“IPG says are needed to make Prince George the hub of the north”

And tell me, why does PG have to be the hub of the so-called North?

Can we see any cost benefit analysis that was presented for any of the wants put forward? Or is this like a bunch of little kids asking Santa to bring them nice Xmas gifts?

I noticed on a recent drive south that they are continuing to complete the widening of the road from 100 mile south to where the descent to Clinton starts. It seems to me that the province is doing the low hanging fruit first, rather than the stretches which gain the most benefit for those between te largest population centres, such as PG to Quesnel; Quesnel to WL as well as the bypass routes for Quesnel and Williams Lake. The cost is more per km, I am sure, but the number of people who benefit is also much greater.

This is not only about the drive from PG to Kamloops where people can connect to the rest of the province south and west. This ia also about the central interurban connections and, I believe, very much more about those connections.

Again, I wonder if there is a justification report available to us peons which deals with cost/benefit analysis of several approaches to sequencing the twinning project.

It seems to me that twinning the Highways West, and South, are coming a little late.

Firstly I agree with Gus. Why all the hyperbole about being the hub of the North. The fact of the matter is we have been the hub of North Central BC for over 100 years. If some of these dudes from IPG would read a little of Prince George’s history they would know this.

We have the Airlines, Railway, Trucking, roads North, South, East, and West, and basically service the whole of the Interior.

Improving Highway 16 West needs to be done because it is a bad stretch of road, and has a high traffic volume. Especially from say, Burns Lake to Prince George. Just from a safety point of view this road should be doubled in some areas, and have more passing lanes, however twinning it all the way to Prince Rupert is probably a waste of money. Same thing with Highway 97 South. The fact of the matter is, people are leaving this area as fast as they are coming in, and if anything over the years we have a net loss. So why the expansion??

Keep in mind that all the projects that are being built will move their product (for the most part) via rail or ship. Most of the mines on Highway 37 will ship out through Stewart BC. Any and all of the LNG Plants (if they are built) will use pipelines, so once they are built the road traffic will fall off. I suggest that the initial plants would be completed long before any road expansion is completed.

We need to have the Government back off on useless spending. It seems they have the money in the budget and they have this compelling need to spend it.

Lets get rid of the Carbon Tax for starters, and start to move money from the various Government entities to Municipalities so that they can use it for infrastructure, and reducing taxes.

Low taxes, jobs, and taxpayers with money to spend would do more for the economy than a stretch of road in the middle of a wilderness.

Take a drive to McBride if you want to see a long stretch of Highway that is totally under utilized. No traffic, no business. Nice to have but expensive.

From south of Clinton, the route should be connecting to the Coq. outside of Kamloops if they are really serious, than turn the Fraser Canyon into a tourist route.

They are doing the easy jobs first. who wouldn’t. It would be interesting to see if we do, do it in the twenty years.

It probably should be four lanes from PG to at least to Clucultz Lake.

I think improve cell service between PG and thru the Pine Pass is very important.

If Prince George is going to get the benefit of the Site C, the Pine Pass needs a bit more work, at least the south end for sure.

4 lanes to highway 27 should be all thats needed. After that, not enough traffic to warranty it.

We have four lanes to hell in PG what more do we need. lets get Queen Green on it instead of to China
Cheers

The only way PG is going to grow is if, not when the big one shakes Victoria and Vancouver (and Richmond) into oblivion will all those 604 folks trudge all the way up here to live. Stopping in Kelowna, Penticton and Vernon only to find they are gonna run out of water in about ten years. We here in PG will look good. And not only will we have many more people, our taxes will go down because of that. Wilbur said so. I heard him. You heard it here first.

Wilbur. The same Wilbur that is suddenly a transportation and logistics expert ?

“There is great potential in mining.”

LOL ….

Let me see … every 10 years or so, there is great potential in mining. Followed by a similar number of years of a less than great potential right up to mine closures.

from June’s G&M
[url]
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/the-chinese-resource-supercycle-slows-down/article2444088/?service=mobile%5B/url%5D

“Beijing’s construction boom, in full force up until just a few months ago (written in June), has geared down sharply. Mr. Sun says sales are so slow these days, he no longer orders new stock unless a buyer requests it.”

other articles:

1. “Dearth of mining deals rattles Bay Street”

2. “Miners’ soaring profits to come back to earth”

“For the global mining industry, the worry is that the supercycle is ending.”
====================================

Very disconcerting that a CEO of a chamber of commerce in a central BC community, geographically close to mining activities and mining service companies which supply mines, is challenged in understanding the nature of mining and its relationship to economic boom and bust cycles.

So the potential is what? To keep having families living in single industry towns without any certainty of the value of personal investments in their homes?

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/the-chinese-resource-supercycle-slows-down/article2444088/?service=mobile

Hey Gus I think we would be better off to simplify our town’s industries. I mean mining doesn’t provide high paying jobs. Much better we all work for the city.

Well, City employees are gold diggers, so they are miners in a way …;-)

From an article in July’s BC Business “where the jobs are”

“a closer look at the numbers shows that the growth hasn’t been uniform across the province. Rather, it’s very much a tale of three key regions: while the metropolitan centres of the southwest scramble to attract professionals and the northeast attracts an itinerant army of trades workers, through the vast swath of the province’s heartland (include PG in that) people are wondering whether the jobs will ever come back.”

Mining is cyclical. Education is not. Health is not. And yes, neither is government.

The planning, research, financial, regulatory, safety, etc services for mining, forestry, oil and gas, potash, and even large scale agriculture are virtually all located in large urban centres. Many of them are quite versatile and can take on different sub industries as clients. The closer one gets to the work “on the ground” the more vulnerable it is to cycles.

The more people we have who do not understand that and treat the whole change of the increasing number of people who provide the support services (including the design and building of the mining equipment which is generally not manufactured in Canada) per unit of mined feedstock and the diminishing number of people who operate the machinery on the ground, the more we have our heads in the sand seemingly unwilling to look at the realities of the changes.

To put it in simpler terms, the towns supporting the mines close to where they are, are getting smaller while the communities which support a number of activities, including mines, are growing.

The questions then become

1. can we turn that around?
2. do we want to turn that around?
3. does the net value – economically, socially, and environmentally – increase or decrease?

If the answer to the above is yes for 1 and 2 and there is an increase in net value of the change, then the question left to be answered is who will push for the change – PG and other similar communities, or Vancouver/Victoria?

I think we know the answer to that.