Campbell River: First MC3 Case Synopsis Release

The Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3) Project has begun releasing synopses for its case studies, and will continue to do so on a weekly basis.  The first of these case synopses focuses on the northeast Vancouver Island municipality of Campbell River.

Campbell River residents traditionally have gained their livelihoods from the extraction and processing of natural resources; fishing, logging and mining formed the backbone of the economy, providing jobs and a municipal tax base, and the community has long suffered the boom and bust cycles typical of a resource dependent economy. The city’s history, growth and decline have been written by these cycles, while economic confidence and activity have been dictated by a few major employers, principally the mill to the north of town, which was most recently owned and operated by Catalyst Paper, but which changed hands a number of times over the past 25 years before finally shutting down in 2009. Campbell River’s approach to sustainable development has been in part reactive to a depressed local economy and the need to both diversify the economic base and reduce municipal expenditures on energy. The Sustainable Official Community Plan and the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan take a holistic view of sustainability, considering economic, social, environmental and cultural dimensions while other plans and initiatives target more specific aspects of urban development such as agriculture and transportation.

Read more on this case by clicking here.