The economic situation may be gloomy, but plans are afoot to move the area forward in a carefully planned and positive fashion.
A flood in June 2012 delivered a blow to the local economy that, coupled with a decrease in forestry activity and the country-wide slowdown in 2008, has had devastating effects on Sicamous and surrounding area: tourism has declined, jobs have disappeared, businesses have closed, investment has gone elsewhere as have skilled workers.
And that lack of skilled workers and the decline in population is making recovery difficult.
But a large group of people representing business and community organizations across the Shuswap – the Community Employer Partnership Program – has been meeting to discuss economic challenges.
Community Employer Partnership Program Sicamous Sub-Committee has been created with a view to collecting as much information as possible in order to create a custom recovery plan.
“They wanted to find a way to learn about the issues and move forward in a more positive trajectory,” says Kyle Dearing, project co-ordinator for the new sub-committee’s labour market and planning project to be developed by the people for the people of Sicamous and Electoral Area E of the Columbia Shuswap Regional District.
Successful in their request for funding through Community Futures – the partnership sub-committee recently received a $64,000 grant from B.C.’s Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation.
Happy to have secured “critical funding” and to be the organization to provide oversight on the project, Shuswap Community Futures executive director Rob Marshall says the new district council has created a positive vibe in Sicamous.
The first order of business will be to get as much information relating to community development, business activity, population/demographics, and other economic activity as possible to add to the information bank.
“We’re asking people to submit any sources of information they think would be useful to have incorporated into this project and for us to know about,” Dearing says. “Once that is done, we have a PhD, Jason Woodman-Simmonds, who will review, summarize then host the first of three community meetings.”
In phase 2 of the project, interviewers will be hired to get missing information by speaking to a total of 60 business owners, community services and leaders, unemployed people and other community residents.
As well, a downloadable survey is being developed to collect even more information. Dearing says the sub-committee would like to receive 328 completed surveys, but would welcome double the number.
“We want people to see how other events have impacted and how the community has ended up with few sustainable jobs or opportunities,” Dearing says. “And we want to present it to the community in a way they’ll be better able to understand their own situation.”
After that happens, the community will be asked to collaborate in developing a planning program that will determine “where can we go from here and how can we do it,” Dearing says.
“One of my big roles is to engage the community as well as I can to get as many people involved,” he says with enthusiasm, noting he is hoping to have students involved in the process. “I am excited about being able to engage young people in this… and for them to learn about the collaborative planning process.”
The partnership is working within a seven-month window. Two reports will be released at the end of October, says Dearing – one will be a compilation of all the information that has been collected. The second will be an action plan complete with timelines, specific tasks and more.
“My goal right now is to get people to understand and collect information; if somebody has something they think would be useful, like an organization that might have a report or documents over the years that talk about Sicamous, labour, employment, somebody who saved articles from the flood, no piece of information is too small,” Dearing says.
He can be reached at info@sicamouslabour.com or by calling 250-515-2029.