Business View Magazine | February 2020

227 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2020 get into last mile concerns. We’re exploring resolving lack of high-speed connectivity to those outlying areas.” In 2018, to support new business growth, the City of Powell River, qathet Regional District, Tla’amin Nation, Vancouver Island University, School District 47, and the Island Coastal Economic Trust partnered to undertake the Creative Economy and Innovation Initiative. The main goal of the initiative is to strengthen the community’s growing entrepreneurial culture by providing opportunities for business collaboration, innovation, and professional development. Throughout 2018, the project team studied similar initiatives in other centers, reviewed and inventoried existing community assets and strategies, and interviewed business owners and residents across multiple sectors to better understand what supports were needed to strengthen entrepreneurialism. The resulting strategy built a road map for strengthening and supporting entrepreneurs. qathet REGIONAL DI STR I CT , BC