The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) is a

regional district In the province of British Columbia in Canada, a regional district is an administrative subdivision of the province that consists of a geographic region with specific boundaries and governmental authority. there were 28 regional districts in t ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In the 2016

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

, the

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

was 60,439. Its

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

is . The regional district offices are in Cranbrook, the largest community in the region. Other important population centres include the cities of Kimberley and Fernie, and the

district municipality A district municipality is a designation for a class of municipalities found in several locations, including Canada, Lithuania, and South Africa. Canada British Columbia Under provincial law, municipalities in British Columbia are to be desig ...

Invermere Invermere is a community in eastern British Columbia, Canada, near the border of Alberta. It is the hub of the Columbia Valley between Golden to the north and Cranbrook to the south. Invermere sits on the northwest shore of Windermere Lake and ...

and

Sparwood Sparwood is a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the second-largest community on the Elk River. Located approximately 30 kilometres from Fernie, the District Municipality of Sparwood has approximately 4,2 ...

. Despite its name, the regional district does not include all of the region known as the East Kootenay, which includes the

Creston Valley The Creston Valley Wildlife Management Area is a Canadian river delta wetland and Wildlife Management Area near Creston in south-central British Columbia, on the floodplain of the Kootenay River at the south end of Kootenay Lake. Predominantly m ...

and the east shore of

Kootenay Lake Kootenay Lake is a lake located in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Kootenay River. The lake has been raised by the Corra Linn Dam and has a dike system at the southern end, which, along with industry in the 1950s–70s, has changed th ...

Geography

The regional district's dominant landform is the

Rocky Mountain Trench The Rocky Mountain Trench, also known as the Valley of a Thousand Peaks or simply the Trench, is a large valley on the western side of the northern part of North America's Rocky Mountains. The Trench is both visually and cartographically a s ...

, which is flanked by the

Purcell Mountains The Purcell Mountains are a mountain range in southeastern British Columbia, Canada. They are a subrange of the Columbia Mountains, which includes the Selkirk, Monashee, and Cariboo Mountains. They are located on the west side of the Rocky Mounta ...

and

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

on the east and west, and includes the

Columbia Valley The Columbia Valley is the name used for a region in the Rocky Mountain Trench near the headwaters of the Columbia River between the town of Golden and the Canal Flats. The main hub of the valley is the town of Invermere. Other towns include Rad ...

region, the southern half of which is in the regional district (its northern half is in the

Columbia-Shuswap Regional District The Columbia–Shuswap Regional District is a regional district in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located in the Southern Interior region on the Trans-Canada Highway between Vancouver and Calgary, Alberta. The regional district bor ...

). Another distinct area within the regional district is the Elk Valley in the southern Rockies, which is the entrance to the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, french: link=no, col du Nid-de-Corbeau) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass i ...

and an important coal-mining region. Other than the Columbia and

Kootenay River The Kootenay or Kootenai river is a major river in the Northwest Plateau, in southeastern British Columbia, Canada, and northern Montana and Idaho in the United States. It is one of the uppermost major tributaries of the Columbia River, the l ...

s, whose valleys form the bottomlands of the Rocky Mountain Trench, also included in the regional district are the northernmost parts of the basins of the Flathead, Moyie and

Yahk River The Yaak River (spelled Yahk River in Canada) is a tributary of the Kootenai River in Montana. Course The Yaak River originates near Yahk Mountain, in the Yahk Range, part of the Purcell Mountains, in southeast British Columbia. The river flow ...

s (the Moyie and Yahk are tributaries of the Kootenay, entering it in the United States, and the Flathead is a tributary of the Clark Fork in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Demographics

As a

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States of America, United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-lev ...

in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, the Regional District of East Kootenay had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Municipalities

Health care

The largest hospital in the region is the

East Kootenay Regional Hospital Cranbrook ( ) is a city in southeast British Columbia, Canada, located on the west side of the Kootenay River at its confluence with the St. Mary's River. It is the largest urban centre in the region known as the East Kootenay. As of 2016 File: ...

in Cranbrook. There are also hospitals in Creston (Creston Valley Hospital), Fernie (Elk Valley Hospital), Invermere (Invermere & District Hospital), and Golden (Golden & District Hospital). Primary health centers are present in Sparwood and Elkford.

First Nations

The

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

people who live in the East Kootenay are from the

Ktunaxa Nation The Ktunaxa Nation or Ktunaxa Nation Council is a First Nations in Canada, First Nations tribal council government comprising four Ktunaxa (Kutenai) bands in the south-east of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is one of three Kutenai gov ...

. There are currently four bands

Columbia Lake First Nation Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

near

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...

Lower Kootenay First Nation The Lower Kootenay First Nation ( kut, Yaqan nuʔkiy Band) are a First Nation based in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. In the British Columbia Treaty Process They are part of the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council. Treaty process Th ...

near Creston,

St. Mary's First Nation St. Mary's Band or St. Mary's First Nations in Canada, First Nation ( pqm, Sitansisk Wolastoqiyik) is one of six Wolastoqiyik or Maliseet Nations on the Saint John River (New Brunswick), Saint John River in Canada. The St. Mary's Band lands comp ...

near Cranbrook, and

Tobacco Plains First Nation The Tobacco Plains Indian Band (Ktunaxa: ʔakink̓umⱡasnuqⱡiʔit ) are a First Nation based in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. In the British Columbia Treaty Process They are part of the Ktunaxa Kinbasket Tribal Council. C ...

near Grasmere.

References

Census Profile, 2016 Census, East Kootenay

External links

* * Regional District of East Kootenay,

East Kootenay The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) is a regional district in the provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, Canada. In the 2016 census, the population was 60,439. Its area is . The regional district ...

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