The 2025 Rural Islands Economic Partnership (RIEP) Virtual Forum is coming up on Thursday, March 6 and Friday, March 7. Two of the organizers, Francine Carlin and Kate Maddigan are my guests today.

“ It’s going to be a jam packed two half days, 9:15 AM to 12:30 PM.  Our virtual events are really unique because we all live on islands or remote coastal communities and don’t have the opportunity to get together as a collaborative regional grouping. So it’s important to have these virtual events that bring together people from all across the coast and the islands, up from North Island as far as Alert Bay, to Sooke and beyond. So we have a pretty broad reach and this year it’s really important, particularly with the events in the world around economic  issues that relate to  our local  economic and social wellbeing,” explained Francine Carlin, Chair of the Rural Islands Economic Partnership.