Community Economic Development is community-driven actions that improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of a community.  This include policies, programs and activities that improve the livability of a community, enrich the quality of life of community members, create employment and investment opportunities, enhance the health of the environment, build on the capacities and resources within an area and support community cohesion, resilience and vibrancy.

Our Community Economic Development (CED) fund provides up to $2,000 in funding to non-profit and Indigenous organizations within the East Kootenays for projects that support the economic vibrancy and sustainability of communities within the region.

• Eligible projects must take place within the CFEK service area and have a broad community benefit (ie. a large portion of the community’s population will feel or recognize the project’s impact). Regular operational costs for organizations will not be funded. For full assessment criteria and eligibility make sure to look at Information and Eligibility document below.
• Applications are on a continuous intake, but only $15,000 is available from 1 June 2022 – 31 March 2023, so once that money is funded the grant will close.

Please read the Information & Eligibility criteria before applying.

Information & Eligibility  |  Apply Now

• Columbia Valley Food & Farm, Market Trail Project Food. This guide promoted food businesses and farmers’ markets from Canal Flats to Golden, with the aim to promote the food sector within the Columbia Valley region more widely and act as a tourism tool to promote food opportunities to visitors.
• Tourism Fernie, Work in Fernie website. This funding helped enhance the social media, content, website and digital marketing efforts of the Work in Fernie website in preparation for the summer 2021 season. The aim of the project was to help increase employment opportunities and address workforce shortages with Fernie.
• Wasa Lions Club, Wasa Community Map. This funding helped produce a map of the community to help increase traffic to local businesses and increase visitor’s awareness of services and activities available in the area.

– Early Childhood Education

In the East Kootenays there is currently a severe lack of trained Early Childcare Educators (ECEs) which means that childcare facilities are not able to run at full capacity. This has a large economic impact for the region as parents are unable to work full-time. Since August 2021, CFEK has been convening stakeholders around the region to discuss this challenge and look for solutions. You can view the write-ups from these meetings here:

December 2022 | September 2022 | May 2022 | August 2021 | December 2021

– Data for Decision Making

Accessing and using community and economic development data in decision making is important for communities. It allows communities to guide strategic planning and make decisions on where to put time and effort, it strengthens grant applications, allowing organizations to access funding more easily, and it also allows communities to measure the impact of projects and decide which projects are the most important at any given time.

In early 2022, in conjunction with ETSI-BC, CFEK ran a webinar series called Using Data to Your Advantage which aimed to provide training for smaller communities on how to access and use data for community decision making. The key was to grow knowledge and expertise of those working on community economic development projects within the region.  Check out the recordings of this training here. There is also a resource document which is extremely useful and contains links to a wide range of data sources and information. You can find it here.

Community Economic Development Updates

• January, 23, 2023
• December 14th, 2022
• November 18th, 2022
• October 17th, 2022
• September 12th, 2022

Local Food Businesses & Initiatives