Another ‘win’ for IPG?

Great job Tim. Another big score for you on this one, eh?

But ya ran out of lipstick for the pig so you jumped to a bigger trough. Now you can keep getting paid the big bucks to put lipstick on the Liberal’s re-election hopes. Good luck keeping the job once Patty McBurger, Crusty Clown and the gang are decimated to near extinction.

Maybe Telus polled their potential new employees about their toleration levels of pot holes. Could have happened.

Just absolutely unbelievable given the propaganda that has come out of IPG lately on PG being on the top of the list of communities to invest in.

But then again as the previous writer stated it might just come down to pot holes.

Pot holes? I’m thinking it’s more likely that they didn’t want to build “one of the worlds greenest data centres” in a city with a terrible air quality and a local government that isn’t really THAT serious about addressing the problem.

But hey, it’s only a $100 million dollar investment right? If they don’t like the smell of money then they aren’t welcome in PG, LOL.

I think that Kamloops is a forward looking City, and has the interests of its Citizens at heart.

Prince George on the other hand spends most of its time **fleecing** its Citizens. Whether it be higher taxes, higher service fee’s, higher Airport Improvement Fees. Crappy roads, etc;

The City thinks that buying and selling property, applying for Government grants, and building pet projects is what they are elected for. They pay lip service to being concerned about citizens, however at the end of the day, they could care less.

I cant think of any reason why any firm would want to locate here when they have other options. We have a long way to go, to convince people that this is a good place to live.

We could start with using honesty, integrity, and fiscal responsibility, as our operating mantra. Then we could throw in a little clarity, and access to information, topped off with a desire to put the wants and need of our citizens ahead of those, whose sole purpose is to make huge dollars at tax payers expense.

Isn’t Kamloops the “tournament capital of Canada”? Do you think they spend money on those things trying to attract people to their town? Heck, didn’t they bid on the Winter Games as well?

Name change from Prince George, BC to Pot Hole, BC. I use the term as a euphamism. Anything to embarrass the city council to improve our roads and streets. Every way else has failed. Can hardly wait for this years winner of BCs worst roads and streets. Might get a trophy or a plaque this year.

Or we could call it Central Pothole….

Okay, so now that all the usual crap has come out of the woodwork as normal, it is time that we do with this project what should have been done with a few others in the past, do a post mortem analysis from which we can learn and improve for the next time.

I do not know how often these sort of opportunities really come up, but the last one that I remember that had any real consequences was the truck trailer assembly shop that eventually was built in Salmon Arm, I believe. We never really got full disclosure on why that happened.

Are we owned such an analysis by the City to its population? I think we are. If anyone at the City thinks otherwise, then let us know why. It is our City, not Council’s or Administration’s nor IPG’s City. Those entities are only the ones we entrust to do the best they can on our behalf. It is time they remember that every now and then. This is one of those times.

1. Were we ever in the running in the first place?

2. If so –

– How much effort was put into the competition?

– What were out strengths?

– What were out weaknesses?

– given those, what steps did we take to decrease our weaknesses and increase our strengths?

– are the reasons we lost common to future such outside companies that may consider PG for such a major facility within their operation.

– often such losses means other possible associated businesses will decide not to expand or locate here. If that is the case, what other potential dominos have fallen?

That’s enough for now.

I guess we can get rid of another downtown property now if were were holding one for this facility.

Lets face it–we were a lumber producing city and that’s the bottom line. The city, Pat Bell, Shirley B and many others would like you to believe we are just entering a “boom” but that’s a lie. We are much farther North than Kamloops — duh, it’s cold here. It stays cold longer than Kamloops, we have no oil or gas, Mines are being built that are not really close to PG. Those mines will probably employ 100 people–maybe. So, if we have 6 mines and employ 600 people what does that do for PG? Not much because the mines are closer to Burns Lake, Quesnel and other small towns. PG will gain nothing but your taxes will continue to rise. It isn’t just PG that has my dander up–it’s BC’s politics and policies on social programs, crown corps, etc. Wages for politicians are a direct conflict of what they preach for the rest of us.

We also had two fiber board plants that were planned for the Salmon Valley area that were canceled in the last five years. Ainsworth was one of the companies involved I think. Each one was to employ in excess of 250 people… possibly 3-1 outside workers as well. Salmon Valley would have become a suburb of PG (with lower taxes).

And the Charcoal plant for Isle Pierre that would have been a world leader has been canceled as well.

PG use to have the makings of a very good manufacturing sector with Canada wide producers of truck box bodies, trailers, and river boats… most of that has been vanquished as well.

In my day I started the first powder coating shop in Northern BC. The product was essential for a quality finished product in the metal manufacturing industry. None of the existing shops had the ability to run a powder coating shop alone for their own products, so my plan was to have an outside shop that serviced all of them at a price they could never do it on their own for. The idea was that by improving the quality of their products and creating that added value it would enable growth in the entire industry and raise all boats. My oven was the first one in North America big enough to bake a river boat or truck box body… a huge competitive advantage for that kind of manufacturing.

At the time all the producers were on board and we had good results. I had huge plans for creating joint projects with suppliers that had different strengths, and the quality jobs that would have been created and sustained would have seen no limit IMO.

