Mayor Says Meeting with Premier Positive Session

Friday, January 23, 2009 03:31 PM

Prince George, B.C.- The Mayor of Prince George , Dan Rogers, says the session with the Premier today was an opportunity to advance projects that could help stimulate the economy. “Specifically, we talked about the building of Boundary Road” says the Mayor.

Boundary Road would link Highways 16 east and 97 south through the airport lands.

It is a multi million dollar project which the City hopes can be developed through a three way cost sharing formula. The project would further enhance the development of the Prince George Airport lands for cargo handling and distribution.

Boundary Road is also a key component of the City's Dangerous Goods Route.

"We also talked about improvements to Highway 97 north through the Pine Pass" says Rogers. Together with the Northern Development Initiatives Trust, the Minitry of Transportation is currently carrying out a study to see what economic opportunities are being lost because of the challenges posed by the low rail underpasses, and narrow winding features of the highway. There are claims a great deal of oil patch service industry work is being lost because of the restrictions posed by the highway's limitations to handle large equipment .

"Anyone who has travelled through the Pine Pass knows there are changes that could be made to make the road safer for everyone" says Rogers "It would also be good to open the corridor for companies in this region, rather than seeing B.C. companies turning to Alberta for their supplies and equipment."

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Posted on Friday, January 23, 2009 03:31 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarguy on January 23 2009 4:49 PM

I welcome an improvement of the pine pass, including some more passing lanes but the oil industry will continue to source from Grande Prairie. 7% PST is a big reason plus it is cheaper to operate a business in Alberta and just have your workers drive into BC for work. Plus I find the supply companies in AB have a good concept of customer service whereas in BC you have to really hunt down a good supply company.

Posted by: gamblor on January 23 2009 6:30 PM

Yes but the royalty changes in AB have many companies wanting to relocate to BC and SK just for spite. We should get while the gettin's good.

Posted by: lunarguy on January 23 2009 10:14 PM

My company is based out of Alberta and trust me BC has to make things a lot more attractive before I base it out of here even if 60-70% of my business is in BC.

Posted by: Chester on January 23 2009 10:27 PM

The problems of the narrow highways and the low overpasses were discussed, acknowledged and relayed to government ministers at least 3 years ago in PG during a round table meeting with about 35 small business owners in the area. Rick Thorpe was the government minister who met with us. "Ministry of Transportation is carrying out a study"? Ha, just more delays to drag out the enevitable. The highways need to be able to handle large pieces of equipment if we have any hope of developing our resources in this area. This is not new and not a surprise to anyone who works in the area.

Posted by: gus on January 23 2009 11:14 PM

Edmonton is not much further than PG is to Dawson Creek and Ft. St. John and Grande Prairie is much closer, of course.

So what guarantees are there that increasing the clearance heigth on the highway is going to give PG the amount of business it needs in order to pay for the millions it would take to increase the size capacity? How quickly will there be a return on investment? To whom will that investment accrue?

Posted by: gus on January 23 2009 11:15 PM

I know, a toll on overheight equipment ought to establish whether it is an economic approach.

Posted by: Eagleone on January 24 2009 2:23 AM

Delivering something as simple as a front end loader to the Peace is a problem, because the lowbed off track on the blind corners in the Pine Pass... and that is a cost for everyone that uses that highways in the chance that it is or is not them in the wrong place at the wrong time... unless we shut down all trade with the rest of BC for the Peace country that chance will always be there until the highway is fixed.

Posted by: taxinapothole on January 24 2009 6:57 AM

Eagleone, whattttttttttttttttt???? You should go back to reviewing books, you make no sense at all!!

You seem to be an authority on everything. You remind me of my mother, she always thought the whole world was stupid, and she thought she was the ultimate authority on everything.

She would fancy herself as the Queen of England!! Fancy that! What do you fancy yourself as Eagleone??? The king of ?????????????????, what a bunch of rubbish!

Posted by: yellow shovel on January 24 2009 10:28 AM

oh oh.....havin a testy day are we taxinapothole? Thats the nice thing bout 250.. Kinda like tv....if you don't like something ....just click up or down. Chill out bud!!

Posted by: gus on January 24 2009 12:08 PM

"Delivering something as simple as a front end loader to the Peace is a problem"

And that "problem" will cost how much to fix is the question I have. Then there is the question of how much of the large payload delivery to and from the Peace will shift to this part of BC rather than staying with Alberta.

Is this just a laying of the blame on government for a business not being able to compete with Alberta?