NOVEMBER 2006

Our monthly newsletter will update you on the OBAC’s activities and will alert you to other important events and initiatives that will help us to shape our future.

   

OBAC GM

The Board of Directors of the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition (OBAC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Andersen as General Manager. Elizabeth was the Interim General Manager during the first ‘start up’ year for OBAC guiding the important organizational set up, fact finding and priority setting. Continuing on as the General Manager, Elizabeth will be busy over the next few months working with the Board, local governments and stakeholders across the region to ramp up OBAC activities. She will coordinate and manage the activities and projects led by the Coalition and ensure the timely delivery of an economic development and diversification plan for the region. Elizabeth is a Registered Professional Agrologist with over 12 years experience working across various natural resource sectors with industry, local and senior governments, First Nations, non-profit organizations and post-secondary institutions on integrated and sustainable resource management initiatives.

OBAC Board

Local governments and First Nations across the OBAC region are currently confirming their representatives on the new OBAC Board. Since December 2005 the organization has been governed by an Interim Board of Directors. The confirmed OBAC Board will direct the initiative through the next phase of activity aimed at delivering a diversification plan for the region. Discussions also continue with First Nations in the OBAC region to welcome First Nations Directors to the OBAC Board. The OBAC has been registered as an official Society and will conduct its activities within the terms of a constitution accepted by the province of BC through the Societies Act.

 
 
 
 

OBAC Office and Expanded Communications

The OBAC will be opening a small office in Prince George in December and is building a network of community contacts and action groups throughout the region. OBAC General Manager Elizabeth Andersen will also be hiring an Office Manager/Executive Assistant to help support the Board and assist people in the OBAC region with enquiries and information.

The OBAC website launched in August and updated regularly is the OBAC virtual front door and is a great place for you to access information about the initiative and more generally about topics of interest. The website will also present a monthly newsletter and quarterly reports. The Coalition Board is committed to communicating regularly with people throughout the OBAC. These important steps enable the OBAC and its member communities to move ahead together with working to ensure sustainable development and resiliency for the OBAC region. We encourage you to visit the website regularly at www.ominecacoalition.ca

   

Diversification Planning Framework

Preparing to expand existing opportunities and welcome a range of new opportunities to our region is the top priority for the Coalition. The OBAC Diversification Plan will identify opportunities for new investment and job creation that will sustain the communities in the OBAC region for the long term. The Diversification Plan will be informed by and respond to our residents’ interests, our region’s needs and desires for the future and will be built brick-by-brick, with individual strategies that focus on a sector or a particular set of solutions.

People across the OBAC region want to know what can be done to diversify local and regional economies to lessen impacts from the current mountain pine beetle epidemic that has now been called ‘the largest in North American history’. Many OBAC communities have witnessed an increase in forestry related jobs and economic activity as the annual timber harvest has increased to capture maximum value from the dead timber. But people are realizing that there will be a downturn in forest harvesting in the years to come and that this could lead to an associated economic downturn.

The work to be undertaken by the OBAC now will identify what can be done to expand existing opportunities and welcome new economic activity and job creation in the traditional sectors of forestry, tourism, energy, agriculture, mining and other non-traditional sectors. People in OBAC communities made it clear during the Community Dialogue sessions held earlier this year that they want our communities and our region to remain desirable places to live, work and play. People also made it clear that they want the OBAC to identify a range of options that will bring renewed job creation and economic activity in local communities and across the OBAC area.

Learn more about the OBAC Diversification Planning and the overall initiative by visiting the OBAC website at www.ominecacoalition.ca. You can get involved by contacting the OBAC General Manager at eandersen@ominecacoalition.ca or your local Mayor or Regional District Chair.

   
 

PlanMapper Project

Several projects and partnerships that the OBAC is involved with are already adding value.

 

A partnership between the OBAC, the University of Northern BC, McGregor Model Forest, Noratek Solutions and GeoConnections (a federal program under Natural Resources Canada) is building a tool called the PlanMapper. PlanMapper is an internet-based mapping and database tool designed to assist interested members of the public, agency and community decision-makers, planners and natural resource development proponents to access up-to-date information about the publicly endorsed land use plan direction for our region.

 
 

Six Land and Resource Management Plans (LRMP’s) exist in the OBAC region. These plans were developed by local stakeholder groups in the 1990’s to guide resource development and ensure special areas are protected for future generations. For some sectors, their inability to access and understand how the plans apply to an area of interest has been a persistent and significant barrier to attracting new investment to our region. People in the mining, energy, tourism and other sectors have said they need to know more about the six LRMP’s so that they can better assess investment and development opportunities and propose options that respect stakeholder direction.

   

The PlanMapper tool helps to bridge this gap. On the PlanMapper website, you will be able to define an area of interest and at the touch of a button, PlanMapper will give you all of the specific objectives and strategies and other land use plan and land base information that applies to your area of interest. This tool improves our ability to attract investment to our region that respects stakeholder direction and, enable informed and sustainable regional land and resource decision-making.

A group of practitioners took PlanMapper out for a ‘test drive’ last month and are eagerly awaiting its launch later this year. PlanMapper Project Leader Dan Adamson says “Development of the PlanMapper has proved so successful the Association for Mineral Exploration in BC, GeoScience BC and the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands are considering joining with the original five partners to help fund the 2nd phase of development of the website and add additional maps and information.”

LRMP Summary Project

The second major project currently underway is led by a group coordinated out of Burns Lake. The LRMP Summary Project is looking to the six Land and Resource Management Plans across the region for direction on land and resource opportunities and constraints identified in the plans across the region. The Project Leader states “this sort of cross regional assessment of existing LRMP’s has never been done before. Individual LRMP’s have been examined but never a group of LRMP’s to determine what indicators for new resource growth may exist from one LRMP to another”. The Project leader emphasizes that this project is not about re-opening the LRMP’s, but is aimed at identifying opportunities for the future from the existing plans.

Both the PlanMapper and the LRMP Summary projects will help the OBAC and others to better understand the current status of the formal land use plan direction for our region as one of the important starting points for the OBAC initiative.
   

OBAC’s summary of the Stand Up For the North Conference will be available on the OBAC website soon. The Stand Up For the North Conference was hosted by the Active Voice Coalition in Prince George on November 4th and 5th. Participants reviewed issues and discussed ideas on ensuring the sustainability of communities in the wake of the mountain pine beetle epidemic. The OBAC’s reporter attended and presents a summary of the discussion in this report.
   
 

For information on the coalition please contact
Elizabeth Andersen, Manager
Phone: 250-563-7005 Toll Free: 866-563-7005
email: eandersen@ominecacoalition.ca

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