Penticton Western News, October 02, 2013

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NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

www.pentictonwesternnews.com

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VOL. 47 ISSUE 79

news Wine tourism a financial windfall for region

Vincent’s CoWork put her in Top 40

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WEDNESDAY, October 2, 2013

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entertainment Shatford Centre set to host Taste for the Arts

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sports Trench line happy to contribute to Vees success

Clark promises region share of LNG boom Joe Fries

campaigned this spring on an election platform that predicted LNG pipelines, processing plants and shipping terminals would generate 75,000 permanent jobs and royalties to build a $100-billion fund that would help pay off the provincial debt within 15 years. None of that infrastructure is built yet and natural gas prices are in the doldrums, but Clark said that’s precisely why LNG holds such promise. “The price for natural gas in Asia is much higher than it is here, so that’s how we’re going to pay off our provincial debt,” she said, “because we’re going to be making more money on our natural gas exporting it than we would by selling it here.” The B.C. government has pledged to have three LNG facilities up and running by 2020. Britco president Mike Ridley said his company is “very optimistic and very bullish on LNG.” “A big part of our business is derived from the energy sector,” he added. The company has 175 workers at its plant in Penticton and another 200 at a facility in Agassiz.

NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

PREMIER CHRISTY CLARK tours Britco’s manufacturing plant in Penticton on Friday with company president Mike Ridley (left) and vice-president Chris Gardner (right).

Joe Fries/Western News

Western News Staff

Britco’s $100-million contract to supply worker housing to an Alberta oil sands project represents just a fraction of future benefits Penticton will realize from the energy sector, Premier Christy Clark said during a visit Friday. The deal calls for the company to supply modular buildings containing 1,600 bedrooms and related facilities to a Devon Energy site near Conklin, about 150 kilometres south of Fort McMurray. Clark, whose tour of Britco’s manufacturing plant coincided with an announcement of the new contract, said a made-in-B.C. liquefied natural gas industry aimed at supplying Asian markets will soon produce oilsands-like economic spinoffs of its own. “Once those pipelines are starting to be built, we’re going to have to have temporary housing along the way, so what Britco is doing here is, I think, just going to explode. They’re going to be a very busy company,” she said. Clark and the B.C. Liberals

The two sites will join forces on the Devon Energy job. “In terms of workforce accommodation, I would equate it to a three-star hotel. It is going to be the best camp, the best workforce accommodation in all of North America,” Ridley said. “Everybody has their own private bathroom, they have big, spacious rooms, they have flat-screen TVs, they have Internet, full (recreation) facilities and all the amenities that go with that.” Ridley expects it will take until the end of 2015 to fill the order, which will comprise 900 truckloads to the site. An executive from Devon Energy said the company contracted Britco to supply an 800-bunk camp for a different project several years ago and was pleased with the result. “It’s a good partnership, because we’re in the oilsands and they’re building projects for the oilsands and those benefits are now flowing back here, and they’re not shy about saying that,” said Nadine Barber, vice-president of government and public affairs. “That’s really important to us.”

Sendero Canyon housing development back on track Joe Fries

Western News Staff

After a year-long delay that resulted from a broken water main, the first house is finally going up in a new Penticton subdivision. Construction began this summer on the home in Sendero Canyon, with work on four more expected to get underway later this fall. The initial push to get the 230-lot subdivision in the Upper Carmi area on the market was derailed when a new waterline between

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a city-owned reservoir and one built by the developer ruptured in July 2012. “It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Gordon Cameron, vice-president of Canadian Horizons Development Group. Prior to the break, his firm had been preparing to turn over the new public works to the City of Penticton in order to gain the necessary approvals to register the subdivision, which was already outfitted with paved roads, traffic signs and street lights. Cameron said the 1,600-metre water line

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swinging, the local listing agent is eager to get to work. Realtor Brian Cutler said four spec homes that will go up in the coming months will support sales in the new subdivision. “People need to physically be able to walk into the house, look at it, touch it, feel it, and go, ‘Hey, this could be mine,” said Cutler, who has partnered with his mother, Joni, to sell Sendero Canyon.

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was quickly replaced, but identifying the cause of the failure and assuring the city it wouldn’t happen again took much longer. “The city’s position was: If we have to take over all these works, we don’t want a repeat of this where we will have the liability for it,” Cameron explained. He said a consultant later determined “there might have been the over-insertion of some pipe as it was put together” the first time. With that issue resolved and hammers now

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