Dr. Greg Halseth at College of the Rockies

Barb O'Neil introduces Dr. Greg Halseth

‘Rebundling our assets,’ was one topic that Dr. Halseth talked about in his lecture on The New Rural Economies last evening at the College of the Rockies. A good crowd of people concerned and interested in exploring different ways to secure a local economy came out to hear Dr. Halseth. His lecture presented an overview of British Columbia’s economy from a historical perspective and also looked into the increasing speed of change, how it might affect the future and what to do about it.

The ideas presented in this lecture certainly mesh well with the goals of Cranbrook Connected. Dr. Halseth talked about how important it is to know what a community considers its assets to be and also to know its place in the world. It is also important to know what the aspirations of a community are. Knowing and rebundling these assets in creative ways to compete gives one avenue to pursue when stabilizing a local economy and aiming for those aspirations.

Dr. Greg Halseth

Another major theme of this lecture was the need for a strong foundation within a community, i.e. infrastructure. Current taxation systems and development cost charges are not enough to support current infrastructure needs. Dr. Halseth went on to say how municipal tax structure must change. Cranbrook is certainly not unique in this problem, which is consoling in some ways but leaves us with the question of how must this happen and when, if our infrastructure is to be brought up to standard.

More information from the Community Development Institute can be found at :
http://www.unbc.ca/cdi/toolkit.html