It is my pleasure to provide the Presidents Report for 2025 for the BRVCA:
2025 saw many accomplishments by the various committees operating under the BRVCA umbrella.
This past year the Economic Development team fronted a new business sign initiative to help better advertise business to new comers in the valley. A relationship building event is taking place this October to strengthen and maintain relationships with the St’át’imc Nation. The West Coast Mountain Bike Association has continued to work with the Economic Development team to help support and encourage healthy trail habits in the BRV.
Thanks to a donation, we were able to install two professional road counters on the Hurley FSR. These will supply accurate road counts on a regular basis. These initiatives help promote and improve the way humans interact with this amazing community.
In addition to these projects an Economic Development Plan has been drafted and continues to be worked on before making its way to the community.
The Heritage Committee is actively managing the Bralorne Pioneer Museum, the Haylmore Heritage Site, the Bralorne Community Church and the Gold Bridge Cemetery. The Heritage Committee has also worked with other stakeholders in moving forward the completion of the Bralorne Pioneer Mines Office Building.
A major funding application is currently being prepared due at the end of October for the Bralorne Pioneer Mines Office Building to complete the project. The project has been beset with personnel issues including professionals on the project team as well as contractors and BRVCA employees. A full report for the community will be provided in November once we have completed getting the best possible funding application in by the end of October.
We would like to extend our thanks to Janis Irvine who is a veritable encyclopedia on the heritage of this area and works very hard as an ambassador for the Museum. Thank you, Janis.
The Training Committee is a partnership with the Gold Bridge Fire Protection Society, Gun Lake Fire Protection Society, Bralorne Fire Department Society, Tyaughton Lake Ratepayer’s Assoc., the Trails Committee, Marshall Valley Community Committee, and the Bralorne Recreation Area Committee. In 2025 they provided a very robust training program that put on a total of 8 courses with 1,216 hours of training provided.
The Gun Lake Boat Launch Committee is pleased to report that provincial Fisheries have conducted an in-depth survey of the water shed to rejuvenate the once stellar fishery in the Gun Lake water shed. Bull trout species are of particular interest. They have recognized that the outflow culverts are a choke point and have approached MOT to repair or replace these culverts with a fish friendly Beaver proof Culvert or return it to a bridge which was originally in place.
The Marshall Lake and LaJoie Lake Resident’s committees have been actively involved in projects in their neighborhood, with LaJoie Lake implementing the aeration project as LaJoie Lake and Marshall Lake working on extensive fire smarting in their corridor.
The Bear Awareness Committee was very active creating a “resident’s only” siting group to assist residents in understanding bear sitings as well as protecting those bears from public posts that might attract poachers. In late August, the committee hosted the Bear Aversion Grizzly coexistence and safety meeting for Gun Lake residents who had been dealing with a grizzly mother and two cubs in close proximity to Gun Lake all summer. In early Sept the bear awareness committee hired a gleaning coordinator to assist with the removal of unwanted fruit throughout the valley.
On the operations end, our financial services made a transition to Quick Books Online, followed by the quirky consolidation of credit unions into BEEM which has caused us no end of sorting out how to operate with Quick Books Online.
This year we launched on an initiative to record assets and better manage them. We chose Monday.com and this fall we hope to proceed with inputting information info the system.
Winterfest was a great success, with over 200 people attending the event on Little Gun Lake. There were great activities and fundraising.
I would like to recognize the committee volunteers, staff, contractors, and board members for their continuing commitment to the BRVCA. We want to extend a huge thank you to them for their positive efforts and contributions to our community. Volunteers are our lifeblood and we have over 50 people who volunteer regularly in some way. Thank you, thank you.
Al Moritz
Bridge River Valley Community Association
President
