38 BCBusiness dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018
F
or Eric Heel, Campbell River
looks even better the second
time around. After earning
a degree in civil engineering
from
UBC, the Victoria native
took a job in this seaside city on
the east coast of Vancouver Island, only
to return to Vancouver for other oppor-
tunities with the same company. But
three years ago, •inding the
Lower Mainland too busy and
expensive, Heel came back to
Campbell River, where he and
his wife now own a home.
"I'm pretty happy with that
decision," he says.
T h e b o a r d m e m b e r
of Young Professionals of Campbell
River (
YPCR) is far from alone. "In our
group, there's roughly 80 members,"
says Heel, 29, a project engineer with
McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd. "I
would say a solid 20-plus have moved
here in the past year or two from the
Lower Mainland or Victoria or Calgary."
On a brisk April afternoon, I'm sit-
ting in an airy Campbell River coffee
shop with Heel, fellow
YPCR director
Alison Bell and president Laurel Slis-
kovic. This residential neighbourhood
across the street from the Beaver Lodge
Forest Lands, a 1,000-acre wilderness
preserve that feels like the city's Stanley
Park, is a short drive south of downtown.
If you head east, you'll soon •nd yourself
on a long, wind-swept beach with unob-
structed views of Quadra Island.
These three young residents are a
vote of con•idence in Campbell River,
which endured some di—cult years after
the shuttering of the Catalyst Paper
Corp. mill in 2010 contributed to
forestry-related job losses of some 1,500.
Vancouver Island's third-largest city has
since taken steps to draw new residents
and businesses and grow into a regional
centre for the north Island, while seeking
to preserve its small-town charm.
Bell, now 32, communications coordi-
nator with local Seymour Paci•c Devel-
opments Ltd. and Broadstreet Properties
Ltd., is a Campbell River native who
spent a decade in Victoria before com-
ing home two years ago. (Named Alison
Davies when we meet, she got married
over the summer.) "There's so much out-
doors stuœ to do here as opposed to liv-
ing in a [large] city," Bell says. "The big
reason I wanted to move home was for
the lifestyle change."
Sliskovic, 40, who grew up in Ontario,
moved here from Nanaimo in 2013. Co-
founder of Sociable Scientists Inc., a
consulting •rm that focuses on leisure
and tourism's role in community devel-
opment, she also teaches in the tour-
ism program at North Island College's
Campbell River campus. "We were talk-
ing the other day about the number of
people who make it work for themselves
here because we all really want to live
here," Sliskovic, says. "It seems simple
to create opportunities here because so
many people are involved and engaged."
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"we were talking the other day about the number of people who make it
work for themselves here because we all really want to live here. it seems
simple to create opportunities here because so many people are involved and
engaged" – laurel sliskovic, co-founder, sociable scientists
