Port history seen through the words of a long time employee

The last day of December seems to have been the time to bring out the gather the family round the Christmas tree stories for the Daily News.

Monday’s paper featured a front page human interest story, looking at the past of the port and where it’s future may be, all through the words of long serving employee Dave Fisher.

PORT VETERAN PROUD ABOUT PAST, EXCITED BY THE FUTURE
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, December 31, 2007
Pages one and two

For someone who's been working as a Port of Prince Rupert employee longer than anyone else, Dave Fisher is still just as excited about his job in 2008.

Beginning with overseeing the construction of Ridley Island's water supply system in 1982 for what was then called the National Harbour Authority, to the development of Prince Rupert's Fairview Container Terminal, Fisher has seen the city through some of its best and worst times in his 25 years of employment.

"From the National Harbour Authority, we changed our name to the Prince Rupert Port Corporation, and then to the Prince Rupert Port Authority," said Fisher. "Through the years, we've gone through quite a few changes, and several general managers as well. It's a long time to be in one place, but the job is forever changing and it's always very interesting."

In the 80s Fisher was maintenance manager, and since has expanded quite a bit to encompass all maintenance and security operations, as well as managing operations for the larger vessels that dock in Prince Rupert, including summer cruise ships.

It is a large portfolio of activity to deal with on any given day, but Fisher enjoys the surprise of waking up to find out what needs to be done each new workday.

"The operations of the port are 24 hours a day, seven day a week, year-round, and in the wintertime we have more freighters and other issues to deal with, whether operations or maintenance," said Fisher. "This is also when I do a lot of the reviews of our security plans and emergency response plans to get ready for the upcoming year."

Fisher, who is also a master machinist and millwright by trade, says each facility must have their evacuation plans and fire drills reviewed and updated every year, and all changes must be approved through Transport Canada.

With some 120,000 cruise ship tourists expected this year, there's obviously a lot to plan for from an operations and security standpoint.

“It’s a big change from when I started, where there were 12 of us working in the entire operation, compared to over 30 today.” said Fisher. “It’s grown vastly. We have over 365 kilometres of coastline that we patrol. Everyone thinks it’s just the inner harbour, but we also have the outer harbour as part of our jurisdiction that we have to enforce as well.”

Fisher remembers having to use a four-by-four to access Ridley Island, due to the mud road back then. He can also recall the 1,500 - man camp for Ridley Island workers that existed during construction of the grain terminals in his first years on the job. Looking back, Fisher says a container terminal was the last thing on anyone back then for the future.

“In those days, we were only really concerned about bulk, the 50 to 100 logging trucks bringing lumber in each day and the three trains a day bringing lumber,” said Fisher. “As the saw mills kept closing down and lumber prices kept falling, we went into a long stage of dormancy where nothing happened. But with the container terminal, we’ve been slowly making our way back up, and there’ll be quite a number of spin-offs to benefit everybody,”

Looking back at his tenure with the port and the many projects he oversaw in his 25 years working in Prince Rupert , Fisher is thankful for one thing above all others.

“My wife Jeanie is the biggest reason for any success I’ve had,” said Fisher. “She’s the rock that keeps me grounded, along with my kids. Without the support of family, it doesn’t work.”Going into his 26 year with the port, and approaching his 50th year as a resident of Prince Rupert, he still isn’t sure what the distant future holds. But with another exciting year of work ahead of him, and soon toe be a grandfather for the first time, 2008 looks to be another great year for Dave Fisher.