Helping Cariboo business owners get started for 4 decades

For the last 40 years Community Futures Cariboo Chilcotin has been helping make future business owners dreams a reality.

General Manager Karen Eden said they were started officially in 1985 but in Williams Lake were part of a pilot project in 1983.

“The Federal Government saw that rural communities were struggling with major industry changes particularly in forestry, mining, and agriculture. So the idea was to support local economic development from the ground up so they thought of empowering communities to take charge of their own futures.” Eden said.

Eden noted that their office is still here in the Lake City and are locally governed by a volunteer board of directors and because of that we understand the region’s needs.

“Our region goes from the Bella Coola Valley all the way down to 70 Mile, up to Mcleese Lake, Horsefly, Likely and all parts in between. It’s great that we have the opportunity to have a board of directors and staff that understands the needs of our region.”

Eden said in the last ten years Community Futures Cariboo Chilcotin has supported 806 businesses to either be created, maintained, or expanded through their business services.

“We have some businesses go full circle so they started with us through either their own initiative, they’ve been expanded and grown and they’ve exited, and that’s one of our goals to keep businesses in our communities because without businesses there is no community.”

Community Futures Cariboo Chilcotin offers business loans for those starting to get into business and over the last decade have dispersed over $14 million in loans, a lot of them for businesses that are getting started up and going.

“We provide training, one on one support for their business plans and really look after them through their journey of becoming self-employed and at the end when they’re thinking of retiring. We see many businesses coming back to us or have heard about our services when they have a particular problem they’d like help with”.

Eden noted the Community Futures Cariboo Chilcotin staff are super talented but if they do come across a challenge, we don’t know the answer to then we go and look for the answer for them.

We asked Eden what she thinks the future of Community Futures looks like.

“I like to say we’ve been here before, during, and after events of economic challenges, particularly now with the tariffs, we don’t know what they’re doing, labour shortages, the impacts of climate change, particularly in the Forestry and Agriculture sectors in this area. We’re still helping entrepenuers try to be resilient with some flexible lending, and just practical business advice so they’re not kind of blindsided when something comes down the road.”