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Volume 58 No. 18
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Sentinel
Northern
www.northernsentinel.com
Work camp town hall draws crowd The vision of Kitimat’s future is effectively what was up for debate, as crowds converged on Mount Elizabeth Theatre to voice their opinion on proposed work camps within the District of Kitimat. Well over 100 people attended the District of Kitimat town hall, established to address a concern in the community over whether or not people want high-density worker accommodations in town, and more specifically downtown. Stuck in the centre of the debate is the PTI Group, the company which has bought and is in the process of buying land in the Strawberry Meadow’s subdivision with the intention of building what they dub a ‘work lodge’ to eventually house up to 2,100 people. But their proposed location is just east of the hospital, effectively abutting the downtown core, which has some people worried. At nearly two hours of conversation and comments, it appeared the majority of those who spoke didn’t have any concern with the PTI Group itself or a work lodge within town necessarily, but many took exception to the location, and others wanted to ensure the town was taking into consider- “The camp just is in the wrong place.” ation all other factors, “I think as a community we want to be such as how sewage careful. We don’t want a ton of vacant would be handled with properties.” such a development. “I am a construc- “I don’t want to see stuff destroyed just tion worker, I am part of to have economic progress.” the community of Kitimat,” said one town hall participant who had concern with the location. “We will deal with nothing but traffic, traffic, traffic.” He later added, “The camp just is in the wrong place.” Another member of the public said economic gain shouldn’t be the prime factor when talking development. “I don’t want to see stuff destroyed just to have economic progress,” she said, adding she wants a community she feels comfortable in, with people she knows. More comments covered issues such as needing a second crossing of the Kitimat river to questions on how infrastructure would be handled with the proposed lodge. One retiree who recently moved to Kitimat said the town should consider slowing down and considering development thoughtfully, suggesting there was no rush to bring everything to town at once. “These companies are not coming here because they love Kitimat, they’re coming because of the sea port,” he said. “Lets build something we can all be proud of.” However, there was some optimism as well. One long-time Kitimat resident, who said he recently signed for some acreage in Strawberry Meadows himself, is worried that the town, by turning down PTI, would be saying no to more development. “For the first time in years I went into our mall and I saw something, you guys should check this out; there are stores in there,” he said. “Now we have a situation where someone wants to set up a tax-based business in this community and instead of something positive for this community, there’s nothing but negative.” He admits being a reluctant Terrace shopper, and said if the town constantly turns things away, the “Alcan dollars” will continue to be spent out of town. Continued on page 2
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
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Nechako Elementary Philanthropy students, as well as documentary filmmakers from Beyond Boarding, take to the Kitimat River to clean up litter.
Nechako students keep the river’s shore clean Students from Nechako Elementary School’s Philanthropy Club took to the banks of the Kitimat River on April 25 to clean up its litter. The event was to coincide with the national Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up, a national program which has run since 2002 and is an effort between the Vancouver Aquarium and the World Wildlife Federation. The students took to collecting and recording litter on the shores of the river just beyond the Giant Spruce tree. The students may receive a little extra notoriety from their efforts than they expected. A chance meeting between Nechako teacher Pat Mouland and travelling environmental documentarians means some video of the clean up may eventually make it into a documentary slated for an October release. The group, called Beyond Boarding, has sent a small group of surfers and snowboarders on a tour of the province in a modified small school bus, which has been retrofitted to run on used vegetable oil. Proving such an engine still has its kinks, the bus broke down the day before while they were in the Overwaitea parking lot, but that’s when
Mouland found them, and asked them to participate in the river clean up, an offer which they gladly accepted. Jasper Snow Rosen, one of the Beyond Boarding filmmakers, said their trip is to highlight some of the dangers of natural gas extraction, while also promoting alternative fuels. In the case of their vegetable oil bus, he admits that may not be a mass solution to fossil fuels but it was important to show there are options. “We’re checking out different sustainable farms and other places that are doing things that are helping the environment,” he explained. Rosen said it was important to look at Kitimat on this trip because of all the proposed projects for the area. “When you look at eastern B.C. where they’re actually extracting the fuel, the fracking is polluting all the groundwater,” he said. The group had actually wanted to do some school presentations when the opportunity to help clean the river came along. The group has been to Vancouver Island, the sacred headwaters and they do plan to hit northeastern B.C. before they’re done.
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