Western PEI as a general reference includes the portion of the province north and west of the Harmony Road (Rte. 128) and Northam Road (Rte. 132). The land area covers approximately 1,260 square kilometers and is home to some 15,000 permanent residents.

The provincial map identifies 113 place names in the area, but of them only a handful are incorprated. And of the incorporated ones, only Tignish, Alberton, O'Leary and Tyne Valley provide municipal services.

Our primary industries are agriculture and fishing, with tourism and manufacturing making significant contributions to the local economy, as are the retail and service sectors.

Dating back to Jacques Cartier’s trans-Atlantic travels from a European perspective and thousands of years prior as a Mi’kmaq community in the modern-day place of Lennox Island First Nation, the area has a long standing history highlighted by the birth of the silver fox farming industry.

Now, the community is home to ground-breaking research and development in wind energy as home to the Wind Energy Institute of Canada; cutting-edge technology in the potato industry with trace-back technology and specialized marketing; and leading the way in the manufacture of safe and efficient live-bottom trailers. In addition, there are entrepreneurs in the community way ahead of the curve when it comes to specialized seafood processing and packaging, wood-products manufacturing, and specialized machinery development and design.