According to the Williams Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, there are four major industries in Williams Lake:  forestry, mining, tourism, and agriculture.

• Recent Economic Indicators
• Community Investment Profile

A reliance on the forest and mining sectors is clearly unsustainable for Williams Lake and has largely left the town in decline.  Furthermore, the resource sector has had some significant impacts on the environmental integrity of the area.  Williams Lake needs to support a diverse range of small and large businesses to grow a resilient economy.  As a part of their Integrated Sustainability Plan, the city hopes to achieve a resilient economy in part by supporting green, sustainable businesses and industries. To do this, the city needs to contend with a number of issues: a deeply entrenched cultural bias towards the resource sector, issues attracting and retaining a young, entrepreneurial workforce, and an already economically depressed community.  In addition to the objectives laid out in the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, a number of initiatives are being developed that will support an evolving economy.

• Report on non-timber forest products being harvested from the Cariboo-Chilcotin
• Small Town Love: an initiative to promote and support locally and independently owned businesses and entrepreneurs
• Project Comeback: a strategy to address retention of youth in rural communities  and to address the twin demographic trends of youth out-migration and an aging population
• Revitalizing the downtown core: an objective of the Integrated Community Sustainability Plan and the Downtown Business Improvement Association
• Comments from Mayoral candidates re: Sustainability Plan, attracting green business

Mining is also a major part of the economy in Williams Lake. The Cariboo is home to two major mines: Gibraltar (copper and molybdenum) and Mount Polley (Copper and Gold), which employ 1000 people between them.  

Gibraltar mine is the second largest open-pit copper mine in Canada and the largest employer in the Cariboo region.  Mount Polley Mine, operated by Imperial Metals Corporation, is an open-pit gold and copper mine 100 km northeast of Williams Lake. The mines are both slated to close within 20 years.  

Vancouver Taseko Mines Ltd. has proposed a mining project at nearby Fish Lake.  This new Prosperity Mine is seen by some as an economic boon to the region, but others (such as Protect Fish Lake and the Wilderness Committee) view it as culturally and environmentally damaging.  As a result, the mine proposal has become a strongly divisive issue.  A 2014 spill at Mount Polley Mine underscored the project’s potential dangers.

• Taseko celebrates its commitment to the Cariboo region
• Taseko – Gibraltar – Our employee’s perspective
• Before and after view of Mount Polley Mine spill
• Aerial view of Mount Polley tailing pond breach
• Opposing Prosperity Mine
• Court battle begins for Taseko Mines over B.C.’s Fish Lake project
• Impacts of Mount Polley Mine spill on local businesses: NDP tourism spokesman David Eby visits businesses after the Mount Polley Mine spill

Recent News:

• Mayor Concerned About Rising Water Levels at Mount Polley Mine: Mayor urges the Province to hurry its consultation period in order to allow the mine to discharge water from its containment pit
  Related News: http://www.wltribune.com/breaking_news/351927261.html

Compared to the rest of BC, Williams Lake and the Cariboo Chilcotin attract only modest revenue from tourism.  In 2010, the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast represented just 3% of provincial overnight visitation and 1% of related spending.  Nonetheless, in 2010 tourism generated over $105 million in related spending in the Cariboo Chilcotin region.  

The city is located near several provincial parks and acts as a gateway to many natural areas and associated recreational activities, such as mountain biking and sport fishing.  Williams Lake itself also hosts the Williams Lake Stampede, which attracted over 16,000 visitors in 2014 (well over the population of the town itself).

• Williams Lake Stampede 2013
• Williams Lake – the Shangri-La of mountain biking
• Mountain biking around Williams Lake
• Williams Lake applies to host 2015 Mountain Biking Symposium

Recent News:

• Backcountry Skiing growing in popularity
• Williams Lake expanding mountain bike trail network
• Williams Lake to host mountain bike symposium

There are over a thousand farms in the Williams Lake region, totaling over a million acres and accounting for 3% of the provincial agricultural production.

More than 50% of the agriculture sector in the Cariboo region is cattle ranching. The majority of ranches in the Cariboo are highly dependent on Crown range, which provides about 40% of the annual forage requirements of the ranching industry.  

The Cariboo Chilcotin’s beef cattle industry contributes an estimated 12,000 jobs and over $700 million to the economy of BC.  Williams Lake hosts the Williams Lake Stockyards, which is one of the largest in the province and sells approximately 40,000 head of cattle annually.

Recent News:

• New Sustainable Ranching Program Launched at TRU: $100,000 in funding from Cariboo-Chilcotin region provides youth scholarships in hopes of reinvigorating the ranching sector

The economic performance of the city is closely tied to the forestry sector.  The Williams Lake Timber Supply Area is one of the largest sources of timber in British Columbia.  Almost three quarters of harvested wood is pine.  

It is estimated that around 30% of  workers in Williams Lake depend directly or indirectly on the forest industry for jobs.  The past decade has been difficult for the forestry industry due to the closure of several mills after the global economic recession, the economic impacts of the US-Canada softwood lumber dispute, and the effects of the mountain pine beetle.  

Recent projections are for a pine-kill rate of about 57% by volume for the province of BC.  Although salvage harvesting of pine beetle-killed trees may sustain high harvest volumes at present, harvesting is expected to drop by almost half over the next decade and remain low until the mid-end of the century

Pine Beetle Impacts:

• Williams Lake TSA Timber Supply Analysis Public Discussion Paper
• Video explaining changes to timber supply forecast
• Cariboo Chilcotin Beetle Action Coalition
• Great film on Community Forests
• Williams Lake Community Forest
• Alex Fraser Research Forest

Recent News:

• New Program Launched to Combat Pine Beetle infestations: licences given to remove affected trees during the winter while beetles are “hibernating” removing them before “Pine Needle flight”