The Changing Governance of Rural Regional Development: A case study of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition.

Traditional approaches to rural regional development in Canada and in British Columbia have been dominated by senior government involvement through program and policy development, initiation, and support. However, as governments have come under neoliberal influence since the 1980s, such programs, policies, and supports are actively being broken down. This has resulted in changes to the scale and structure of rural regional development governing in BC. This case study of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition (C-CBAC) examines one regional governance organization. Two research questions are central to this thesis. First, given the devolution of rural regional development governance to local levels, to what extent is C-CBAC representative of dominant trends in Canadian rural regional development? Second, against the background of a history of regional activity in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, a transition towards neoliberal policies, and the emergence of the MPB epidemic, what factors have assisted or impeded the formation of C-CBAC? This research determines that C-CBAC was devolved the responsibility of rural regional development planning in the Cariboo-Chilcotin and this is representative of dominant trends in Canadian rural regional development. The research also determines that the mountain pine beetle was the chief factor in C-CBAC's formation, but that the region's history of working together and transition towards neoliberal policies supported their formation. However, this thesis also determines that the same factors which facilitated C-CBAC's formation also hindered it formation. First, the mountain pine beetle as a crisis situation was not able to sustain interest on behalf of regional stakeholders or senior governments. Second, the region's history of working together resulted in one group of repetitive regional leaders and excluding others. Finally, the transition towards neoliberal policies resulted in C-CBAC not having the financial or policy control required to implement their development plans. Th