The Columbia Basin Trust (CBT) has delivered $80.8 million in benefits to communities over the 2023/24 fiscal year, but officials predict some existing technical issues will cause issues into next year.
CBT has distributed $53.1 million of that through 64 programs and initiatives aimed at fostering social, economic and environmental well-being.
According to the annual report, this included $6.2 million in broadband infrastructure and economic programs, $13 million in new business loans and $8.5 million in new real estate investments.
“More than 2,800 projects were supported around the Columbia Basin with just over $80 million in partnership with the Trust,” said Johnny Strilaeff, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“There’s some extraordinary work coming from communities, whether that’s in affordable housing, new power generation through solar panels, high-speed connectivity or food recovery. There’s a long list of amazing accomplishments over the last year.”
Strilaeff said the Trust focused its investments on housing, local food production, ecosystem health, business renewal, high-speed connectivity and collaboration with Indigenous nations.
However, the successes of the last year came along with some difficulty.
“The resources we have to support this community work rely on our return on investment and a large part of our investment portfolio is in hydro-electric projects in the region,” explained Strilaeff.
“At the Arrow Lakes Generating Station just outside of Castlegar, we found a very significant mechanical issue in April of 2023. It meant taking one of the two generating units at the facility out of service for about a year. This meant disassembling an entire turbine, correcting the issue and reassembling it.”
This meant the Trust took a hit with the costs of repair and the lost revenue that could have come from both turbines working together.
Strilaeff said most of the repair cost was covered by insurance, but more challenges came up at the same power station.
“As we started investigations on the second unit, we encountered another issue. That means the second turbine has been out of service since April of this year and it’s expected to be out for repairs until early 2025,” said Strilaeff.
“What is less certain, is whether the cost of the work and lost revenue will be covered by insurance. So, it’s possible that this year and for a period into 2025 we will not have the same financial resources to support communities.”
Despite those challenges, the Trust’s annual report said it brought in nearly $96 million in revenue, surpassing its expectations.
This year also marked the completion of CBT’s renewal of its Our Trust, Our Future plan.
“It’s going to guide our activities for the next 10 years. A lot of our work we’ve done in the past continues to be important in communities and we will have programs available,” said Strilaeff.
“We really separated our work into four high-level categories all built around the principles of health and resilience.”
Strilaeff said those key areas will focus on the health and resilience of communities, the natural environment, relationships between residents, and the Trust itself.
“It’s a different way of describing how we’re going to focus our work. Within each of those categories, we have a long list of objectives that we hope to address over the next 10 years,” said Strilaeff.
Residents are invited to the CBT’s Annual General Meeting, set to go ahead Ɂaq̓am at St. Eugene Resort from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. (Mountain Time) on Sept. 26.
Board Chair Jocelyn Carver and Strilaeff will lead the meeting, which will review highlights from the last year and discuss future plans.
You can register to attend the event online here.
More: 2023/24 Annual Report (Columbia Basin Trust)
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