A first-ever community-led regional development process for the Rural Upper Bay of Fundy region is bringing people together to develop a plan that reflects the area’s unique community assets and opportunities.

The Upper Bay of Fundy Rural Region Destination Development Project (‘the Rural Upper Fundy Development Project’) is a community-first process to bring together businesses, governments, non-profit organizations and citizens to develop a strategic development approach for the Upper Bay of Fundy area of New Brunswick.

The Upper Bay of Fundy is defined as the northeast half of the Bay of Fundy, stretching from the outskirts of St. Martins through to Cape Enrage, and includes the rural communities of Hillsborough, Riverside-Albert, Alma, Sussex and the adjacent rural areas.

Jurisdictionally, it includes the three rural municipalities of Fundy-Albert, Sussex, and Fundy-St. Martins and parts of the Southeast (Moncton) Regional Service Commission, the Kings County Regional Service Commission and the Fundy (Saint John) Regional Service Commission, 26 distinct settlements, one national park and three provincial parks over roughly 3,000 square kilometres. It is home to about 15,700 residents and 170 small businesses directly supporting the visitor economy.

Five interconnected actions inspired this project.

First, the Fundy Trail Parkway was completed, enabling people to travel through the region via a seamless and dedicated route.

Second, Fundy National Park became a year-round destination, welcoming winter activities.

Third, Poley Mountain Resort invested heavily in mountain biking trails to convert itself into a year-round destination, driven largely by a changing and warming winter climate.

Fourth, the UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Region and the Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark are now jointly managed, one of the few places in Canada with two overlapping designations dedicated to sustainable and regenerative development and public education.

Fifth, 25 years of investments in consultant-led studies and reports produced a variety of ideas and recommendations, but few were enacted, largely because of the combined lack of community capacity and financial investment.

While changes to the destination economy are welcome, it also raised concerns with residents regarding the region’s capacity to address the long-standing systemic challenges related to infrastructure, environmental sustainability, housing, social inclusion, transportation, and community well-being that have slowed local prosperity.

To produce a different result, the region needed to do things differently.

Our Initiatives

Asset-based Community Development

The Rural Upper Fundy Development Project put into practice an asset-based community development (ABCD) model, which emphasizes a collaborative, integrated and principle-based approach to regional destination development planning.

Asset-based community development utilizes and enhances the inherent strengths (assets) of a community, rather than focusing on deficits. In the Upper Bay of Fundy this translated into the following approach:

  • Use local stories to build pride of place and illustrate successes;

  • Emphasize local-first approach to economic development – what is good for the residents of the Upper Bay of Fundy will be good for tourists too;

  • Focus on a ‘by us, for us’, approach that emphasizes community-designed initiatives over external consultants’ recommendations; and,

  • Determine measurable outcomes that illustrate systems change, including strengthening of social capital, experiential products and services, and community knowledge and support for the visitor economy.

Guiding Principles

  • This is a truly collaborative process to build trust and authentically engage with residents. It will harness local assets, resources and expertise to create and implement a regional strategy that thrives due to its interdependence with neighbouring communities and organizations to support each other. Ongoing, clear and consistent communication is critical for success.

  • Beyond sustainable tourism, we need to seek ways our communities and experiences can restore and be adaptive for what is to come in regards to our changing climate. Our UNESCO designations and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will be important as we consider opportunities and actions.

  • In products, experiences, storytelling and wayfinding throughout the region. Alignment in story and experience is critical to live the brand.

  • Procurement policies will place an emphasis on local expertise and talent.

  • The green economy is a circular economy. It seeks economic growth that does not negatively impact people or the environment. A social enterprise model includes non-profit organizations or registered charities that operate revenue-generating related businesses, as well as organizations that operate as for-profit businesses with a social purpose.

Building Capacity and Knowledge

To adhere to the ABCD principles, the Project set out to not only engage with the community but also to seek to build community capacity so residents could more fully participate in the decision-making required to maintain a community-first approach to destination development.

It did this in four ways.

First, it created a project working group that included people from the for-profit, non-profit and government sectors.

Second, the project and the new Fundy Partnership are administered by the Friends of Fundy, the original proponent of the Destination Development Project.

Third, the Project was supported by lead practitioner Lisa Hrabluk of Wicked Ideas and evaluation practitioner Jamie Gamble of Imprint Consulting.

Fourth, the Project sought action item-specific advice and analysis from 25 external consultants. These clearly defined and time-bound interactions enabled the Partnership to diversify its knowledge base in a cost-efficient manner, which supported decision-making capacity of Partnership members and the Phase 2 action item workplan.

Building a Diverse Community-First Network

Based on Jamie Gamble’s analysis, the Rural Upper Fundy Network has doubled the involvement of community (local) organizations and produced a 40 percent increase in the number of national organizations engaged with the Partnership.

This growth is reflected in the breadth and depth of pilot projects and prototypes undertaken during Phase 2, which built on the work of Phase One.

The 10-member working group had membership from people who live or work in and around the three regions – Fundy-Albert, Sussex and Fundy-St. Marins.

  • Micha Fardy

    Project Administrator, Friends of Fundy, community of Alma

  • Mike Carpenter

    Bay of Fundy Adventures, community of St. Martins

  • Janet Clouston

    Albert County Historical Society and Museum, community of Hopewell Cape

  • Dr. Jennifer Dingman

    UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Region & Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark

  • Jamie Hare

    Poley Mountain Resort, community of Waterford

  • Michelle Harvey-Larsen

    Studio on The Marsh, community of Harvey

  • Jordan Jamison

    St. Martins & District Chamber of Commerce, Village of Fundy-St. Martins

  • Bob Rochon

    Mayor, Village of Fundy-Albert

  • Phyllis Sutherland

    Ponderosa Pines Campground, community of Lower Cape

  • Jason Thorne

    Community Services Director, Town of Sussex