58 BCBusiness december 2014
BurNS LAKe, B.C.
230 km West of prInCe GeorGe
The Boer Mountain trails are Dave Sandsmark's
pride and joy. "The original pipeline route
would have gone right through the middle of our
trails," he says, before dropping into a machine-
built trail that winds down from the top of Boer Mountain.
Sandsmark, a resident of Burns Lake for 15 years, is a
sought-after cabinetmaker and mountain biking fanatic who
also owns the local bike store. In 2003, he helped launch the
Burns Lake Mountain Biking Association, and since then the
group has tapped various government economic develop-
ment funds to the tune of more than $1 million to build an
extensive network of trails that is a growing tourist draw and
an integral part of the local recreation infrastructure. Gate-
way would pass through a pumping station five kilometres
from this resource-based town. Sandsmark's views on Gate-
way are no secret: a small blue sign outside his store, which
he operates spring-to-fall (before trading bike wrenches for
carpentry tools), reads United Against Enbridge.
Sandsmark admits his attitude toward the bitumen
pipeline is a mix of
NIMBYism and a feeling that it carries a
dirty product that offers up environmental risk without
much reward for northwest B.C. "I'm not against industry. I
support mining if it's the right project, and I support logging.
I just don't see a lot of local benefit from a crude oil pipe-
line, just risk," Sandsmark says. "I'd say the No side is in the
minority here but it's a vocal minority."
But you don't have to go far to find people with another
view. Burns Lake is an industry town. The Huckleberry cop-
per mine and the Endako molybdenum mine provide the
foundation for the local economy. So too does logging. Now,
despite an obvious glut of vacant buildings on the town's
main drag, Burns Lake is humming with a new recreation
centre and hospital. Business is also booming at Industrial
Transformers, a year-old heavy-duty mechanic operation in
the Burns Lake Industrial Park. The company is unequivo-
cally pro-Gateway. All the company trucks bear the same
bumper sticker: a check mark next to the word pipeline.
"I don't care if a single job is created in Burns Lake from
the pipeline. It's bigger than that. All those programs on
the government teat—health care, EI [employment insur-
ance]—depend on what's happening in Alberta right now,"
says Doug Waters, a former logger who co-owns Industrial
Transformers with three other partners.
PoPulation
3,600
