Newfoundland and Labrador Product Development Strategy

- 82 -British ColumbiaIn British Columbia, almost all of the natural resources are owned by the Crown and theprovince has invested extensively in developing inventories of the lands and their potentialuses. They have a separate department, the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management(MSRM) in which resource management decisions and policies are developed – these are thenimplemented through other ministries and agencies. They have identified principles and aprocess for integrated resource planning that have been approved by all stakeholders,including Tourism BC. These policies require extensive consultation and consensus building.MSRM also provides clients with database, mapping and analytical support services includingidentifying lands with ‘known tourism potential’. These are based on a series of tourismopportunity studies that identify tourism products and locations with good developmentcapability based on natural resources, market potential and local development capacity.Inventory maps identify existing and potential tourism assets and values as well as constraintsto tourism development. A recent initiative is ‘A Working Forest for British Columbia’which recognizes that there are significant areas of forest that will not contribute to short orlong term timber harvesting and will play an important role in supporting other economicactivities. The goals of the draft policy are to:o Maintain and increase the economic and social benefits that arise from the workingforesto Provide more certainty about the land base in the Working Forest that has timber andother values and assetso Use a transparent decision making process that recognizes forestry and other identifiedvaluesThe tourism industry has some concerns about the policy and would like to see specificrecognition of other uses, including tourism. The Working Forest initiative is seen as a boldmove that will change the balance of the use and management of natural resources in BC.OntarioOntario introduced a “Living Legacy” program in the late 1990s as an initiative to protect,conserve and plan for the integrated use of natural resources in the province. The strategysignificantly enlarged the amount of protected areas in Ontario, and identified a number ofsignature areas that will be the focus for future tourism and recreation development. A seriesof initiatives were introduced, including a Tourism and Forest Industry Memorandum ofUnderstanding (2000) that sets forth the steps each partner will take to ensure that the two canco-exist and provides for the development of Resource Stewardship Agreements (RSAs)negotiated between resource-based tourism operators and forestry operators on Crown landswithin the Living Legacy Planning Area. Individual management plans are being developedfor the various sites and protected areas. The province has also produced Tourism ValuesMaps but these include only known features considered integral to the operation of tourismbusinesses.THE ECONOMIC PLANNING GROUP of Canada Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism Product DevelopmentD. W. Knight Associates Strategy and Accommodation Needs Study