With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1526186
46 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 4 FROM TOP CLOCKWISE: ARTEMIS GOLD; TASEKO MINES; NORTHERN BC TOURISM/ANDREW STRAIN; ISTOCK/ARTISTGNDPHOTOGRAPHY Ulkatcho First Nation, based near Anahim Lake, obtained $16 million in federal and provincial funding this year to build what will be the largest off-grid solar energy array in Canada. The project will help wean the isolated community off diesel generation. BETTER THINGS TO COME A plan by Alberta-based, Chinese-owned JX LNG Canada shows there's still interest in liquefied natural gas infrastructure. The company seeks to build a plant in Prince George that would produce 2.7 million tonnes of LNG per year and ship it by rail in containers to Prince Rupert for export to Asia. Powered by clean electricity, the liquefaction plant would be among the lowest-emission LNG producers around. The Cariboo's mining sector has been on the upswing too. Artemis Gold is putting the finishing touches on its Blackwater mine, which expects to pour its first gold before the end of 2024. Osisko Development, meanwhile, has completed an environmental review of the Cariboo Gold project east of Quesnel and hopes to be operational on a similar timeline. At the Gibraltar Mine near Williams Lake—the largest private employer in the region— owner Taseko Mines recently reached an agreement with workers that should ensure labour peace for at least three years. Looking further into the future, Vitreo Minerals has proposed a $300-million quarry north of Prince George for C A R I B O O producing frac sand to be used in natural gas extraction in Northeast B.C. RESILIENCE AMIDST ADVERSITY Once forest-dependent communities that have suffered from declines in the timber supply have in several cases learned to persevere. On the site of a former sawmill in Williams Lake, Massive Canada Building Systems is developing a $75-million modular building factory using mass timber. The project is benefiting from up to $10 million in assistance from the B.C. Manufacturing Jobs Fund. Beginning in 2010, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and the villages of McBride and Valemount collaborated to attract new agri-food, forestry, tourism and professional businesses with Invest Robson Valley Region, a digital campaign that this year was honoured with the Marketing Innovation Award (community less than 20,000 population) by the BCEDA. "While it can be challenging to quantify the success of programs like this, I can tell you that McBride had 10 empty storefronts along our five-block Main Street prior to the pandemic and nine were filled between 2020 and 2024," says Karen Dubé, McBride's economic development officer. • COMING ONLINE: Artemis Gold expects a first gold pour from its Blackwater mine this year (top); the Ulkatcho First Nation is substituting solar power for diesel (below) REVIVAL: McBride's Main Street (left) benefited from a new marketing campaign; Taseko's Gibraltar Mine (above right) is the region's largest private-sector employer Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association in special partnership with BCBusiness.