One of the greatest challenges in this project has been to access and report information at geographic scales that are manageable and relevant to Basin residents, communities and organization.

From a local government perspective and for Canada census purposes there are 23 municipalities, 21 electoral areas, two full regional districts and parts of 3 other regional districts in the Basin. In many areas the residents of municipalities and the adjacent electoral areas come together to make decisions and take actions. Also, there simply is not space to report on each local government area.

For these reasons, data was collected for the smallest geographic unit that it was available. This raw data is available on the State of the Basin website. The data for most indicators was then combined into 'local areas' shown on the large map. For most indicators these local areas follow the commonly used BC Local Health Areas, which are government defined areas that are used to collect various types of data.

The exceptions to using the 'local areas' shown on the map below are:

• Slightly different boundaries were required for the housing and workforce education indicators for the Nelson, Arrow Lake, Kootenay Lake and Creston areas. These are shown in the smaller map at the top-right of the map graphic below.
• For some indicators data was only available for individual municipalities so this is the geography reported.
• Environment indicators are reported for the geographic areas that were available.
• Economy indicators are reported on a regional basis.
• The northern tip of the CBT area includes the Village of Valemount and surrounding regional district lands. This area is included in the Prince George Local Health Area, which stretches far northward, making it extremely difficult to report on the Valemount area separately in this report. Information that is readily available for residents within the Village of Valemount is included.

CBT encourages you to discuss the indicator results in this report with others in your community, local area, or community of interest to better understand the unique local conditions, and to participate in actions to improve the well-being in your area.