48 BCBusiness JUNE 2014
willing to spend a
billion dollars and
if they don't see
light at the end of
the tunnel, they'll walk away.
"The aboriginal community is not
the uncertain component anymore,"
he says. "That uncertainty is now com-
ing from the provincial tax scheme and
these corporations that are not making
their final investment decisions."
E
mboldened by Kitimat's recent
good news, Joanne Monaghan
intends to seek re-election in
November, promising to turn the
town into a "tax-free zone" by
the end of her next term and before her
80th birthday. "So many of these indus-
tries, they won't be coming to fruition
before my term has ended in Novem-
ber," says Monaghan. "I worked with
them for so long, and so many things
are coming—I just want to be there."
And what about after she's gone?
What will Kitimat look like in 10 or 20
years? Like many northern B.C. towns,
Kitimat has always been defined by the
boom-and-bust cycles of the commodi-
ties it trades in. Many people compare
the present Kitimat to Fort McMur-
ray, Alberta, five years ago—where the
oil sands boom brought about traffic
jams in mid-afternoon, soaring house
prices and some of the best-paid Tim
Hortons workers in the country.
take-off
Terrace-Kitimat
airport traffic
increased 28 per
cent last year.
p36-49-Kitimat_june.indd 48 2014-05-05 3:33 PM
