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The purpose of this paper is to trace community and regional responses to the economic downturn of 2008/2009 in Northern British Columbia, Canada. Our research during this period (2009–2011), the Northern Economic Vision II (NEV II) project, sought to investigate whether communities in the region were incorporating some of the core findings, lessons from an earlier project, the NEV I project (conducted in 2002–2005), in terms of preparing for both economic uncertainty and opportunity through place-oriented community planning and enhanced regional collaboration. Findings suggest that in the face of economic hardship, many communities continued to pursue community and regionally-oriented strategies in an attempt to preserve services and quality of life for local residents, and did not engage in reactive budget cuts in the face of economic decline, as experienced in previous bust periods.

Since the early 1980s, rural and small-town Canada has experienced considerable transformation from social, economic, and political restructuring. These changes put pressure on communities and regions to assume increasing levels of responsibility for economic planning and development. The record to date, however, reveals implementation gaps between plans and the results on the ground. This paper explores this implementation gap using a case study from northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The findings indicate that a failure to incorporate the context of place in the analysis of economic strategy reports results in flawed local and regional development processes and misdirected action plans. This research is set within a broader revival in the regional development literature, where an interest in regions is accompanied by enquiry into the ability of local action to influence economic development planning and longer-term community sustainability.

The social, economic, and political landscape of northern British Columbia (BC), Canada, has undergone considerable transformation since a recession in the early 1980s. From this, there is an emerging recognition of the need to move from an economy based upon comparative advantage to one embracing competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper, drawn from ongoing regional research, is twofold. First, we apply a rural lens to the regional planning and development literature, which highlights the significance of competitive advantage as a tool for regional rejuvenation. Second, we add to this dialogue by exploring the relevance and meaning of competitive advantage in the non-metropolitan setting of northern BC.

Data on the financial performance of multifamily rental housing has not been available nearly as long as such information for single-family housing. It is believed that this lack of information has increased the cost of debt and equity capital to apartment housing and thus has increased the rents paid by apartment residents. Data on apartments, which is now becoming available through an industry-sponsored initiative, has the potential of narrowing this information gap. This article has several objectives: to describe this new database, AptDataTM, to housing researchers to assess the strengths and weaknesses of AptDataTM for housing market and policy research, to compare estimates from AptDataTM with those from other sources, and to offer several potential research applications of this new data resource.