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Rural dividend funding detailed

Donna Barnett, advisory council prompt particulars

The much-anticipated Rural Dividend to assist small communities transition and stabilize their economies has some funding details confirmed.

Acting on the recommendations from the Rural Advisory Council (RAC), Premier Christy Clark announced up to $75 million over three years during her speech at the annual Union of British Columbia Municipalities convention in Vancouver on Sept. 25.

Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett is parliamentary secretary for Rural Communities and Development, and chairs the RAC, which is made up of 14 community stakeholders.

Her leadership provides the South Cariboo and the rest of her constituency a strong voice in highlighting rural concerns, and she says it is "very exciting" to hear this funding announcement.

I am proud of what the [RAC] has accomplished by providing the principles that are the basis of the Rural Dividend. These are the people who understand what their communities need the most.”

The $25-million-a-year pilot program will run from 2016/17 to 2018/19, and only be available to rural communities with a population less than 25,000 to support rural community transition and stability.

Eligibility criteria and program details will be finalized by March 2016, and the application process will be operational for the 2016/17 intake.

Since its formation in March, Barnett says the RAC has come up with some guiding principles, and has been awaiting this news on the rural dividend funding, and how it might unroll.

Meanwhile, she says she has been working with Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson looking at some potential directions and avenues.

"I am very pleased. The [RAC] has done some good work in finding different ways for a dividend ... we are having a meeting on Oct. 15-16 and we'll have to get into the criteria and all those kinds of things."