Valemount Receives Over $50K in Tourism Funding
Valemount, B.C. – Valemount is receiving just over $54,000 from the provincial government’s Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) to support its tourism industry.
Since 2007, Valemount has received over $541,000 through the Province’s RMI which has helped it fund such projects as the Cranberry Marsh Trail Loop and boardwalk.
The RMI provides $10.5 million each year to help eligible resort-oriented municipalities to develop and enhance their tourism infrastructure and amenities.
Other RMI communities include Whistler, Fernie, Kimberley, Golden, Harrison Hot Springs, Invermere, Osoyoos, Radium Hot Springs, Revelstoke, Rossland, Sun Peaks, Tofino, and Ucluelet.
The funding coincides with an upswing in tourism in B.C. The provincial government says last year alone; 4.9 million international visitors came to B.C. – a 7.9% increase compared to 2014.
Comments
I believe that central to the success of resort communities in BC are the surrounding Provincial Parks, some of which, these resort communities are actually located in, or beside. However, provincial funding to BC Parks has remained relatively unchanged, at $31 Million Dollars, since 2001 (15 years).
“Yet since 2001, more than 2.3 million hectares of land have been added to the province’s protected areas system through the establishment of 85 new parks, 156 conservancies, two ecological reserves, 15 protected areas and the expansion of more than 85 parks, six ecological reserves and three protected areas.” ~ BC Parks: Fact Sheet, posted Friday, July 8, 2016 1:30 PM
Imagine that, the establishment of 85 new parks since 2001, and yet no real increase in BC Park’s budget over that 15 year period. But you know what? I think the real damage was done when this government passed Bill 4, The Park Amendment Act in 2014, which opens the door for industrial incursions into provincial parklands including energy extraction, construction of pipelines and industry-led research. In other words, this Christy Clark government can call BC’s Parks “protected areas”, but they are not really protected anymore!
.huffingtonpost.ca/carol-linnitt/bc-parks-bill-4-passes_b_5030406.html
Resort towns of BC, good luck to you, you are going to need it!
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