Above photo: Russ Beerling, Regional Business Liaison for Community Future and point person for the Export Navigator program was in town November 14 to discuss the program.
The District of Tumbler Ridge’s new online business directory is online.
The directory—which can be found at shoptumblerridge.ca—is an evolution of the former Love Tumbler Ridge site.
The program that supported Love Tumbler Ridge, Love Northern BC, is being retired at the end of 2024.
As part of that, Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT), who spearheaded the love Tumbler Ridge site, offered communities the chance to either take over their former Love page.
Of the 22 municipalities that were part of the program, only three—Quesnel, Stewart and Taylor—opted to take over their former pages (lovequesnel.com, lovestewart.com and lovetaylor.com, respectively).
The other communities, including Tumbler Ridge, chose to take a one-time grant to create their own shop local program.
This program began in spring, with the District putting out a call for an Expression of Interest inviting local photographers to submit their portfolios.
“With the help of the NDIT grant,” wrote Tumbler Ridge Economic Development Officer at the time, “these photographers will visit Tumbler Ridge businesses to capture the essence of their enterprise.”
Interested businesses were invited to contact the District to set up their free photo shoot (and, in the interest of declaring conflicts of interest, I was one of the photographers selected to take pictures of the local businesses.)
The photos were done by September, and over the last few months, the District has been getting the site ready for the public.
The site officially went live on November 14, and was announced at the Business Networking event, held at TR Mulligans Clubhouse Restaurant.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
