The eyes and ears of the business world are ours this week.

With the “Change Brings Opportunity” Conference underway today, last night’s Daily News provided a small preview of the conference and the participants who have arrived in town to take part in it.

The two day conference, which has been organized by the Prince Rupert office of Community Futures Development Corporation of the Pacific Northwest, promises some interesting networking opportunities for participants. It brings together a wide variety of business advocates and industry insiders to town, ready to explore opportunities related to the Prince Rupert Container Port currently under construction at Fairview Bay.

The project has captured the imagination of communities across Northern BC and Alberta in the last year and reaches far beyond Canada, with many representatives of from across North America set to take part in the sessions planned for the next two days. The Daily put together its pre meeting coverage, with a front page story in Tuesday’s paper.

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION ON CITY
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Pages one and five

A conference in Prince Rupert this week has sparked international interest, say organizers.

“Although the Nov. 8 -9 Change Brings Opportunity conference is being held in Prince Rupert, it’s about far more than just Prince Rupert,” said conference organizer Maynard Angus, of the Community Futures Development Corporation of the Pacific Northwest.

Several hundred people are expected to attend the event Wednesday and Thursday at the Lester Centre of the Arts.

“The ripple effect in economic and business opportunities, resulting from container ships sailing, the new trade between Asia and North America’s first pure intermodal container terminal at the Port of Prince Rupert next year, will wash across the northwestern transportation corridor and eastern Canada on its way into the North American Midwest,” said Angus.

He noted that the economic impact generated from the new container port would be felt thousands of miles inland from Prince Rupert. Many other communities are looking at ways to take advantage of the potential export markets that exist – from Prince George, which is developing an inland container terminal to Grande Prairie, Alberta.

“Once the containers begin to flow back and forth along the Northwest transportation corridor between Prince Rupert and the Midwest of North America, any community or business that can reach out and link into that flow of containers will have connected itself to international trade and commerce,” said Angus.

Community and economic development professionals from a number of B. C.’s Community Futures Development Corporations will be in attendance at the Nov 8-9 conference, as well as representatives of economic development agencies from such communities as Edmonton, Ketchikan, Prince George, Seattle and Tacoma.

Featured speakers represent a diverse range of expert organizations involved in the Pacific Gateway Strategy as well as related transportation and logistics industries. These include the Asia-Pacific Foundation, Boston Consulting Group, WESTAC, CN Rail, Maher Terminals and the Port of Prince Rupert. B. C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon will deliver the keynote address at the Nov. 9 gala dinner.

The Fairview Container Terminal is currently under construction and Phase 1 should be able to handle 500,000 containers.

It is expected to open in November 2007.

Maher Terminals, the largest container terminal operated on the East Coast of North America, will be the operator and CN Rail has also invested millions into the project and new rolling stock to handle containers.