NDI Trust Expanding Staff to Handle Applications

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. – The Northern Development Initiatives Trust is looking for a second Economic Development Manager.

The “Trust”, which is in charge of approximately $200 million dollars to support economic diversification projects, is being swamped with applications says CEO Janine North “We are anticipating a 400% increase in applications ”says North.

Approving applications for loans and grants takes a great deal of time.  Last year,   just under $7 million dollars worth of projects received approval, this year, there are more applications totalling $25 million dollars.

The “Trust” has one Economic Development Manager, Katherine Voigt, but the number of applications and the vast area covered by the Trust (70% of the province), makes it extremely difficult to deal with each application in a timely manner.  North says she would like to see the four regions split between two Economic Development Managers.   

North says there are couple of reasons for the increase in applications.  First, people are aware of the dollars set aside by the Federal Government from the mountain pine beetle fund and secondly, people are looking for more opportunities to diversify their community’s economy.

“We are seeing a lot of innovative ideas” says North, projects like solar panel plants for Terrace and Prince George, Bio-energy  projects  from Vanderhoof and Burns Lake, and  a methane heated greenhouse project from the Regional Districts.

The Trust has started advertising for its new Economic Development Manager.  Anyone looking for more information  can  check out the  Northern Development Initiative’s Trust Web Site at www.nditrust.ca

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