And it’s South from Alaska, the rush is soon on!

The Mayor just back from trip to the Last Frontier (conveniently located one ferry ride away) reports back that the Fairview Container Port is starting to catch the attention of the folks of Southeast Alaska.

During his recent visit to the Southeast Conference in Ketchikan, he said he was finding quite a bit of interest in the progress of the port and what the possibilities to come may be. In fact, a number of Alaskans are making plans to attend the upcoming ‘Change Brings Opportunity conference, scheduled for November 8 and 9.

The increased interest in Rupert, gave him the opportunity to once again think about the Gateway shuttle, a fast speed day boat (hmm FastCats anyone?) that one day is the dream to connect Ketchikan with Lax Kw’alaams within eight hours round trip and then on through to Prince Rupert.

While he didn’t actually say the bridge word, could this be the ever popular dream of the connector between Prince Rupert, the Airport and then on to Lax Kw’alaams? Since the Alaska Marine Highway System currently arrives at Fairview and the mayor mentioned Lax Kw’alaams specifically, one can only work under the assumption that some kind of road and fixed link between Lax Kw’alaams and Prince Rupert would have to be involved.

It will be interesting to learn more about the Gateway Shuttle and how it would impact on the transportation system in Prince Rupert.

The Mayor recounted his visit for the readers of the Daily News in Thursday’s edition.

ALASKA IS WAKING UP TO PORT POTENTIAL SAYS POND
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Page One

After years of talking about the potential of the Fairview Container Terminal to the city’s northern neighbours, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond said a number of key business people may be coming from southeast Alaska to the November conference on container opportunities in Prince Rupert.

Pond recently returned from a meeting of the Southeast Conference in Ketchikan, where he said interest in the port project, both in regards to import and export, is mounting.

“I’ve been talking about the container port for years and it has gone from ‘who cares’ to ‘oh that is interesting’ to ‘how do we get involved?’ and I think we will see a number of key business people from southeast Alaska coming to the port’s conference,” said Pond.

Community Futures and the Prince Rupert Port Authority are holding the Change Brings Opportunity’ conference Nov. 8 and 9 with speakers including Yeun Pau Woo, president of the Asia Pacific Foundation; George Stalk Jr. of the Boston Consulting Group and David Fung of ACDEG International, each respected experts in the field of import/export.

Pond noted that taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the container terminal also had people at the Southeast Conference talking about enhancing the link between Ketchikan and Prince Rupert.

There continues to be a real interest in developing the gateway shuttle between Ketchikan and Lax Kw’alaams, connecting in through Prince Rupert, he said.

The idea is to custom build a day boat that would be able to do that run in less than an eight hour round trip.

“That’s being driven by people in Ketchikan who want to see an improved connection with Prince Rupert. They are frustrated with the existing shipping schedule of the marine highway system,” he said.

The city is a charter member of Southeast Conference, dating back to the 1950’s. The organization that is made up of municipalities, business and government agencies from the southeast Alaska panhandle and the North Coast and it is considered an extremely powerful lobby group.

The biggest priority for Alaskan communities at the conference was energy development,” said Pond.

“They have a project called the Intertie, which they are very keen to move on. Many of the communities in southeast Alaska use diesel fuel to power their communities and yet as a whole in southeast Alaska they have tremendous hydro generation capacity, he said.

The desire is to tie the communities together, develop their hydro projects and export the hydro through British Columbia, either by tying into Highway 37, or by laying a sub-marine cable to Prince Rupert,” said Pond.

“Either way gives them access to the North American grid, which gives them the ability to see that power.”