Video Archives

Connecting Kaslo

High-speed internet is a luxury — or non-existent — in many rural, remote, and First Nations communities across BC. In this video produced by Connected Communities BC, the experience of the remote West Kootenay village of Kaslo, home to less than 1,000 inhabitants, and possibly the world’s smallest community-controlled, fibre-enabled internet network, the Kaslo InfoNet…

BC COVID-19 Update, September 3, 2020

Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, and Health Minister Adrian Dix provide an update on the province’s response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) pandemic.

COVID-19 risks divide rural and urban areas in the U.S.

There is a division between how rural and urban areas are handling the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Many states are starting to reopen even while cities within them remain under stay-at-home orders. Washington Post national correspondent Griff Witte joins CBSN to discuss the divide among leaders around the country.

Aborginal Success Story: Indigena Solutions

Building Capital & Capacity In Our Communities

For over a decade, the BC Rural Centre has researched and advocated for the establishment of community investment fund programs in British Columbia, inspired by successful models in Nova Scotia, Alberta, and the USA. In 2015, the Centre partnered with Kootenay Employment Services to create the Creston & District Community Investment Cooperative, the first of…

Preserving Critical Rural Business Sevices

Many rural communities are experiencing the closure of retail businesses like grocery stores, hardware stores, and service stations that provide important services to their residents. From the newsletter put out our good friend and colleague, Peter Kenyon of the Bank of I.D.E.A.S., here’s a great little video on how one very small Australian rural community…

Rankin MacSween of Cape Breton’s New Dawn Enterprises, on Community Development

Rankin MacSween, who gave an amazingly inspirational keynote speech at our 2015 conference, one that people still talk about, followed that up with an equally inspiring address at this year’s Keeping It Rural conference. For over three decades, Rankin has led Canada’s oldest – and most successful – community development corporation, New Dawn Enterprises, on Cape…

Akbal Mund & Sheldon Louis: First Nation-Rural Community Partnerships

Akbal Mund of the City of Vernon, and Sheldon Louis of the Okanagan Indian Band provided some interesting historical and current background and information regarding the relationship between these two neighbours.

Blanca Surgeon — Small Places, Big Successes

Blanca Surgeon, based in New Mexico, is the Building Rural Communities Training Coordinator with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC). Blanca has worked with rural communities and Native American Nations across the western U.S. on rural community leadership and economic development.

Attracting Young People to Rural Communities

Many rural BC communities find themselves growing every greyer. The need to attract young, urban, entrepreneurial newcomers to communities facing a demographic crisis looms as increasingly important. In this presentation, BC Rural Centre communications director Randy Morse, joined by Kaslo, BC mayor Suzan Hewatt and Escape the City contest winner Rochelle Longval discuss what it…