42 BCBusiness January 2015
T
o understand how dramatically for-
tunes have shifted in Peace River
Country, consider the story of Lori
Ackerman. Ackerman, acclaimed
in November's civic elections for a sec-
ond term as Fort St. John's mayor, moved
to Dawson Creek—some 75 kilometres
down the Alaska Highway—in the early
'80s to join her husband, who had found
work in the construction business. He
was one of the lucky few: when the cou-
ple arrived, it was a depressed time, with
the dominant oil-and-gas industry suf-
fering under Pierre Trudeau's National
Energy Program.
"I remember building a house at
the time. I would go to the house in the
morning to unlock the house for what-
ever contractor was coming in to do
work, and there would be business cards
wedged into the door jamb," recalls the
54-year-old Manitoba native. "People
were looking for work—they were that
desperate to get any kind of work. The
interest rates were skyrocketing. There
was a lot of bartering going on—people
1 Fort St. John
2 north VancouVer
3 coquitlam
4 BurnaBy
5 DawSon creek
6 new weStminSter
7 langley
8 richmonD
9 Surrey
10 VancouVer
11 Pitt meaDowS
12 SquamiSh
ciTY rank
How Fort St. John and Dawson Creek
cracked the Top 5 of our list b y M a t t o ' g r a d y
who needed my husband's skills but
couldn't pay. It was a tough time."
Today, of course, it's a different story.
The oil-and-gas sector is booming and
incomes are growing at an astonishing
rate—up almost 20 per cent in the past
five years in both Fort St. John and Daw-
son Creek. Ackerman, who's lived in
Fort St. John since 1988, points to a shift
in policy by the provincial government
for much of the current growth: the
Summer Drilling Credit Program, a roy-
alty program introduced in 2003 that
encouraged year-round drilling. "That
really turned around the community
and the way the community worked."
With rapid growth come big chal-
lenges. Boom times have drawn a
younger, more transient population to
the Peace, which has put a strain on
city services. Ackerman rhymes off the
problems: "The challenge lies in people
making use of our health care and not
contributing to it. And people who are
Life in a
Boom ToWn
Kyle thomas
