As part of the Foundations of the Economy project of the Kootenay Rockies Regional Economic Alliance (KRREA), The Centre for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL) was asked to conduct a modified Business Vitality Initiative (BVI) for each of five sub-regions of the East Kootenay, and for the East Kootenay as a whole. The BVI – a process created by CIEL - helps communities to assess their capacity to work with and support entrepreneurs, and to foster small business growth. Typically, the BVI measures the perceptions of community leaders, business people and citizens about the current business environment in their community and compares the results to an average of other communities to determine possible short and long term actions the community can undertake to improve its business friendliness.