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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/309075
bcbUsiNEss.cA JUNE 2014 BCBusiness 45 we have the hospital and college and university campus here, that continue to draw people throughout the region." The trickle-down eff ect from Kitimat has been both good and bad. On the one hand, international focus on the region has brought a raft of inquiries about doing business in Terrace ("I can just sit in my offi ce now and wait for the phone calls," Pernarowski says), with Chinese investors talking about setting up man- ufacturing operations and a Vancouver developer spending $12 million to redo the downtown mall and bring in new tenants. On the downside, the town's infra- structure is stretched: the Terrace-Kit- imat airport, which sits within Terrace municipal boundaries, saw a 28 per cent increase in passenger traffi c in 2013 and expects another 40 per cent bump in the next fi ve years; increased rail traffi c is causing traffi c jams in town, since Ter- race only has one overpass; and roads that need to be rebuilt are simply being patched. "It's a combination of no budget to do it—and really, if we did have the budget, where would we fi nd the guys to come and build the road?" says the mayor. "There's no equipment, no peo- ple around, to do it." Pernarowski likes the idea of "revenue sharing"—getting a cash advance from the pro- vincial government to help pay for regional infrastruc- ture to support a growing LNG-fuelled economy. "We can't wait until a liquefied natural gas plant is up and operating and there's some taxes being generated for the province," he says. "It's too late. We need to have that fi nan- cial assistance to build the infrastruc- ture now so that the LNG projects are going to be successful. That's absolutely key, and that's the messaging we're giv- ing to the government." J oanne Monaghan is sending the same message to the province: we need financial help now. In her eff orts to ensure Alcan stays in town and that prospective LNG operators choose Kitimat over Prince Rupert or even Oregon, she has struck a decidedly conciliatory tone with industry and both higher levels of government. Relations between Alcan and the former municipal administration used to be so strained that the District of Kiti- mat actually sued Alcan (along with the provincial government) in 2005, trying to stop the industrial giant from sell- ing surplus power from Kemano to BC Hydro. The town argued that power from Kemano should be used only to build and fund industrial develop- ment in Kitimat, not to pad Alcan's bot- tom line. The BC Utilities Commission ultimately ruled in Kitimat's favour, but the action soured relations to the point where the question of whether the 2011 modernization of the smelter was a go— indeed, whether Alcan would stay in Kitimat—was up in the air. Monaghan doesn't want to see something similar happen now, with LNG, which is why she's pressing hard for the province to help with infra- structure (including replacing and/or twinning the Haisla bridge, the ancient two-lane link between Kitimat's eastern and western shores) and ensuring that when a tax regime is fi nalized for LNG producers this fall, it refl ects the global competitive reality. "We've heard up as high as a seven per cent tax," says Monaghan. "That's way too high for them, so they're going to have to be negotiating." Once triCkle down Mayor Dave Pernarowski sees Terrace as a service hub. p36-49-Kitimat_june.indd 45 2014-05-01 1:30 PM