Business View Magazine | January 2020

339 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 This is a highly resilient area. Because of its location between two mountain passes, and not a lot of provincial and federal attention being paid to it until recently, we rely on each other to get things done and it’s created a huge opportunity. On another note, in May 2018, we went through the most impactful flooding event in BC’s recent history. But watching this region move forward from that has been a real source of pride for all of us.” Russell: “A century ago, the west side town of Grand Forks was one of the largest non- iron smelter in the world. It’s an interesting connectivity from this agriculturally-focused west of the region to the current face of the east side, which is characterized by tech and the modern metallurgical end of the spectrum. Looking at those long-time core economic drivers in the region, like mining, and now Bitcoin and cannabis are two focal areas for economic development in the Boundary side of things, it’s interesting how the newer entrepreneurial industries are coming up to fill some of the spaces left behind in resource communities like this, that were historically dependent on mining and forestry, trying to add value to those domains and more resilience into our economic systems. “The Christina Lake area has a very large Bitcoin mining operation, with up to 80 megawatts of power through their substation, which is independent from the community power grid. In terms of climate, the Goldilocks Zone we have, which is ideal for Bitcoin mining, is the same reason we have a lot of nurseries in Boundary because we have just the right temperature for trees to grow, quickly. That is also a reason so many people come here to visit and want to stay. We have a lot of young professionals moving into our communities because they want to be here and then trying to figure out how they can make a living – whether it’s telecommuting or creating a new entrepreneurial operation.” BVM: Can you elaborate on the cannabis sector? REGIONAL DI STR I CT OF KOOTENAY BOUNDARY , BC