Municipal entrepreneurialism: Can it help to mobilize resource‐dependent small communities away from path dependency?

Small resource-based communities across Canada are experiencing rapid change within a volatile, fluctuating global economy. As seek to diversify their economies, they enduring complex provincial and federal neoliberal policy environments that offer fewer funding resources while offloading more responsibilities onto local governments. Drawing upon the case studies of Burns Lake, British Columbia Grand Falls-Windsor, Newfoundland Labrador in Canada, we explore how small municipalities using municipal enterprises generate revenue assets may lead new economic pathways. Our findings suggest entrepreneurial strategies producing mixed success break from past forest-sector dependencies. These still struggle with developmental operational risks, as well debates about whether use revenues meet increased demands on aging infrastructure services versus transformative change.