Peace River | |
|---|---|
| Peace River Regional District | |
 Rolling grass hills just outside Fort St. John | |
 Flag  Logo | |
Major communities | |
 Location in British Columbia | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Administrative office location | Dawson Creek |
| Government | |
| • Type | Regional district |
| • Body | Board of Directors |
| • Chair | Brad Sperling (C) |
| • Vice Chair | Dan Rose (E) |
| • Electoral Areas | |
| Area | |
| • Land | 117,387.55 km2 (45,323.59 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[2] | |
• Total | 61,532 |
| • Density | 0.524/km2 (1.36/sq mi) |
| Time zones | |
| Most of the district | UTC−07:00 (Mountain Time Zone) |
| Electoral area B / Tsay Keh Dene / Kwadacha | UTC−08:00 (Pacific Time Zone) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−07:00 (Pacific Daylight Time) |
| Website | prrd |
ThePeace River Regional District is aregional district in northeasternBritish Columbia, Canada. The regional district comprises sevenmunicipalities and four electoral areas. Its member municipalities are thecities ofFort St. John andDawson Creek, thedistrict municipalities ofTumbler Ridge,Chetwynd,Taylor, andHudson's Hope, and thevillage ofPouce Coupe. The district's administrative offices are in Dawson Creek.
The regional district also has fourregional district electoral areas:B,C,D andE. SixIndian reserves and oneIndian settlement are located within the regional district's boundaries, but are not governed by the regional district.
Its modern boundaries were established on October 31, 1987, when thePeace River-Liard Regional District was divided in two. The separated northern territories became theFort Nelson-Liard Regional District,[4] now theNorthern Rockies Regional Municipality.[5]
Located east of the Rockies, the regional district is characterized by rolling hills with grain and cattle farms. About 40% of the province'sAgricultural Land Reserve is situated within the regional district. ThePeace River flows west-to-east through the middle of the eastern half of the regional district. West of the Rockies the terrain is severe mountain wilderness with few roads and only a handful of inhabitants. Its total land area is 119,200.1 km2 (46,023.42 sq mi), the largest regional district in British Columbia in area. (TheStikine Region is larger, but is not a regional district.) The total population reported in the2006 census was 58,264 with 24,019 private dwellings, up from 55,080 people in 2001.
| Member | Population | Directors | Weighted Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of Fort St. John | 22,000 | 2 | 6 |
| City of Dawson Creek | 10,994 | 1 | 4 |
| District of Chetwynd | 2,633 | 1 | 1 |
| District of Tumbler Ridge | 2,454 | 1 | 1 |
| District of Taylor | 1,384 | 1 | 1 |
| District of Hudson's Hope | 1,012 | 1 | 1 |
| Village of Pouce Coupe | 739 | 1 | 1 |
| Electoral Area "B" | 5,538 | 1 | 2 |
| Electoral Area "C" | 6,350 | 1 | 2 |
| Electoral Area "D" | 5,749 | 1 | 2 |
| Electoral Area "E" | 3,031 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 58,264 | 12 | 23 |
Westward expansion during the 18th and 19th centuries pushed First Nation groups westward and into competition with each other for resources. The Algonkian-speakingCree had pushed the Athapaskan-speakingDunneza into the BC portion of thePeace River Country, which pushed the fellow Athapaskan-speakingSekani into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and beyond. European-Canadian explorers penetrated the area during the 19th century by canoeing along the Peace River and establishing trading posts at Fort St. John and Hudson's Hope. In 1883 the province gave the federal government control over 3,500,000 acres (14,200 km2) of land, anywhere north the Rocky Mountains, as part of a deal to extend a rail line to Vancouver. After settling land claims withTreaty 8 First Nations, creating theEast Moberly Reserve,West Moberly Reserve,Halfway River Reserve, and theSt. John Reserve, the government surveyed out its land as thePeace River Block in 1907 and opened it to homesteading in 1912. Pioneer Hector Tremblay, and a few others, helped cut trails and opened stores and lodges to help incoming settlers. The first community of these settlers was established at Pouce Coupe, around Tremblay's cabin. The land was granted back to the province in 1930 after conflicts regarding the water and mineral rights emerged.[6]
The region grew slowly as agricultural settlements spread westward to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and northward to the muskegs of the Liard. In 1932 Pouce Coupe became the first community in the region to incorporate as a village, followed by Dawson Creek in 1936 after a rail line was extended there from Alberta. The1941 Canadian Census recorded 8,444 people in northeastern BC but a year later theAlaska Highway was constructed by 10,000 US Army servicemen connecting Dawson Creek to Alaska via Fort Nelson. After the war and turning the highway over the province, the highway made it much easier to transport resources and agricultural products to rail lines and left Dawson Creek with 14-fold increase, and northeastern BC with a 2.5-fold increase, in population by 1956. Industrial development began with the provincially funded megaprojects which included the extension of transportation and utility infrastructure through the Rocky Mountains to Chetwynd and across the region and the construction of two hydroelectric dams at Hudson's Hope. An oil and gas industry developed and helped Fort St. John's population increase from 3,619 people in 1961 to 13,891 in 1981 surpassing Dawson Creek as the largest city. The last municipality in the region to incorporate was Tumbler Ridge which was built by the province in 1981 as an instant community to service two proposed coal mines. The region experienced little growth in the late-1980s and the population remained between 55,000 and 59,000 between 1992 and 2003. Since then, with a booming oil and gas industry, the population has gained over 5,500 people in three years.
