Is Clearwater part of the southern Interior or part of northern B.C.?
That seemed to be the crux of a proposal brought forward by councilor Barry Banford to town council last Tuesday.
Janine North, the chief executive officer of Northern Development Initiative Trust, would like to speak to the councils of Clearwater and Barriere, as well as the directors of Thompson-Nicola Regional District Areas A, B, and O (Wells Gray Country, Thompson Headwaters, and Lower North Thompson), he reported.
Topic of conversation would be whether the North Thompson communities would become members of NDIT.
"It sounds interesting, but we just don't know enough about it," Banford said.
NDIT is one of several regional development funds set up by the province, said chief administrative officer Leslie Groulx.
Clearwater presently belongs to the Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust. However, as far as she is aware, the North Thompson Valley has not received any money from SIDT, she said.
According to the Rural BC website, Northern Development Initiative (NDIT) trust was established in 2004 and infused with $185 million.
Southern Interior Development Initiative Trust (SIDT) was established in 2006 with a onetime allocation of $50 million from the Province.
They both seem to be modeled on Columbia Basin Trust (CBT), which was established in 1995 to promote social, economic and environmental well being in the Canadian region most affected by the Columbia River Treaty. The agreement established $276 million to finance power project construction, $45 million for CBT endowments and $2 million for 1996-2010 operations.
The Nechako-Kitimaat Development Fund Society (NKDFS) was established through equal $7.5 million contributions from the Province and Alcan Inc. in 1999.
The Island Coast Economic Development Trust was created in 2005 with a onetime allocation of $50 million from the Province.