CARIBOO
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100 Mile House
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Barkerville
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Mackenzie
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McBride
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Prince George
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Quesnel
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Valemount
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Wells
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Williams Lake
SHARE OF B.C.
POPULATION 3%
46 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 5 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association in special partnership with BCBusiness.
Resourceful
Adaptation
The Cariboo demonstrates how once resource-dependent
communities can keep pace with a changing economy
than two hours from his home in Prince George to find
some 50 residents gathered. He sensed their fear at the
prospect of losing their only financial institution.
Asked to say a few words to the assembly, Wingham
made one thing clear: "We're not in the save-the-day
business. We're in the financial cooperation business."
After a rocky experience stepping into a similar
banking void in Fraser Lake, Integris needed the
community to play its part building the business case
for opening a branch in McBride. The credit union
needed both individuals and businesses to switch
their accounts. For its part Integris rented a room in
the library for a pop-up branch every other week for
several months to facilitate account transfers until
it could open a full-time branch in a disused former
Airbnb property in March 2025.
For its Restoring Financial & Economic Stability in
McBride, B.C. project, Integris would go on to win the
2025 Community Project Award (Population less than
10,000) from BCEDA. But for the credit union, the
bigger prize was the loyalty it won in the community.
"By the time we opened our doors in March of this
year we had almost achieved all our goals to the end of
2025," Wingham says.
W
hen the Bank of Nova Scotia decided to
close its branch in the village of McBride,
a farming, logging and railway town of
600, in 2023, Dan Wingham sensed an opportunity.
His employer, Integris Credit Union, had recently
bought an insurance agency in the village. The local
chamber of commerce, which had reconstituted itself
after a COVID -19 hiatus, invited him to a meeting
at McBride's public library. So Wingham, manager,
partnerships for Integris Credit Union, drove more
PLAYING ITS PART: McBride worked with Integris Credit Union to keep
local banking (above); Highway 16 corridor near McBride (right); Artemis
Gold opened its Blackwater mine (bottom right) this year