The Regional District is the largest in the province, comprising 13% of its area. At 119,200 km2 (46,023 mi2) it is similar in area to the American state ofPennsylvania or New Zealand'sNorth Island. The northern border along the58th parallel north was created when the PRLRD split to create the PRRD and the NRRD. The Regional District borders with sixmunicipal districts in Alberta to the east – theMunicipal District of Greenview No. 16, theCounty of Grande Prairie No. 1,Saddle Hills County,Clear Hills County and theCounty of Northern Lights. The southwestern border runs along the Rocky Mountains, beginning at Intersection Mountain then northwesterly along the summit of theHart Ranges toWilliston Lake and then northwesterly along the watersheds of theManson,Omineca,Mesilinka,Finlay, andKechika rivers.
Despite this large area, only about 64,272 people live there, giving the Regional District a population density of 0.54 people per km2 (1.4 people/mi2). The people live almost exclusively in the agricultural areas in British Columbia's portion of thePeace River Country straddling the Peace River. This biogeoclimatic zone, called theBoreal White and Black Spruce Zone, begins on the northern end of the Rockies and stretches into Alberta and the NRRD. Here, mean annual temperatures have ranged between −2.9 and 2 °C (26.8 and 35.6 °F) with annual precipitation averages between 330 and 570 mm (13 and 22 in).[7]
According to BC'sEcoregion Classification System most of the Regional District is located in theBoreal Plains Ecoprovince of thePolar Ecodomain. This area is characterized by acontinental climate with low year-round precipitation. Moist Pacific air loses its precipitation over several mountain ranges before moving over the region, while Arctic air masses are uninterrupted. About 61% of BC's bird species and 46% of all breeding species occur in this ecoprovince. This ecoprovince is divided into fourecosections: the rolling uplands with few ridges and wide valleys of the Clear Hills and Halfway Plateau ecosections, the wide plains with deeply incised rivers of the Peace Lowland ecosection, and the rolling uplands and Rocky Mountain foothills of the Kiskatinaw Plateau ecosection. These ecosections have many wetlands, ponds, and slow-moving streams the area is a major migratory corridor for water- and shorebirds. Moose are the most common large mammal but mule and white-tailed deer, caribou, and elk are also very common. The ecosystem also supportsDall sheep,black bear,grizzly bear, andgray wolf. There are few small mammal or reptile species. Fish species are restricted to freshwater fish like theArctic grayling,northern pike, andslimy sculpin.[8] Major tree species includewhite spruce,black spruce,trembling aspen,lodgepole pine,balsam poplar,tamarack,subalpine fir, andpaper birch.[7]
The Regional District is governed by a board of 11 directors. The Board consists of one representative from each municipality, usually the mayors, and one director from each electoral area. The municipal representatives, and their alternates, are elected by the municipal councils and the electoral area directors are elected for 3 year terms by their constituents during province-widelocal elections. Due to its population size relative to the other jurisdictions and the Board's weighted voting scheme, Fort St. John elects two directors and two alternates. The Board annually elects a chairperson from its membership. The Board convenes twice a month in the board room of Regional District office in Dawson Creek, although they occasionally meet in other member municipalities. Portions of these meetings are dedicated to the matters arising from the Peace River Hospital District which has the same membership and is responsible for raising capital for hospital expenditures.
