BCAdvantage 2008; Business and investment across British Columbia

One of British Columbia’s largest, wealthiest and most productive areas remains almost unknown to many of the province’s residents. Many of them don’t even realize that much of their province lies east, not west of the Rocky Mountains.

The “mystery area” is compromised of the Peace River Regional District and, to the north of the Peace River, the Northern Rockies Regional District. It sprawls from the Alberta border on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and from just north of Prince George in the south to Yukon Territory in the north. Even without counting the largely unpopulated Northern Rockies Region, the Peace River region alone represents some 13% of B.C.’s land mass and more than 40% of its agricultural land.

Geographically, climatically and culturally, the area often identifies more closely with Alberta than with the rest of B.C. Every few years, on a semi-serious basis, local discontent boils over into a movement to separate from B.C. and join Alberta.

The population of the Peace River is approximately 60,000 with about half of them living in the two major cities of Fort St. John (population 18,000) and Dawson Creek (population 11,000). Smaller centres include Hudson’s Hope, Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd and Pouce Coupe. In the Northern Rockies Region, there is one community, Fort Nelson (population 5,000). Economic activity there involves oil and gas exploration and forestry.

Further south, however, the Peace region was originally populated by homesteaders in the 1930s. They created both grain farms and cattle ranches. To this day, the Peace River remains among Canada’s most productive grain growing areas. Currently, says Dave Butler of Butler Farm Equipment in Fort St. John, grain farmers are doing well as prices are up. On the other hand, ranchers are struggling with low prices. This reflects an economic see-saw that seems eternal.

There are 1,800 farms producing well over $100 million worth of product annually. The area has rail connections south to Vancouver and east to Edmonton. It was in 1942 that the Peace River experienced the first of many “booms” to hit the region. It was then that the U.S. army pushed the Alaska Highway through in an amazing nine months. It snakes its way some 1,500 miles from Dawson Creek, across the entire region and Yukon Territory to Fairbanks, Alaska. To this day, it remains an important military highway to the Americans and is the source of hundreds of thousands of U.S. tourists each year to the northeast sector.

The next big boost came in the 1950s when oil and gas were found in the region. Although the energy sector has lived through several booms and busts, it is currently very healthy and is largely responsible for the record surplus revenues that B.C. provincial government has been enjoying. Last December, a sale of oil and gas rights in the region capped a record-breaking year for B.C. On December 12, the sale of $401 million in bids brought the year-end total to more than $1 billion.

The hyper economic activity caused by the energy industry has been a mixed blessing. Andy Ackermann, a management consultant in Fort St. John and president of the local chamber of commerce, points out a shortage of skilled labour in the oil patch, and the resulting high wages being offered have made it hard for other sectors to compete. For example, he said, it is very difficult for anyone to operate a restaurant in Fort St. John. They just can’t find the help they need at a price they can afford to pay, says Ackermann.

Housing also has been impacted, he said. Housing is both expensive and hard to find, although several new apartment complexes are currently under construction. In several cases, said Ackermann, employers have been forced to buy houses so they can provide homes for employees.

The energy scene in the Peace River doesn’t stop with oil and gas. Nearly 30% of all the electrical power used in British Columbia derives from two generating stations on the Peace River. The WAC Bennett Dam, opened in 1965, is the largest and generates in excess of 13 billion kW-h annually. Talk continues of the eventual but politically sensitive possibility of a third facility on the Peace River, known as “Site C.”

On a lesser scale, the Peace River is also home to some very rich coal deposits, and two mines are currently operating at Tumbler Ridge, south of Dawson Creek. Fred Banham, economic development officer for the Peace River Regional District, works from offices in Dawson Creek but commutes an hour every day from Tumbler Ridge. Eight years ago, he bought his home there for $24,000. It was recently assessed at $207,000. Times have obviously changed for Tumbler Ridge.

The Peace River, as well as the Northern Rockies Regional District, is home to an important forest industry. It produces both dimension lumber and oriented strand board (OSB) for export to the United States. A combination of a slow American economy and the growing damage from the province’s pine beetle infestation is making for a challenging time for forestry. In December, Canfor Corp. announced it was closing its Chetwynd sawmill indefinitely. Some 188 employees have been laid off. The mill had a capacity of 244 million board feet of production per year.

Looking to the future, however, Fred Banham points out that a local group made up of the Peace Grain Growers’ Association is advancing plans to create a bio-diesel fuel facility. It would involve creating ethanol from canola grain and mixing it with diesel. The aim is to serve local markets in both British Columbia and Alberta. Although it will mark an entirely different form of energy than the Peace River Region has traditionally produced, it may well be pointing the way to the future. •

Northeast

•Chetwynd

•Dawson Creek

•Fort Nelson

•Fort St. John

•Hudson’s Hope

•Pouce Coupe

•Taylor

•Tumbler Ridge

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