Merritt joins group of communities affected by flood in new partnership

The City of Merritt will be one of five communities joining the creation of the West Coast Corridor Resiliency Partnership (WCCRP), a coordinated regional initiative focused on advancing critical resiliency infrastructure investments across Southern British Columbia.

Merritt will join, Abbottsford, Chilliwack, Hope and Princeton in the new venture which brings together communities connected by key transportation, energy, agriculture, and trade corridors that were significantly impacted during the atmospheric river events of November 2021 and December of 2025.

Together, these communities are advocating for long-term investments that strengthen public safety, protect economic stability, and improve the resilience of nationally significant infrastructure systems.

The partnership is focused on identifying and advancing flood mitigation and climate adaptation infrastructure projects that support:

• Interprovincial and international trade continuity and transportation corridor resilience

• Protection of energy and utility corridors

• Agricultural and food security transportation

The WCCRP initiative comes ahead of the upcoming Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference, where participating communities will continue collaborative discussions and strategic engagement efforts with municipal, provincial, and federal leaders.

Following the conference, Mayor Mike Goetz will join his other counterparts to further discuss the partnership, highlight shared regional priorities, and outline next steps for the initiative.

“This partnership recognizes that the resiliency challenges facing our communities do not stop at municipal boundaries,” said participating representatives of the WCCRP. “Protecting these corridors means protecting communities, supply chains, agriculture, transportation networks, and economic stability for British Columbia and Canada as a whole.” The WCCRP will also serve as a platform for continued collaboration, advocacy, and information sharing between participating municipalities and supporting organizations.

More to come