The Electoral Area Directors Committee, consisting of the four electoral area directors, meet separately from the Board as a committee twice a month and addresses issues from their jurisdictions that do not require municipal participation. The board directors also form committees for wildlife, solid waste, rural budgets, and parks and recreation. The directors are joined with members of the public on committees for agricultural advisory, libraries, fire protection, community sewer systems, and emergency management. Directors can also be appointed to outside agencies to represent the interests of the Regional District.
The Regional District is covers portions of two provincial electoral areas:Peace River South andPeace River North. Peace River South is entirely with the Regional District and is represented by Mike Bernier in theLegislative Assembly. Peace River North, represented by Pat Pimm, includes the northern half of the Regional District as well as the entire Northern Rockies Regional District. The Peace River Regional District is entirely with the federal riding ofPrince George—Peace River and is represented in theHouse of Commons of Canada byBob Zimmer.
As acensus division in the2021 Census of Population conducted byStatistics Canada, the Peace River Regional District had a population of61,532 living in24,902 of its28,683 total private dwellings, a change of-2.2% from its 2016 population of62,942. With a land area of 117,216.74 km2 (45,257.64 sq mi), it had a population density of0.5/km2 (1.4/sq mi) in 2021.[9]
| Panethnic group | 2021[2] | 2016[10] | 2011[11] | 2006[12] | 2001[13] | 1996[14] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | Pop. | % | |
| European[a] | 45,335 | 75.14% | 48,080 | 78.14% | 48,755 | 82.78% | 49,810 | 85.83% | 46,575 | 85.01% | 50,055 | 89.07% |
| Indigenous | 9,100 | 15.08% | 9,425 | 15.32% | 8,135 | 13.81% | 6,985 | 12.04% | 7,175 | 13.1% | 5,135 | 9.14% |
| Southeast Asian[b] | 2,395 | 3.97% | 1,460 | 2.37% | 755 | 1.28% | 290 | 0.5% | 330 | 0.6% | 235 | 0.42% |
| South Asian | 1,600 | 2.65% | 975 | 1.58% | 495 | 0.84% | 260 | 0.45% | 95 | 0.17% | 125 | 0.22% |
| African | 680 | 1.13% | 580 | 0.94% | 185 | 0.31% | 145 | 0.25% | 225 | 0.41% | 120 | 0.21% |
| East Asian[c] | 660 | 1.09% | 520 | 0.85% | 460 | 0.78% | 380 | 0.65% | 230 | 0.42% | 400 | 0.71% |
| Latin American | 205 | 0.34% | 165 | 0.27% | 50 | 0.08% | 95 | 0.16% | 55 | 0.1% | 50 | 0.09% |
| Middle Eastern[d] | 85 | 0.14% | 160 | 0.26% | 35 | 0.06% | 20 | 0.03% | 20 | 0.04% | 20 | 0.04% |
| Other[e] | 275 | 0.46% | 165 | 0.27% | 45 | 0.08% | 40 | 0.07% | 80 | 0.15% | 65 | 0.12% |
| Total responses | 60,335 | 98.05% | 61,530 | 97.76% | 58,895 | 98.02% | 58,035 | 99.61% | 54,790 | 99.47% | 56,200 | 99.51% |
| Total population | 61,532 | 100% | 62,942 | 100% | 60,082 | 100% | 58,264 | 100% | 55,080 | 100% | 56,477 | 100% |
The Peace River Regional District administers five regional parks:[15]
In cooperation with member municipalities and communities, the PRRD supports and/or finances recreation facilities in many communities.[16] These include:
The regional district supports community organizations in maintaining various public community halls and grounds.[19]
The regional district and the municipalities within it observeMountain Standard Time (UTC−7) year round; they do not change their clocks fordaylight saving time. Hence, from March to November, clocks in the regional district are synchronized with the rest of the province, which is onPacific Daylight Time. During the winter, they are synchronized with clocks inAlberta.
The surrounding regions, namelyGrande Prairie,Alberta (Mountain Time), andPrince George, British Columbia (Pacific Time), do observe daylight-saving time.
Places adjacent to Peace River Regional District | |
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