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COMM 435
Reinventing Resource DependentCommunities: Success stories andRecommendations from 4 BC Communities
By: Toby P. Newstead
Slowly, BC has been torn away from its easy-money roots as an exploiter of resources in a world that desperately wanted them; increasingly, it is a provincethat has to scrabble to earn a living in a world whose needs and wants are muchdifferent (Markey, 2005, p. 363).As Markey states, the small communities of British Columbia are at a crossroads(2005). Many BC towns were founded on the extraction of primary resources; be itminerals from our mountains, trees from our forests, or fishes from our seas. Buttoday these small, rural communities that once thrived on the extraction of naturalresources are struggling (Corbett, 2005; Fowler & Etchegary, 2008). Resourcedepletion, environmental concern, and the economic climate have dictated anultimatum – in order to survive, resource-dependent communities must reinventthemselves. Gone are the days when a BC interior town would live well off theoperation of a single mine. Gone are the days when a small settlement would thriveon the operation of one mill. Gone are the days when a tiny island community wouldprosper on the operation of a fishing fleet. Former single-industry communities arenow faced with the task of adapting to new economic, environmental, and socialcircumstances (Corbett, 2005; Draper, 2000; Fowler & Etchegary, 2008; Hall &Richards, 2000; Markey, 2005).Community adaptation has been the topic of extensive research. Theliterature emphasizes the importance of shifting a community’s economic baseaway from a single, non-renewable resource and towards newer, more economicallyand environmentally sustainable alternatives (Draper, 2000; Hamley, 1991; Hanna,2005; Markey, 2005). This paper will review said literature in regards to community
 
COMM 435based planning initiatives, specifically in the fields of tourism and education. Theconcepts of tourism and education will be coupled with the notion of social,environmental, and economic sustainability. The insight gleaned from the pre-existing research in this field will then be applied to case studies of small, formerlyresource-dependent communities in BC, in an attempt to illustrate how and whatworks in terms of community reinvention in the face of resource depletion orindustry collapse. From our meta-analysis of these community case studies, itbecame clear that community planning, community based tourism, and communitybased education were the central pillars around which our case study communitiesadapted. We will explore each of these three themes through a close examination of four specific communities. We will also compile a list of general recommendationsdesigned for towns facing the task of self-reinvention.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Community planning
Economic, governmental, and environmental changes are dissolving thetraditional means of economic and socio-political stability in many of BritishColumbia’s small towns (Markey, 2005). As socio-political stability dissolves,communities are faced with the task of restructuring their traditional means of sustenance. Community planning is usually the first step in communityrestructuring. A common first step in the community planning process is the craftingof an official community plan that reflects the values of the community (Draper,2000; Hanna, 2005; Markey, 2005). A community plan addresses the issues specificto the community, and clearly outlines the community’s goals in the face of saidissues. Many community plan documents contain step-by-step processes; “we arehere” and “we are going there,” (Draper, 2000). It is imperative that the communitycrafts a plan with realistic, attainable objectives that echo the community’s values,shared identity, and culture (Hanna, 2005).Community planning is often pursued through the procurement of an externalexpert. Professional community planners can lend expertise and insight, however,Hanna (2005) insists that the role of the planner is to act as a
facilitator,
amessenger of institutional knowledge,
 
not to act as an interest group or lobbyist.
 
COMM 435Community planning must represent the community members, their needs, values,goals, and shared culture (Drapper, 2000; Hanna, 2005). For the Canadian town of Ucluelet, planning for sustainability was a proactive response to community growth(Hanna, 2005). Ucluelet’s local planner brought in external sources to help avoidany bias within the community and to assist in community decision making.Encouraging and allowing community participation in the form of public meetings,workshops, and events enabled a collective agreement on their community themeof sustainability and contributed to their official community plan (OCP) (Hanna,2005). Simple application of external economic or social stimuli usually fails to buildthe internal relationships necessary for prolonged community sustainability(Markey, 2005). It is important that the community plans for self-reliance; relianceon internal resources, instead of external or non-renewable ones (Hanna, 2005). It isalso suggested that in time a local community planner position be created withinthe community’s municipal government, in this way institutionalizing a continual,on-going planning process (Hanna, 2005; Markey, 2005).Markey (2005) highlights the role local government plays in communityplanning. Local governments are major local employers, major economic actors, andthey hold a key position in the planning process (Markey, 2005). In addition, Markey(2005) states that local governance (the non-governmental institutions that take onstate related roles) also plays an important part in community planning; theseinstitutions would include schools, chambers of commerce, and other organizations.Markey (2005) identifies some instances in which senior governments (Provincialand Federal) have both succeeded and failed in enabling community planning.Senior government’s failings include: “inconsistent program implementation, rigidprogram designs, urban policy bias, and offloading functions without the necessaryresources.” Senior government’s successes include: having filled facilitative roles,and some instances of program flexibility (Markey, 2005, p. 370). The planning process must forge lasting relationships between communityactors and the organizations through which plans will be enacted; this can beachieved through transparency and local participation (Markey, 2005). Importanttheoretical backdrops to the planning process include the concepts of communitydemocracy, advocacy, and collaboration (Hanna, K., 2005; Markey, 2005; Peterman,
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