in order to fund community-wide services, such as a sewer system, urban areas incorporate to form municipalities. the vast majority of british columbians live in these municipalities but there are also large areas of unincorporated rural areas around the municipalities. in 1964 the provincial government created regional districts, through amendments to the municipal act, to better coordinate regional issues and provide community services to unincorporated areas. only one area, the sparsely populated stikine region in northwest b.c., is not covered by a regional district and municipal-type powers are administered directly by the provincial government. the stikine region has a permanent population of only 1,352 people, most of them aboriginal, and covers an area of 135,391 square kilometers with no municipalities within its borders. its only major towns being atlin and telegraph creek. most planning in that region is governed by the ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources (forestry is only a small player in the region's economy as yet). all the regional districts and municipalities are members of the union of british columbia municipalities. the former sechelt indian band is now a municipal-type government, the sechelt indian government district, and former indian reserves are now fee-simple lands within that effective municipality.