern Interior. “We’re on a choke point for roads, if you go north of Prince George, anywhere basically north of the Pine Pass, you go through Chetwynd,” McLain conveys.

“We have a rail line, a major highway, oil and gas pipelines, and the BC Hydro power transmission lines. So, we do have a lot of industries, we’ve got a lot of companies that are showing interest in development.”

McLain highlights a few of Chetwynd’s many notable enterprises, including West Fraser Mills, with the last functioning sawmill in the area, Conuma Coal, operating multiple mines in the region, and Sukunka Natural Resources Inc, a natural gas plant. In addition, he mentions major pipelines like the recent Surerus Murphy Joint Venture pipeline and projects by TC Energy that traverse through the community, suggesting that more development is expected soon. Chetwynd is also home to supporting industries, such as Aim Trucking, Duz Cho Contracting, and Commotion Creek Contracting, which are instrumental to the district’s progress.

“There’s just a large number of really active participants in promoting our community and making our community successful,” he summarizes.

Incentives and Infrastructure

Chetwynd offers various incentives to attract new businesses, including tax incentives for developments exceeding a million dollars and $5000 facade improvement grants for existing businesses. “We also have a lot of capital projects that are designed around promoting business,” McLain details. “We’re doing a revitalization in our downtown core where we’re redoing water lines, and repaving. We put in LED streetlights last year, we’ve got a nice Christmas tree that plays music, and we’re adding a bike lane.”

Chetwynd is also investing heavily in infrastructure, with projects such as a $5 million regional library recently completed. McLain expands, “It’s a beautiful, huge structure, and we’re quite proud of it. It ties in nicely with our rec center and an outdoor spray park that we put in a couple of years ago. We will end up with a recreational hub in the center of town, where we have free activities, all the way up to swimming and a fitness center and the library- pretty much anything you’d want for recreation and culture at your fingertips.”

Recently, the municipality has partnered with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MODI) to secure cost savings on asphalt, enabling significant street paving projects. “We’ve paved more of our sidewalks and walking trails. So now our walking trails are paved from basically from one end of town to the other, which helps us promote accessibility for all of our residents,” McLain relays.

Last year, Chetwynd accessed over $3 million in grant funding for infrastructure repairs, enabling the replacement of sewer and water mains, lift stations, and paving. The spray park and an indoor playground at the Rec Center were also fully grant-funded. “We’re out there aggressively getting the funding and helping our citizens. This is partly because it is a remote area, and we are the regional center,” McLain asserts.

The biggest ongoing project is a new fire hall, currently in the design phase, necessitated by a service agreement with the Peace River Regional District. “We’ve outgrown our old fire hall, and we need a new one,” he explains. “That’s going to be a project in the millions of dollars, and we’re really looking for grant funding and contributions from the ministry and anywhere else we can, to help defray that cost, because we can’t put it just on our taxpayers.”

Wildfire threats have heightened the need for this infrastructure. With 87 wildfires in the area over the last decade, more than half occurring in the past three to four years, the community faces the significant challenges of climate change. “We need to be able to send our volunteers out to fight fires, and with the climate issues that everybody faces now, this is becoming more and more of a critical issue for us,” he stresses.

As the Emergency Social Services center for the area, Chetwynd also assists wildfire evacuees with temporary lodging and access to food. “Since last year we have helped over 1000 wildfire evacuees,” he reports. “Again, it is a small team that’s incredibly dedicated, incredibly good at what they do, and incredibly committed to helping their friends and neighbors.”

Chetwynd is exploring more incentives to increase its affordable housing inventory and is considering some innovative solutions such as partnerships with the local college, to involve trade students in building these homes. Plans have also been approved for a 150-unit apartment building, and the community has several other developments in the works. Whenever possible, McLain says the district seeks opportunities to facilitate development, making the process as seamless as possible.

“Our building permit turnover is two weeks or so,” he reports. “We’re well ahead of the curve on customer service and that type of activity. We do a lot of development variance permits, development permits, and building permits. I’m very proud of the team. Our engineering department is stellar, and they have a really quick turnaround, because we understand that time is money, and we have a short construction period here.”

Looking to the Future

McLain emphasizes that Chetwynd’s top priority in the coming years will be the construction of the new fire hall, alongside preparations for significant private investments. “We do have businesses that are signaling that they’re going to do significant investments coming up. We’re looking at pipe lay-down yards, and getting ready for the next round of pipelines that are coming through town,” he recounts.

He acknowledges the challenges facing the forestry sector, remarking “There’s a bit of a concern right now for market variances and fiber supply, but the government is working with all the stakeholders and through the reconciliation process, and the treaty land entitlement process, to hammer out the wrinkles and build some partnerships there.”

Chetwynd’s relationship with local First Nations, particularly as a Treaty 8 community, continues to thrive, with support for initiatives like the Southern Caribou Recovery Plan and the expansion of Klinse-Za Park. With continued growth and innovation on the horizon, McLain underscores, “There’s so much opportunity here that it’s hard to narrow it down.”