46 BCBusiness January 2015
T
o look at our list of Best Cities for
Work in B.C., you might think that
Terrace is in an unenviable spot.
And yet, if all the projections for
natural gas riches are true, there
is nowhere to go but up—poten-
tially way, way up.
The northwestern hub of
some 16,000 residents is liter-
ally at the crossroads of the
expected action, with Prince
Rupert, one of the major cen-
tres for likely
LNG terminals,
144 kilometres west on High-
way 16 and Kitimat, the other
major centre, 62 kilometres south on
Highway 37. According to the B.C. gov-
ernment, an estimated 100,000 jobs
could be created by the
LNG industry.
25 camPBell riVer
26 ParkSVille
27 Prince george
28 Duncan
29 Penticton
30 Vernon
31 Port alBerni
32 queSnel
33 Powell riVer
34 terrace
35 williamS lake
36 Prince ruPert
ciTY rank
Waiting on LnG
Even before any final investment
decisions on
LNG are made, Terrace
business owners like Janice Shaben are
starting to feel the ground shift. "What
we're finding is that there are a lot of new
companies coming to town that we've
never heard of," says the co-owner (with
husband Gord) of Silvertip Promotions
and Signs. Silvertip operates two dis-
tinct businesses: the promotional divi-
sion produces branded products like
T-shirts, jackets and coffee mugs, while
the signage division "logos"
vehicles, storefronts, awnings
and banners. Shaben says
she's had to double her staff,
to 10, within the past couple
of years and is expanding the
sign shop into the local Bay
next door.
A good chunk of today's economic
activity is tied into the massive Alcan
modernization project in Kitimat,
expected to wrap up this year. That
Terrace is the service
hub of B.C.'s northwest—
and Ground Zero
for the region's hoped-
for liquefied natural
gas boom
b y M a t t o ' g r a d y
