The Village of Slocan is a community of 350 people in the interior of BC. Until recently, its primary economic resource was the local wood mill operation, which is in and out of curtailment. Slocan required a community sustainability plan with a strong economic component. The Village hired SSG to provide sustainable community expertise to help develop an Economic Transition Town Pilot Project that will build economic resiliency and foster a sustainable future.

• Mapping community assets (human, social, economic, natural, infrastructure, etc.)

• Creating background information documents and an effective economic transition practices for small towns paper.

• Developing, delivering and facilitating a multi-pronged public engagement strategy.

• Establishing a long-term working group (active post-project).

• Developing community economic development strategies.

• Performing a real estate survey and local business survey.

• Establishing a sustainability action plan including a Village vision, sustainability principles and specific goals.

• Creating a framework for the Official Community Plan review process.

The core of SSG’s strategy for this project was asset-based community development. SSG engaged community members to determine their passions, skills and strengths and to assess existing capacity. SSG helped the Town of Slocan pool local talent, determine where to build capacity, and use innovative community economic development thinking. We also performed regional scans to determine economic opportunities in different sectors, established financial thresholds for municipal service offerings and produced a framework for the upcoming Official Community Plan review.