Powell River is a city on the northern Sunshine Coast of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Most of its population lives near the eastern shores of Salish Sea, which is part of the larger Georgia Strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland. With two intervening long, steep sided fjords inhibiting the construction of a contiguous road connection with Vancouver to the south, geographical surroundings explain Powell River’s remoteness as a community, despite a relative proximity to Vancouver and other populous areas of the BC Coast. The city is the location of the head office of the Powell River Regional District.

Transportation

While not on an island, it is a community isolated by ocean and mountains. Powell River is accessible to vehicles only by ferry, in fact a sequence of ferries for most of the rest of the continent; the surrounding inlets (fjords) banked by mountainous terrain have made roads to other areas of the BC mainland thus far unfeasible. BC Ferries serves Powell River (Westview Ferry Terminal) from Comox on Vancouver Island to the west, and from the Sunshine Coast to the south east, via a route from Earl’s Cove near Skookumchuck Narrows. Since the Sunshine Coast is similarly isolated from the rest of the BC mainland, vehicles traveling from Vancouver must take two ferry rides to reach Powell River (across Howe Sound and the Jervis Inlet if travelling via Sechelt, and across Georgia Strait twice if going via Nanaimo). Powell River is also accessible via plane, either private or via Pacific Coastal Airlines, which offers 20 to 25 minute flights between Powell River Airport and the South Terminal of Vancouver’s International Airport.