How loss, leadership and local voices gave rise to Columbia Basin Trust
It’s 1965. At Duncan, beyond the north end of Kootenay Lake, diesel scrapers begin carving a path for the first of several massive dams to be built under the Columbia River Treaty. Over the next decade, four dams rise on the Duncan, Columbia and Kootenay rivers.
As the dams are completed, residents brace for what’s to come: inundated valleys, destroyed homes and displaced communities. “You hear lots of stories of people that were just devastated by it even though they knew it was coming,” remembers Brian Gadbois of Revelstoke. “Some of them stood there and watched as their house was lit on fire.”
Entire communities—such as Waldo, Renata and Arrow Park—disappear beneath newly formed reservoirs. Alongside these communities, the cultural sites and sacred places of Indigenous peoples are lost. “Our history forever changed,” said Kathryn Teneese, then Chair of the Ktunaxa-Kinbasket Tribal Council. “Access to ancient villages, ancient places—they don’t exist anymore because they’re underwater because of a dam.”
A Region Left Behind
By the early 1990s, the pain of the past still lingers. Residents continue to live with the legacies of flooded valleys, lost livelihoods and broken promises. Prosperity had been promised, but opportunities
never materialized. “When the dams were built, there were promises made to this region,” said Josh Smienk, then Director with the Regional District of Central Kootenay and founding Chair of Columbia Basin Trust. “But those promises never came to fruition.”
While the Columbia River Treaty obligated the U.S. to pay “downstream benefits” to British Columbia in exchange for enhanced flood control and power generation, the first 30 years of payments were made as a lump-sum prepayment to the Province shortly after the Treaty was signed. None of these funds were made available to Basin communities, which continued to live with the negative impacts of dam construction and operation.
Voices Rise
In the face of ongoing impacts—and with new revenue on the horizon—Basin residents began organizing. In 1992, a small gathering in a Castlegar ballpark brought community leaders together to ask: what could be done to help the Basin?
With annual downstream benefits payments from the U.S. to the Province set to begin, Basin residents—local leaders, First Nations, farmers and community advocates—began to speak up.
They wanted action on environmental damage, social disruption and economic imbalance. They wanted revenues returned to the region. They wanted to restore fisheries. They wanted a say.
The challenge? To unite this vast and diverse region in one voice.
“Still, there was a growing sense that unity was the only path forward,” said Garry Merkel, a founding Trust Board Chair and Columbia River Treaty Committee member. “This was us as residents trying to have a conversation and build something that we wanted.”
A Movement Takes Shape
In 1993, regional leaders formed the Columbia River Treaty Committee (CRTC). Their task: gather input, build consensus and ensure the voices of Basin residents were heard. In June of that year, the first Columbia Basin Symposium was held in Castlegar.
Community members from all walks of life shared stories and called for a different future, one rooted in respect for people and responsibility for the land.
“We can’t abandon the future generations,” said Corky Evans, then MLA for Nelson-Creston and CRTC member. “And we can’t abandon the ducks and geese that used to land in the wetlands…and the elk and caribou and the grizzly bears. And we can’t abandon the future of this land base.”
The gathering was a turning point. It helped shape a mandate for the region and positioned the CRTC as a serious negotiating partner. “We’re not just people in the way,” said Audrey Moore, then Mayor of Castlegar. “We’re people to be reckoned with.”
A Bold Idea
In 1994, the Province of BC announced it would allocate a portion of downstream benefits to the region. But there was a problem: without a legal entity, there was no way to manage or invest these resources.
That’s when the idea of a “trust” emerged—a unique combination of a Crown corporation and a regionally controlled organization. The name Columbia Basin Trust was chosen, and a new chapter began.
Later that year, the second Symposium set the stage for long-term investment. The Province proposed a bold offer: seed money to develop new hydropower projects within the Basin. The irony was not lost on residents. “We just all looked at one another and thought the idea was nuts,” recalls Karen Hamling, a Nakusp Councillor at the time.
The Trust is Born
In 1994, the Columbia Basin Accord was signed, providing a total of $500 million— shared equally between the Columbia Basin Trust and Columbia Power Corporation—for new hydropower projects, along with $45 million in seed capital to launch the Trust’s programming.
On July 6, 1995, the Columbia Basin Trust Act was signed into law. In just over three years, what began as a grassroots movement became a formal, transformative institution designed to serve the people of the Columbia Basin. “It’s kind of miraculous that it all did come together,” said CRTC member Kim Deane. “I’m not sure any one person pictured the whole thing; collectively all the factors fell into place in an interesting way and darned if we didn’t get this amazing result.”
Like the mountains of earth once moved to build the Duncan, Mica, Keenleyside and Libby dams, the people of the Basin moved mountains of their own. They built a future rooted in resilience and regional pride. “In my lifetime, I’ve found that those things that make sense are what you need to pursue,” said Sophie Pierre. “That’s the Trust.”
Read the full story in Columbia Basin Trust: A Story of Power, People and a Region United at book.ourtrust.org.
