bcbUsiNEss.cA JUNE 2014 BCBusiness 39
with a handful of town councillors, to
seek divine intervention. "We'd get
together one Saturday a month and
have a prayer meeting and pray for
the re-establishment of Kitimat," says
Monaghan. "Then the Prayer Canada
group, which met once a week, started
praying for us, too."
F
or most of Kitimat's history, the
success of the town has been
inexorably linked to the success
of its dominant employer. The
Aluminum Company of Canada,
renamed Alcan in 2001, built a town-
site at the head of Kitimat Arm for their
new smelter in 1953, with the residential
area, anchored by a town centre, built
on the eastern shores of the Kitimat
River and the smelter and associated
industrial businesses on its western
shores. The location was highly stra-
tegic for industry: flat land, significant
sand and gravel resources, a sheltered
deepwater harbour and secure hydro-
power (Alcan gets its
power from the com-
pany-owned Kemano
Hydro power station, 75
kilometres southeast of
Kitimat).
The original projec-
tions were for a town
of 35,000 to 50,000
people, and in those
early days, planners pre-
dicted that Kitimat might
become B.C.'s third-largest city. But
changing circumstances—technological
(increased automation) and economic
(rationalization within a global indus-
try; Alcan was bought by London-based
Rio Tinto Group in 2007)—dramatically
reduced that target. After a peak of
14,500 residents in 1981, the town had
been in gradual decline for almost three
decades when Joanne Monaghan took
office.
At its lowest ebb, Kitimat had a
population of under 9,000 people
(and falling), a vacancy
rate of over 45 per cent
(and rising) and two
major employers (Meth-
anex and Eurocan) hav-
ing recently left Dodge.
Divine intervention or
not, the town has since
seen a surge of economic
activity: a $3.3-billion
rev italization project
at the Alcan smelter,
three proposed
LNG terminals includ-
ing projects backed by global energy
giants Chevron and Shell, a potential
pipeline from Enbridge in the contro-
versial Northern Gateway project and
an oil refinery proposal from Victoria
businessman David Black.
As a result, Kitimat is experiencing
the kind of growth it hasn't seen since
its inception. The permanent popula-
tion is over 10,000 for the first time in
a decade, with vacancy rates below one
per cent on rental accommodations and
growing pains
Mayor Joanne
Monaghan; Haisla
Bridge connects east
and west Kitimat; even
kids get a stunning
view; developers can't
keep up with demand.
p36-49-Kitimat_june.indd 39 2014-05-01 1:30 PM
