BCBusiness

BCBusinEss.CA dECEMBER/JAnuARy 2018 BCBusiness 39 Mayor Andy Adams recalls how Campbell River bounced back from the mill closure. "We had a lot of young peo- ple leaving this community," the genteel Adams says in his o†ce overlooking the Strait of Georgia. The upside for the retired Vancouver Island Health Authority admin- istrator: "I like to say that we're the only Catalyst community that lost a pulp mill but hasn't decreased in population." Dur- ing the 12 years that Adams has served on city council, people have suggested that Campbell River concentrate on attract- ing seniors, he says. "But we've taken the approach of going for families." It seems to be working. Single-family home sales grew 34 per cent in 2016, the biggest gain for any Vancouver Island Real Estate Board zone. Campbell River, where the benchmark price of a single- family dwelling is about $370,000, issued a record number of development permits that year. It's the third-fastest-growing city on Vancouver Island, says economic development o†cer Rose Klukas, who held the same post in Kitimat until 2016. Now home to almost 33,000 people, Campbell River plans to build out water, sewer, road and other infrastructure over the next 20 to 30 years to accommodate 65,000 residents. Forestry and mining remain impor- tant, but Adams also points to the city's strong manufacturing sector. It includes Sealand Aviation Ltd., which makes parts for Boeing Co. and Viking Air Ltd.; and TœMar Industries Ltd., an exporter of steep-slope logging equip- ment. Aquaculture is another economic driver: three major sh farm companies— Cermaq Canada Ltd., Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. and Marine Harvest Canada—have head o†ces here. "People can walk right into a full-time job, which in Vancouver or Victoria is a little tricky," Adams says. As part of its e£ort to lure businesses that might oth- erwise choose those places, Campbell River is the ¤irst Vancouver Island commu- nity with a municipal broad- band network. The City, which is covering the cost of connecting downtown build- ings with broadband ¤ibre, will let wholesale clients lease access to the network, explains information technol- o¥y manager Warren Kalyn. "We consider this a consider- able advantage for Campbell River," Kalyn says. "If we can drive down the bottom-line costs for investment in Camp- bell River by helping out at least at the broadband level, we're one step ahead of a lot of municipalities." Over lunch on the pic- turesque waterfront—one of downtown's four districts—I meet city manager Deborah Sargent and her deputy, Ron Neufeld. Sargent moved here in 2015 from Smithers, where she was chief administrative of¤icer. "Campbell River is rapidly urbanizing, but it has all of those small-town amenities and that small- town friendliness and warmth that you don't always see in a city as it starts on its journey to mature," she says. Sargent thinks the City has got its plan- ning right because Campbell River isn't growing too fast, but she wants to make life easier for investors. "You're not wait- ing here for a rezoning application or a development permit for a year or longer," she says. "Our turnarounds for applica- tions are very reasonable, and we're talk- ing a matter of weeks, not months." Neufeld, who came to Campbell River from Saskatchewan in 1992 to take a job with the City, quickly fell in love with the place. He's seen big changes since, includ- ing construction of the local airport and the Island Highway. "Real estate is still such a bargain here," Neufeld says. "It's a hidden gem on the Island." SETTLING IN Eric Heel, Laurel sliskovic and alison bell all spent time in other parts of b.C. before deciding on Campbell River

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