One problem was the city of PG. The mayor at the time had a friend that started a competing business in Kamloops. Their idea was if they could strangle the north from competition they could get all the work from Kamloops North sent to Kamloops, and eventually open a subsidiary shop here in PG… maybe. So the purchasing manger at the city and the mayor found ways to send a truck load of work down south to Kamloops every week, while me and my partners shop was located only a block away from the city yards shop… our tax dollars going to our competitors in a city 400km away because of personal connections through the old PGARA race track buddy system I guess. At the time we did better work IMO with it all coming down to prep work and the latest state of the art equipment.

Anyways if you can’t get your own city to support a local company that brings a needed service to local industry enabling it to sell a better product and compete in a wider circle, then that doesn’t help much. I also had the mistake of allowing majority partners into the business plan that later wanted to be ‘business owners’ and not ‘business employees’… being the one with all the loan guarantee risk I opted for a buy out. I still think had I had control I could have help created hundreds if not thousands of jobs. So much for that though once spent twice shy.

In the end people cut corners and everyone worked against each other and today we don’t manufacture truck box bodies or trailers here in PG in any significant numbers, and we have only one quality river boat company left. Hundreds of jobs dwindled away.

But those kinds of free enterprise jobs are not the kind of jobs PG wants anyways. PG wants the old boys club and big multinationals that make the headlines and we get what we aim for IMO… just not the jobs is all.

No doubt when a major trailer manufacture looks at PG’s past they would not see much reason to locate here as well.

Why would IPG be interested in a minor hundred million dollar project when PG is on the tresh hold of billions. Nice of PG to leave some of the dregs for others.

IPG seems to be very silent.

“Why would IPG be interested in a minor hundred million dollar project when PG is on the tresh hold of billions. Nice of PG to leave some of the dregs for others”

Because it was a committed project that would have been within city limits (thus increasing the tax base) that would help to diversify the economy of PG and provide jobs for people. It very likely could have also served as a “seed” of sorts because tech related businesses like to co-locate with other tech businesses. Get one and you dramatically increase the chance that you can start to build a cluster of like minded businesses within your city, to which the benefits are significant. Some of those are obvious (more jobs, more taxes, etc.) and some aren’t (more exposure for the city nationally and internationally, an influx of new skilled workers to PG, the potential to help move the city away from a heavy industrial base, etc.).

Or, IPG could focus on what COULD happen in and around the 1,000km swath of land that PG is adjacent to and hope for some spinoff from that.

How many times in Northern BC have we heard “things are going to boom”, “things must be good, the mill added another shift” or “just wait until the mine opens then things are going to take off”? All the while, places like Kamloops just tick along taking advantage of things like these “minor” 100 million dollar projects? Which areas of the Province are growing again and which ones aren’t? Hmmm . . .

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/871543/telus-reports-third-quarter-2011-results

From the above 2011 third quarter Telus report

“TELUS is enhancing its national network of data centres and related facilities, drawing upon green hydro power, natural cooling and other technology to make them among the most environmentally sustainable operations of their type in North America.

“This includes an investment of approximately $65 million in a new intelligent Internet data centre (IDC) in Rimouski, Quebec, which will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Standards. The new facility is expected to be completed in 2012 and supports the Company’s cloud computing and unified communications solutions for its clients.

“The Rimouski location is expected to provide greater geographic diversity and improved business continuity capabilities, and offers advantages of a skilled workforce, Quebec’s hydroelectric power grid and a moderate climate that lowers energy requirements.”

That’s a backgrounder to what characteristics a Telus Data Centre has. That part of the report was followed by this:

“In August, (2011) TELUS purchased land in Kamloops, B.C. on which the Company plans to build another IDC. After site preparation and finalization of plans, construction is expected to begin in 2012 with costs similar to the Rimouski IDC. The Kamloops location provides geological stability, as well as access to reliable power, TELUS’ networks and an available skilled workforce.”

As reported in the Kamloops paper, that project will not be a $100 million project. The total amount $100 million to be spent in Kamloops will include a number of other infrastructure improvements.

Telus has over 400 employees in PG. I am not sure how many there are in Kamloops. I sure did not realize that Telus was doing business across Canada. Good for them!

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120302/KAMLOOPS0101/120309954/-1/kamloops01/telus-to-spend-100-million-over-three-years-on-kamloops-data-centre

Kamllops paper says $100 million over 3 years with $75 million on data centre.

Looks like the decision was made last summer fall. It was certainly evident last fall. Should we have known by then? It seems that if we were watching the info and if we were ever really in the running, we should have known by then. So why weere we not told the “bad” news?

I somehow doubt we were ever really in the running. Notice the little thing about mild climate for Rimouski. Kamloops is certainly milder than PG. But it is also hotter and will be requiring more cooling unless they build the facility underground. Rimouski is about the same as PG, except it is closer to the mouth of the St. Lawrence and gets about 50% more precipitation, which includes about 50% more snow.

Why would any buisness want to bring something like that to “Pothole City”? Welcome to Prince George bang crash missing hubcaps flat tires bent rims Yee Haw!