Business View Magazine | February 2020

225 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 qathet REGIONAL DI STR I CT , BC wanted to brand ourselves in our own unique way. We were experiencing a lot of confusion as Powell River Regional District; for example, we were receiving a lot of mail intended for the City of Powell River and vice versa. We really didn’t have our own identity – we’d struggled in the past because people didn’t know what the Powell River Regional District was or what they did. So in conjunction with our 50th anniversary, we went down the path of seeking a name change from the Province. In June 2017, we were gifted the name ‘qathet’ from the Tla’amin Nation and in July 2018, we officially became qathet Regional District.” The qRD does not have a tourism branch, but it does support, funding-wise, tourism along the Sunshine Coast. Mike Wall, Manager of Asset Management & Strategic Initiatives for the qRD, reports, “Tourism is a big economic driver for us – both locally-driven and international visitors who come for the boating, kayaking, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, all those different activities, as well as music festivals and arts events. We have a local brew pub on the Ale Trail that extends through coastal B.C. and incorporates Whistler and a few communities on Vancouver Island. Related to the tourism opportunities within our rural area, we have DART Aerospace developing specialty attachments for the helicopter industry, so mountain bikers can be whisked up to the top of the mountains to do downhill mountain biking.” Historically, Powell River and the qathet RD have relied heavily on the forestry sector and there is still an active paper mill in town. But, today, the RD is a good example of a typical resource- based economy transitioning to tourism and cultural and other industries to support people who want to live in the area. As Radke notes, “A number of people moving into the area are working remotely at offices in cities around the world. Within the city boundaries and a few km. on either side, we have fiber optics with really good connectivity, but further out is where we