Regional growth a hot topic

The Northwest Corridor Development Corporation is anticipating a huge impact of the growing Asian economies on our part of the world, and suggests that we prepare for the growing pains that will soon be on the way.

At a conference in Terrace last week, the Corporation heard from a number of guest speakers, including Helmut Pastrick of the BC Central Credit Union, who expanded on the growing importance of Asian trade and how the Northwest should position itself to take advantage of the entry into that market.

With an insatiable demand for raw materials, all the communities along the Highway 16 corridor stand to benefit from the changing face of international trade. The Daily News featured two stories on the issue featuring a review of the conference and some suggestions from participants on how the Northwest can best prepare for some major changes to the way things happen around here.

‘MASSIVE GROWTH ABROAD TO BE FELT CLOSE TO HOME’
Expansion in China, India and Russia will need to be fed
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Pages One and Three

Growing Asian economies linked to North America though the Northwestern corridor should give northern communities in B. C. and Alberta an economic advantage in coming years, delegates at Northwest Corridor Development Corporation (NCDC) conference in Terrace were told last Thursday.

Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for Credit Union Central, one of the speakers during the two-day event, said commodities such as coal and metals will be in high demand in Asia and India in the coming decades, and the region should be able to position itself to feed that market.

“The story we find ourselves in here is a revival of an older story – resource development,” said Pastrick.

“Commodities will be the place to be for the next couple of decades.”

Some 150 delegates from across Northern B. C. and Alberta gathered in Terrace late last week to discuss ways of developing and strengthening the Northwestern transportation infrastructure through the two provinces – an area know as the northwest corridor. The trade corridor is key to seeing the economies of the northern regions of both provinces develop to their full potential.

Pastrick added the booming economies of Asia and India are driving the demand for raw materials, which presents opportunities for the northwest corridor to feed that growth.

While Canada and the U. S. economies are only predicted to grow by 2.5 to three per cent in coming years, the economies of Russia, China and Brazil – which are experiencing not only urbanization but the growth of a middle class – are expected to grow by upward of seven per cent.

“This is the difference we are seeing now and it will continue for a number of years,” said Pastrick.

China in particular is the “new world force” in the economy, he noted with the highest consumption of metals and coal in the world.

The consumption of commodities has already started to modify the economies along the Northwest corridor – with projects such as the Red Chris copper and gold Mine in Iskut and Horizon Coal Mine in Tumbler Ridge.

“Exploration and mining has expanded considerably in the last few years and you can expect more on the horizon,” he said.

And the economies in the Northwest hold several advantages that should continue into the future- substantial undeveloped energy and metals resources, shorter trans-shipment time between Asia Pacific and North America, three deepwater ports, and direct rail access to central North America, said Pastrick.

Jeff Burghardt, chair of Northwest Corridor Development Corporation, said one of the big achievements in the region in the past five years has been gaining the support of CN Rail. “In large measure, what we have accomplished in the last five years is CN recognizing the opportunity they have for their business. By them maximizing their business opportunity, we are all going to flourish,” he said.

Now that CN has given communities along the rail corridor the opportunity to move goods into the Asian economies, it’s time for people to take advantage of that, he said.

“Now we have to be nimble and smart enough in our own individual communities to take advantage of that opportunity that has been presented to us and we have to aggressively market those products and services we produce onto those world markets,” he said.


REGION IS TOLD TO EXPECT ‘GROWING PAIN’
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Pages One and Three

Prince Rupert may be able to look forward to growth, but residents need to understand that with growth also comes growing pains, said the Alberta MLA for the Peace River country.

Frank Oberle, MLA for Peace River, told delegates at the Northwest Corridor Development Conference in Terrace last week that northern Alberta is experiencing phenomenal growth, but it has left municipalities struggling to keep up.

“It should come as no shock to anyone that our economy is absolutely booming in Alberta, by any number of statistics it’s just a phenomenal success story,” said Oberle, who also used the trip to the Northwest to tour the Prince Rupert container port development last week.

“We (Alberta) have the lowest unemployment rate in Canada (currently 3.5 per cent,) the highest weekly earnings, the fastest growth of any province and we had 22 per cent of Canada’s housing starts this past year. 16.7 per cent growth in retails sales year to year, 4.5 growth in GDP last year, 12 per cent increase in manufacturing shipments last year.”

And northern Alberta, which includes the area north of Edmonton has not been left out of that growth, he said.

They had $85 million in agriculture and forestry investment in 2006, $6.6 billion in the oil sand investment. In the coming four years, northern Alberta is slated to see some $60 billion in investment, that’s 50 per cent of the major construction investment in Alberta.

“While it is a remarkable picture, growth is not without its challenges, especially growth of this scale,” said Oberle.

“The northern reality is that the sparse and small populations bring tremendous labour issues, we have a less than adequate transportation infrastructure at this point and a lack of skilled trades.”

He said with the growth in oil and gas, forestry and agriculture, it’s been almost impossible to keep up with housing, school infrastructure.

“This resource-based economy- this work hard, play hard attitude that we have – puts tremendous pressure on municipalities in housing and community infrastructure for example,” he said.

“We are trying to address challenges. Our government in the last year has spent more than three times any other provincial government in capital expenditures and we still have trouble keeping up.”

In addition, he said they have failed completely to engage aboriginal communities in Northern Alberta.

“In my constituency, I have communities… with absolutely no road access whatsoever and that are not engaged at all in this economy at a time when we are all crying for skill sets and increased labour in the markets” he said.

And with all this growth, it has also been near impossible to find the opportunity to sit back and make a plan for the long-term future.

“The problem is by focusing on local pressures, we are neglecting to take a step back and do what I believe is our duty and take a strategic look at where we would want to be 20, 30, 50 years down the road and how we will build the infrastructure to make that happen.”