Janine North has lived and worked all across northern B.C. for the past 30 years. She's managed logging and trucking companies, worked as a district forest manager and run the Nechako-Kitimat Development Fund Society, an organization that funds economic development projects in northwest B.C.
Since 2005, North has been the chief executive officer of the Northern Development Initiative Trust, an initiative established by provincial legislation in 2005 to help cultivate and diversify the economy in central and northern B.C. In 2013, the trust hit $115 million in grants to northern B.C. communities.
Business in Vancouver recently caught up with North to get an update on her organization's northern economic initiative.
Q: Can you elaborate on the mandate and history of the trust?
A: I’ll start with what it is. It’s an independent regional economic development corporation that was infused with $185 million from the province and is focused on stimulating economic growth and job creation in central and northern B.C. Our focus is on building a stronger north, and we do that through investing in grassroots community-led projects. We’ve been pretty financially successful and sustainable with lean, low overhead. We hit the milestone of $115 million in 2013, and the great thing about that it is a 62% return on the investment the province made. That return has been invested in more than 1,200 projects in the region and there is still $218 million in the bank.
Q: So, the trust just spends the interest it accrues on economic development projects?
A: That’s right. We use the investment returns. Last year was a better than average year, about 15.1% return, and our goal is to move out between $8 million and $12 million per year into projects across the region. About 75% of those projects we invest in are in communities with less than 5,000 people. It touches every community and every rural area in a region that goes from the Fraser Canyon at Lytton, north to the Yukon, Valemount near the Alberta border through to Haida Gwaii. That’s about 70% of the province, about the size of France, but only 8% of the provincial population. But in terms of the power of the region, that 8% of the population is responsible for about 80% of provincial exports.
Q: What are some of the initiatives the trust has been a part of since its inception? Some of your favourites?
A: “Northern Opportunities” was a program the trust provided funding to in northeast B.C. in collaboration with industry, the school districts and Northern Lights College. They have provided opportunities for high school students in Grade 11 and Grade 12 to transition into 25 different trades and technical career opportunities. Students can have their first year trade certification done while they are in high school. The program has resulted in about an 84% graduation rate in the high schools, versus 75% in traditional programs. Aboriginal students are graduating at almost an 80% graduation rate versus 53% in traditional programs.
Another example was putting about $50,000 into a feasibility study around Highway 97 to study the constraints to moving goods. As a result, the province has invested another $40 million into that highway to upgrade the bridges and overpasses to improve goods movement.
Q: Lower Mainland-centric audiences hear primarily about large liquefied natural gas and mining projects, but what does economic development look like in places that aren’t involved in mega-project booms?
A: We have a number of areas that aren’t experiencing that boom that’s talked about so much in BIV and by the province. My areas of concern economically are the Robson Valley, the Cariboo, especially the West Chilcotin, and the Central Coast. You see young people leaving the Bella Coola and Bella Bella area, where there is about 70% persistent unemployment. The Hazeltons is another area of concern – you don’t have stable industry to keep people in the region. Some of the communities in the Fraser Canyon area are concerns as well. What we do there is downtown community revitalization, helping business owners with façade improvements or looking at investments in local airports. We have a program called “Small Town love,” which gives communities a professional website highlighting the independent retail opportunities in, eventually, every town across the north. They will all have the domain names “Love 100 Mile,” “Love Burns Lake,” “Love Quesnel.”
Q: The result of focused media coverage on mega-projects gives the impression that there is a silver bullet to economic development in the north. What are your thoughts?
A: If it was a silver bullet it might be a few projects, not more than 1,200. It is doing what’s important and needed to improve quality of life and economic opportunities in every community and every First Nation. But we’re looking at the state of readiness in boom communities such as Kitimat and Prince Rupert. Their planning is outdated, and they are having trouble with the onslaught of development and rezoning applications. So one of things we can do in the coming year is adding capacity to help them with planning needs. In Kitimat, you’ve got huge interest in real estate, single-family homes are up about 27% in assessments, and there is just not enough accommodation on the market. That means there is a lot of pressure on the community to design new subdivisions, and you haven’t got the tax dollars yet to pay for increases in local government capacity.
Q: What’s your message on the urban-rural divide in B.C.? You recently participated on a panel on this topic at the Vancouver Board of Trade economic outlook event.
A: The message is northern B.C. towns are incredibly resourceful, and the people are productive. The quality of life and the infrastructure may not be there; in some of the communities there are fewer recreational and cultural amenities than you’d find in the average high school in Vancouver. But the opportunity around quality of life, the 10-minute commute, the affordability of homes, we spend a small fraction of our salaries on our mortgages. There are only 28 properties in northern B.C. that are more than $1 million, about eight of them in the Prince George area. It’s a choice people make. You make a choice to live in this area; it can be shift work, camp life. It’s a hard-working economy.
