Projects

It is the Alliance’s intention to collaborate with community, regional economic development agencies and government in north central British Colmbia. Alliance activities are focused upon cross regional economic development and identifying opportunities for retention, expansion and new business investment.

Alliance Projects include:

Mining Cluster Implementation - Started

The 16/97 Economic Alliance is working with regional, resource-based, businesses wanting to expand their range of services to support mine development in northern BC.

The Alliance’s role at this stage, is facilitating implementation of an effective business-lead cluster initiative, now called the Northern Interior Mining Group (NIMG), so that this region’s comparative advantages are fully understood and exploited. Ultimately, the goal is to enable business, communities and agencies, to further develop and expand into mining (within and outside the region).

At the November 26th Mining Cluster Muster, the NIMG shared with business and regional representatives some of the important short and long term objectives to help increase the region’s profile with mine developers, and other associated businesss and community stakeholders.

For more information, please click the link describing what the Northern Interior Mining Group’s obectives are for 2009 and beyond.

2008 Annual Regional Benchmark Project - Completed November 2008

The 16/97 Economic Alliance recognizes that ongoing measurement of key regional economic indicators is an important deliverable for charting progress and bringing together a will for regional action with the intent of influencing economic growth and diversification.

The Alliance has contracted Initiatives Prince George (IPG) and retained Ms. Tara Bogh. IPG’s tasks will include:

a) Identify core indicators to measure the region’s economic performance. Data will be collected for the regional districts containing the 16-97 Economic Alliance communities. Where regional district data is unavailable, data will be reported for development regions.

b) The Region covered will reflect the region from the Annual Benchmark 2007 study to facilitate comparisons over time (Three (3) Regional Districts: Fraser Fort George, Cariboo Regional District, and Bulkley-Nechako)

c) Produce two reports:

i. Annual Regional Benchmark Report

ii. Regional Economic Structure Report.

2007 Annual Regional Benchmark Project - Completed August 2007

The 16-97 Economic Alliance recognizes that ongoing measurement of key economic indicators is an important deliverable for charting progress and bringing together a will for regional action that will influence economic growth and diversification.

The 16-97 Alliance has partnered with Initiatives Prince George and retained Ms. Tara Bough for the work project. More...

Industry Cluster Identification & Prioritization Project - Completed December 2007

The 16-97 Economic Alliance asked the selected consultant, Meyers Norris Penny, to identify clusters that are perceived to offer a high probability of sustainable economic growth and diversification for the natural trading area of north central BC.

The profiling, identification and prioritization of competitive industry clusters relevant to Member organizations of the 16-97 Economic Alliance is the key project outcome.

With this information, the Alliance will develop and implement cluster plans through ongoing engagement of economic practitioners, local government, private sector, college and university, aboriginal groups and other drivers of the regional economies. More...

Resource Technology Initiative - Completed October 2007

The Innovation Resource Centre is spearheading a multi-faceted project that aims to define and quantify the technology firms within the region. The intent is to deliver an economic development strategy to foster the continued growth and expansion of the resource technology sector. At the request of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition, the project will include the entire Cariboo area as well as the area included in the 16-97 Economic Alliance. More...

Economic Development Study Inventory - Completed March 2007

The economic development study is an inventory of community/regional economic development materials for north central BC. Download Economic Development Study Inventory

Inland Port and Container Initiative - Completed Fall 2006

This project identifies market-based opportunities created by the transportation investments in the northwest corridor, including the new container port in Prince Rupert and the possibility of international air cargo/technical stop services at the Prince George Airport. The Port of Prince Rupert, CN, Prince George Airport, Quesnel, Initiatives Prince George, Ministry of Economic Development, Community Futures of Fraser-Fort George and the Northern Trust partnered for this project. Download Northern B.C. Container Terminal Opportunity Study (PDF 1,757 KB)