Regional districts of British Columbia

The Canadian Province of British Columbia is divided into regional districts. Like counties in some states of the United States, regional districts serve as the local government in areas not incorporated into a municipality. In those predominantly rural areas, regional districts provide services such as land-use planning, building inspection and fire protection. Regional districts also provide some services, such as solid-waste management and emergency management, to their entire territory, including municipalities.

Regional districts are governed by boards of directly and indirectly elected directors. Municipalities appoint directors to represent their populations, while residents of unincorporated areas elect directors directly. The votes of directors from heavily populated areas sometimes count more than the votes of directors from sparser areas. For example, both North Saanich and Mecthosin appoint one director to the Capital Regional District board of directors, but the vote of North Saanich's director counts three times as much as the vote of Metchosin's appointee.^[1]

1 Current regional districts
2 Historical regional districts
3 References
4 External links
5 See also

Current regional districts

Image:Census divisions BC-numbered.png

The current districts, shown with their district seats:

Historical regional districts

The following regional districts were dissolved in December 1995, and amalgamated largely into the newly formed Fraser Valley Regional District:

Dewdney-Alouette Regional District: Mission, Pitt Meadows, and Maple Ridge, and unincorporated areas north of the Fraser River and west of the District of Kent
Central Fraser Valley Regional District: The modern City of Abbotsford (itself newly formed at the time) and adjacent unincorporated areas - Sumas Mountain (now FVRD Electoral H, west of Chilliwack and south of the Fraser River.

Fraser-Cheam Regional District: The eastern 2/3 of the modern Fraser Valley Regional District, including Chilliwack, Kent, Harrison Hot Springs, Hope and the Fraser Canyon unincorporated areas. ^[2]

Notably, the western edge of Dewdney-Alouette, including Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, were incorporated into the Greater Vancouver Regional District (now Metro Vancouver).

This amalgamation took place due to the unnecessary existence of three small regional governments existing in the Upper Fraser Valley, historically and culturally a single region. In particular, the western part of Dewdney-Alouette had become essentially a suburb of Vancouver and would be better served by being within Metro Vancouver. The Central Fraser Valley RD would be nearly completely dominated by the newly amalgamated City of Abbotsford, bringing its role as into question; similarly the remnant of Dewdney-Alouette would be dominated by Mission. Given the rapid growth being experienced in the Fraser Valley at the time, and expected to continue for the foreseeable future, the creation of the Fraser Valley Regional District was seen as the best option.

References

External links

Regional district maps

v • d • e Subdivisions of British Columbia
Subdivisions	Regional districts · Regional district electoral areas · School districts · Regions
Communities	Municipalities · Cities · First Nations · Ghost towns
Urban centres	Vancouver · Victoria · Kelowna · Abbotsford · Kamloops · Nanaimo · Prince George
Regional districts	Alberni-Clayoquot · Bulkley-Nechako · Capital · Cariboo · Central Coast · Central Kootenay · Central Okanagan · Columbia-Shuswap · Comox Valley · Cowichan Valley · East Kootenay · Fraser Valley · Fraser-Fort George · Kitimat-Stikine · Kootenay Boundary · Metro Vancouver · Mount Waddington · Nanaimo · North Okanagan · Northern Rockies · Okanagan-Similkameen · Peace River · Powell River · Stikine Region (unorganized) · Skeena-Queen Charlotte · Squamish-Lillooet · Strathcona · Sunshine Coast · Thompson-Nicola