Columbia Basin Trust

About Us

Columbia Basin Trust supports the ideas and efforts of the people who live in the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin. Located in southeastern British Columbia, the Basin covers about 80,000 square kilometres—about 8.5 per cent of the entire province—and has a population of 165,000 people.

In the early 1990s, residents, local officials and representatives from regional districts and tribal councils joined together to successfully negotiate with the Province for a share of the Treaty revenues and to secure benefits for the people of the Basin. In July 1995, the Columbia Basin Trust Act was passed into BC Government legislation. We honour those who saw an opportunity to create this unique, regional organization that would support the efforts by the people of the Basin to create a legacy of social, economic and environmental well-being in the region most affected by the Treaty.

No one could have imagined all that was possible. Thank you to those who persevered towards the idea, the dream, and participated in meetings, conversations and symposia, and to those who represented and honoured the desires of all Basin residents to create a new future through Columbia Basin Trust.