Municipal entrepreneurialism using place-based natural assets: lessons from Northern British Columbia

Rural restructuring and municipal reforms have created pressures for rural and small town municipalities. Neoliberal-inspired economic and political change have caused local governments to search for innovative ways to support their operations and generate revenues. The use of municipal entrepreneurial initiatives, which have increased in British Columbia, Canada, is one such strategy. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of natural resource-based municipal enterprises to support enhanced community resilience. Such bottom-up initiatives may allow municipalities to recover some autonomy in decision-making over local resource management and their overall development pathway. The relative proximity and abundance of natural resources in rural regions renders the use of place-based, natural assets for municipal entrepreneurial initiatives a considerable opportunity. Case studies from the Burns Lake Community Forest and the Dawson Creek Water Reclamation Project reveal that significant economic and climate adaptation benefits may be achieved from natural asset linked municipal enterprises.