In the province of British Columbia in Canada, a regional district is an administrative subdivision of the province that consists of a geographic region with specific boundaries and governmental authority. As of January 2020, there were 28 regional districts in the province . Regional districts should not be confused with counties of British Columbia , which function as court house boundaries solely for the administration of justice.
9-658: The qathet Regional District ( / ˈ k æ θ ɛ t / , qRD ) is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia . Its only incorporated municipality is the City of Powell River , although it includes a number of unincorporated areas. The district encompasses a land area of 5,075.33 square kilometres (1,959.60 sq mi). The district was formerly known as the Powell River Regional District . Because of frequent confusion between
18-559: A regional district is under the control of the provincial government, or in the case of national parks and offshore waters, the federal government. Indian reserves located within the boundaries of regional districts are likewise excluded from their jurisdiction and infrastructure, and there are varying levels of collaboration between First Nations governments and regional district boards. Regional districts are governed by boards of directly and indirectly elected directors. Municipalities appoint directors to represent their populations (usually
27-432: Is governed by a board of seven directors: five electoral area directors who are elected for a four-year term by voters in the electoral areas, and two municipal directors who are first elected to the City of Powell River’s council and then appointed by council to the regional board. The board chair is elected annually by all directors. As a census division in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada ,
36-485: The local government in areas not incorporated into a municipality , and in certain regional affairs of shared concern between residents of unincorporated areas and those in the municipalities such as a stakeholder role in regional planning . In those predominantly rural areas, regional districts provide services such as land use planning , building inspection , solid- waste management , and some responsibility for community fire protection . Most land nominally within
45-541: The enactment of amendments to the Municipal Act. Until the creation of regional districts, the only local form of government in British Columbia was incorporated municipalities, and services in areas outside municipal boundaries had to be sought from the province or through improvement districts. Similar to counties in other parts of Canada, regional districts serve only to provide municipal services as
54-603: The identical names of Powell River district and city, the district's name was changed in 2018 to qathet, from q̓at̓ᶿɛt , meaning "working together, bringing together" in the ʔayʔaǰuθəm language of the ɬəʔamɩn , k̓ómoks , χʷɛmaɬkʷu , & ƛohos Nations. The district is bounded by the mainland portion of the Strathcona Regional District to the north, and to the east by the Squamish-Lillooet and Sunshine Coast Regional Districts. On
63-594: The mainland, this includes the area southeast of Powell River to the ferry terminal at Saltery Bay and from Wildwood, northwest of Powell River to Desolation Sound and the terminus of Highway 101 in Lund . Lasqueti Island and Texada Island , along with the southernmost Discovery Islands (including Hernando and Savary ), are included, as are the largely uninhabited lands to the north and west of this area. Its head offices are located in Powell River. The district
72-504: The mayors), while residents of unincorporated areas (which are grouped into electoral areas ) elect directors directly. The votes of directors from municipalities generally count more than the votes of directors from electoral areas, and larger municipalities have more votes than smaller ones. For example, both North Saanich and Metchosin appoint one director to the Capital Regional District board of directors, but
81-470: The qathet Regional District had a population of 21,496 living in 10,057 of its 11,921 total private dwellings, a change of 7.1% from its 2016 population of 20,070 . With a land area of 5,067.89 km (1,956.72 sq mi), it had a population density of 4.2/km (11.0/sq mi) in 2021. As of the 2006 census , 19,599 people lived in the district. Regional district Regional districts came into being as an order of government in 1965 with
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