S TANDARD TERRACE
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VOL. 26 NO. 47
www.terracestandard.com
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
City sells land to the Kitselas By Josh Massey
ANNA KILLEN PHOTO
■■ Studies session Lenda Girard shows off pine and spruce samples at just one of the booths promoting University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) studies at the university’s first science and technology jobs fair, held Feb. 28 at Caledonia Secondary School. Girard, who was a graduate of Caledonia, is in her final year at UNBC’s Terrace campus, looking to go into a career in conservation. The day connected interested parties and students with prospective schools, employers, and stakeholders, as well as the various support options available. Presentations ran all day and a jobs board showed employment opportunities open in the area.
The city of Terrace and the Kitselas First Nation have announced a land deal that officials from both governments say will prove instrumental in the development of city-owned industrial land. This is the second sale of Skeena Industrial Development Park land to be made since last August and will see 66.7 hectares (or 165 acres) purchased by the Kitselas First Nation’s Kitselas Development Corporation for $1,647,700. The sale has been in the works for some time with Kitselas Development Corporation general manager Jim Dopson saying previously that the development corporation was waiting to advance a deal with one or more companies interested in using the land before making the purchase. He said an announcement of a deal by the development corporation to lease or make other arrangements to further develop the land is expected this week. “We’ve had lots of enquiries and are very close on a couple. I would say by the end of next week we should have almost half of it leased,” Dopson said in an interview last week. “Securing this land gives us an opportunity to diversify our immediate and long-term revenue streams, and to build some valuable business partnerships that support regional economic activity,” said Dopson. “We plan to explore as many scenarios as possible, including joint
ventures, partnerships and land leases. Our corporation shares the longterm vision for the Skeena Industrial Development Park,” he continued. Terrace mayor Dave Pernarowski said this land sale is key to the realization of the 2,000 acre Skeena Industrial Development Park, and will allow infrastructure upgrades necessary to attract other developers. “Money generated from land sales at the Skeena Industrial Development Park will be used for infrastructure development of the park as per our Joint Venture Agreement,” said Pernarowski of the city’s partnership with the Kitselas. “This sale will allow us to continue that work without having to borrow funds like we’ve done in the past.” The joint venture agreement calls for the city and the Kitselas to share the costs of developing the park and, eventually, to share in any profits. The park area is located within Kitselas traditional territory and is not part of ongoing treaty negotiations between the Kitselas and the federal and provincial governments. In December the city passed a resolution to use the proceeds from the taxation of any eventual development in the industrial park to reduce business and residential property taxes based on a yearly review. The Skeena Industrial Development Park is located south of the Northwest Regional Airport and contains a total of over 2,000 acres of flat and unserviced land.
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Taxes rise although city spending dips By Josh Massey The expense of day-to-day operations is on the rise at Terrace city hall, but overall spending is slightly down because the city is spending less on capital projects. The 2014 preliminary budget shows that while operations costs are rising in six of the city’s main departments compared to last year, the amount of money the city is
putting into capital expenditures, such as roads, is down. Total city spending is projected to be $21,739,107 this year, a slight drop from the $21,818,564 spent in 2013. Though a rise in overall expenses is happening in the public works, development services, leisure services, transit, fire department and RCMP departments investment in capital projects is
projected to drop from $5,010,400 in 2013 to $3,566,800 this year. Despite the overall drop in spending from 2013 to what’s projected this year, property taxes are rising an average of two per cent. City finance director Ron Bowles said the city has cut its capital spending forecast this year because of the large sums it spent on roads in past years. Financing that work was done
partially by borrowing, he said. “We don’t raise and lower taxes with costs. The reason costs go up some years and down others is because we do something extraordinary,” Bowles said. “For a couple years we were really aggressive on road overlays and we did some internal borrowing, so that’s why the expenses went up.” Total amount levied in taxes will total $12,719,876 in 2014
compared to $12,396,951 in 2013, a two per cent increase. In terms of operations expenses, the largest increase is happening in the public works department which is seeing a 5.3 per cent increase, as well as rises of 0.8 per cent for sewer and water operations. Total operations costs for public works is $2,967,233 compared to $2,818,011 in 2013.
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No bullies
Farewell, Mamie
They’re back
Community leaders teach students what they can do to stop bullying \COMMUNITY A20
Lifelong resident and founder of Heritage Park Museum passes away \NEWS A3
Check out the photos of Terrace athletes at the BC Winter Games in Mission \SPORTS A30