Success Stories

Based in Burns Lake’s Southside Region on a beautiful ranch bordering Ootsa Lake, Ursa Minor Brewing’s motto is “Wild Taste from a Wild Place.” This brewery and 12-person tasting room is the brain child of Nathan and Gwyndolyn Nicholas. Nathan brings a life-long passion for flavour, growing and beer making.  Gwyndolyn brings business expertise from owning and operating a successful health food store for 10 years.  Together they have a love for inspired taste, a dedication to sustainable farming, and a wish to create a product that celebrates our North.  In addition to beers which can be enjoyed on site, ordered online and bought from Houston to Prince George in pubs and liquor stores, Ursa Minor Brewing are also manufacturing Kombucha and Botanical sodas. Flavours are inspired by the North such as haskap, raspberry, juniper, spruce, cottonwood, potatoes, small grain crops, and rhubarb.  Small consistent batches, made with state of the art technology designed in B.C., are being used to produce a truly unique and high-quality flavour. Community Futures Nadina began working with the couple in early 2019 and supported them through the writing of their business and finance plan. Their loan approval for brewery equipment purchases and final renovations came in October of the same year, which set them up to begin producing in early 2020. Be sure to include the Ursa Minor Brewing tasting room as part of your spring or summer plans:

Email: nathan@ursaminorbrewing.corp

gwyn@ursaminorbrewing.corp)

Instagram: ursaminorbrewing@instagram.com

Facebook: ursaminorbrewing@facebook.com

Ed and Jerry Pete are well-known figures in the Bulkley Valley for their firewood business. Over the years, they have also become extremely popular for performing snow removal services of the sidewalks on local bridges and on the pedestrian islands in the Smithers Arterial. Originally from Witset, they have worked all through the region as traffic control flaggers for over 10 years. Starting about 5 years ago, they began working on a plan to launch Ed & Jerry’s Traffic Control, providing snow removal services and flagging crews to road maintenance contractors, the Town of Smithers and Ministry of Transportation. Community Futures Nadina supported the brothers through the writing of their business plan and also secured funding for their launch for their equipment and supplies. Additional support was secured by CF Nadina on their behalf via the CFDC of BC’s Entrepreneurs with Disability funding program. Ed Pete suffered a stroke last year and still suffers from complications. The brothers were not to be distracted from their goal however, and went ahead with their launch this past August. Their business represents the fulfilment of a long-time dream of self-employment and self-reliance for the brothers and Community Futures Nadina was honoured to be part of that.