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The Province is providing the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition with $350,000 to continue its work on a strategy to meet the challenges posed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, announced Donna Barnett, Parliamentary Secretary for Pine Beetle Community Recovery to the Minister of Community and Rural Development. 

“I am very pleased to announce continued support for the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition (CCBAC),” said Barnett. “The Cariboo-Chilcotin region led the way by establishing the first regional beetle action coalition in the province.” 

The CCBAC is one of three regional beetle action coalitions, in addition to the Omineca Beetle Action Coalition and the Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition. 

“This funding is in addition to $2.8 million allocated to CCBAC up to end of September of this year,” said Minister of Community and Rural Development, Bill Bennett. “I believe that the Beetle Action Coalitions will continue to play an important role in helping rural communities deal with this epidemic.”           

The future role and focus of the coalitions, including the CCBAC, is to provide oversight and leadership in the implementation of the recommendations made in their mountain pine beetle mitigation plans. 

“With this commitment of new funding, CCBAC can continue to support some of the recommended projects and initiatives that were identified from our three years work,” said Williams Lake Mayor and CCBAC chair Kerry Cook. 

Encouraging immediate and long-term economic sustainability for communities is part of the provincial Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan. For more information on the Mountain Pine Beetle Response, visit www.cd.gov.bc.ca/pine_beetle_epidemic_response/index.htm.