PAT DEAKIN
PORT ALBERNI – It’s mid-way through the first month of 2023 and things have been moving rapidly already. Councils for the Tseshaht First Nation, the Hupacasath First Nation and the City of Port Alberni met in a two-day CEDI (Community Economic Development Initiative) workshop as part of our commitment to a three-year mentoring process facilitated by Marissa Lawrence from CANDO (Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers) in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.
This workshop was the second gathering of our Councils since we began the program in January 2022. A Working Group consisting of elected Chief Councillor Ken Watts for Tseshaht, elected Chief Councillor Brandy Lauder for Hupacasath and Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions along with senior staff from each organization meets monthly to keep the process moving along smoothly. Our intent is to achieve an economic development initiative of significance that is filtered through environmental, job creation and revenue-generation lenses.
Our City Council and senior staff also just finished a two-day strategic planning process with Jerry Berry and Alan Nielson, two well-experienced and very capable consultants who specialize in municipal government matters. Though there is some work to be done to fine tune the plan, there was a general consensus that the vision, mission, values, goals and strategies that were debated over many hours are likely to become the core of the final product.
A film production crew is returning for two days mid-January to take a second look at some locations we showed them in late December. We are hopeful that they will choose us as a location as we see what the movie industry has done and is doing for other communities on Vancouver Island.
In the meantime, we are grateful that the word is getting out about the opportunities for the industry here. To that end, we are especially appreciative of the work of Brandon Lepine, Joan Miller and Tanya Price of the Island North Film Commission to get film producers and location scouts into our communities.
Mike Carter of the Port Alberni Port Authority also deserves a shout-out for his knowledge of our ‘backyard/playground’ and how particular forests, waterfalls, gorges and logged-off areas might fit particular scenes for the rural components of the movie.
If this two-week stretch is an indication of things to come, it will be a Happy & Prosperous New Year.
Pat Deakin is the Economic Development Manager for the City of Port Alberni and currently the President of the BCEDA. He can be reached at 250-720-2527 or Patrick_deakin@portalberni.ca