A seemingly innocent request to work have Prince Rupert work better together with Prince George and Edmonton has created as many questions as it proposes to answer.
City Council gave approval to a memorandum of understanding that would link the three communities in economics and politics in order to benefit from the Fairview container port.
In the memorandum, the three cities will work together to promote the regional Manufacturing zone between Edmonton and the coast. Both Prince George and Edmonton have been following up on plans for inland ports to take advantage of the beach head in Prince Rupert for world trade.
Proposed by Jim Rushton of Prince Rupert and Port Edward Economic Development, the plan is to increase the ties east to west along the highway 16 corridor.
And while that may seem like a natural evolution and welcome change in direction for regional affairs, the suggestion has come with a bit of built in controversy.
One of the key aspects of the proposed manufacturing zone is something known as the Trade Investment Labour and Mobility Agreement (TILMA), a provincial agreement signed by Alberta and B.C. to promote inter provincial trade. It’s a rather mysterious piece of work between the two provinces, which has quite a few critics suggesting that the province’s best interests aren’t served by the arrangement.
One local person who shares those concerns is local councillor Joy Thorkelson, who was the lone dissenting voice on the vote to approve the memorandum of agreement last Monday at council.
Her thoughts on the issue, put her at odds with the rest of council and with Rushton, who fears that the Northwest “may not become a route of choice” if the manufacturing zone is not in place.
While little debate was given to the issue this week and less information about TIMLA was provided, it most likely will remain an issue locally.
If an agreement is going to have an impact on the region, we would be best served to have all the facts presented for us either for or against, rather than just taking the word of a few folks that it’s all well and good and for our benefit.
We suspect that as things move forward on the proposed manufacturing zone, we’re going to learn a lot more about TILMA and any impact that it may have on our local economy. Allowing the people of the Northwest to become better informed on the situation.
A quick Google search of the term TILMA brought up a few theories on the benefits or problems that the agreement offers, the negative reviews seeming to outnumber the positive ones at this point.
From a blog called Relentlessly Progressive Economics: The Devil wears TILMA
Over at the Fraser Institute they offer up: TILMA: An extraordinary Achievemen for Albert and BC
The Council of Canadians offers up: Another acronym to learn, another trade agreement to fight
Minstry of Economic Development website has the official story: Joint BC/Alberta Agreement
The Briar patch magazine blog provides: Ralph's last laugh
The Canadian Centre for Policy alternatives weighs in with: The myth of interprovincial trade barriers and TILMA'S alleged benefits.
Canadian Dimensions/Georgia straight article: TILMA Is Bad news for environment policy
As you can see there's lots to read, lots to digest. Much of it Greek to the casual reader.
For those with a fair amount of time on their hands there are as many articles pro and con as you could ever hope to find, lots of information is there for the browsing at the click of your mouse.
But for now, we’ll make do with the local feedback from the article the Daily News provided in Friday’s newspaper. We'll tackle the heavy reading as the months progress!
NEW MANUFACTURING ZONE TOUTED
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday, March 16, 2007
Pages one and three
Prince Rupert, Prince George and Edmonton will be working together to take advantage of economic development opportunities along the Northwestern corridor.
On Monday night, council signed a memorandum of understanding that links the three communities in their efforts — both economic and political — to benefit from the development of the Fairview Container Terminal.
“We have all concluded that working together is the best way to try and get what we can out of it,” said Jim Rushton, manager of Prince Rupert Port Edward Economic Development, who presented the document to council.
“The main benefit that comes in the long term from building the container port is that communities along the corridor have the ability to tap into the markets in Asia. When you harness the powers of British Columbia and Alberta, we have a great opportunity to build a manufacturing zone between Edmonton and Prince Rupert.”
The foundation for the agreement was laid more than a year ago when a delegation from the City of Edmonton and then another the City of Prince George visited Prince Rupert.
The delegations included representation from senior city staff, politicians, airport representatives, and members of their respective economic development commissions.
Since then, the city has had more contact and worked more closely with Edmonton and Prince George than ever before, said Rushton.
“There seems to be a strong feeling in Edmonton that what happens in Prince Rupert and what happens in the Northwest along the corridor has a great impact positively for them, so they are willing to invest. It’s a good kind of partnership for us to be involved in,” he said.
There are developments related to the Fairview Container Port taking place in both Prince George and Edmonton in the form of inland container-handling and stuffing facilities for products such as specialty grains.
The idea along the Northwestern corridor is to use the empty containers travelling back to Asia as a way is to diversify economy and move away from simply being involved in primary resource extraction.
“It’s very important Prince Rupert, Prince George and Edmonton have their act together,” said Rushton.
“We will not be a route of choice if we can’t deliver.”
Some areas where the three cities have agreed to collaborate include promoting the entire region to the world — it’s a market with more than two million people and vast resources — combining the strengths of the education institutions, working together to attract labour to the region and drawing people east-to-west for tourism and travel.
However, the agreement also included several mentions of the Trade Investment Labour and Mobility Agreement (TILMA,) a provincial agreement signed by Alberta and B.C. to promote interprovincial trade.
Coun. Joy Thorkelson was not impressed, given the impact of TILMA on municipalities remains unclear.
“The city has spent no time debating this and I am not even sure they know what this is about,” said Thorkelson.
“I don’t have a problem with the rest of the agreement but I do have a problem with that.”
She noted both the Chartered Accountants of B.C., Union of British Columbia Municipalities, and the City of Burnaby have expressed concerns about the impact of the agreement.
“I would feel better if we expressed our concerns. I think we are foolish to strengthen something we may want to weaken.”
However, Rushton said that the implementation of the agreement at the municipal level is still under discussion. The city, through its memorandum, will have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of those discussions.
“We’ve been taking with the Ministry of Economic Development for British Columbia, which has this file and they are quite excited about this relationship we are developing.
“It is in line with the relationship they are developing between the two provinces.”
He added that TILMA doesn’t come into effect for municipalities for 2009 and the reason for the two-year delay is to allow municipalities time to work out how they will participate.
“We have inserted ourselves into a process of how it might work. I have taken the view personally that I like to be on the inside these days and help shape things. Because we have acknowledged the agreement, we have got ourselves on the inside and we will have some impact on how it actually works. It was not a mistake to include that because it has us into a couple of doors that may be beneficial down the road.”
The rest of council seemed to agree with Rushton.
They voted to sign with agreement with Thorkelson voting against because of the inclusion of TILMA.
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