Bid for Watson Island
By 250 News
Friday, September 24, 2010 03:49 AM
Prince Rupert, B.C. – The City of Prince Rupert says there’s a new development in its attempt to sell off the location of the shuttered former Skeena Cellulose and Sunwave Forest Products Mill.
A month ago, Mayor Jack Mussallem said the city was starting the process of putting the Watson Island Industrial site on the block. Now a joint venture group consisting of the Metlakatla Development Corporation, the Prince Rupert Port Authority, and the Lax Kw’alaams Indian Band have stepped forward to kick the tires.
Mussallem says the site offers significant potential for economic development and regional jobs related to the transportation sector, including container loading and unloading. Prince Rupert city council has been grappling with what to do with the island since it took over ownership of the pulp mill site following Sunwave’s failure to cough up millions in taxes. The mayor estimates the loss to Prince Rupert at $30 million in taxes over the last ten years.
In exchange for exclusivity rights to Watson Island, the joint venture group will cover the monthly maintenance costs for the industrial site while it conducts a feasibility study and business planning.
Mayor Mussallem admits the purchase of the property will be anything but straightforward. He says Sunwave still has ownership of some equipment at the pulp mill site. He says there are also a number of volatile chemicals in storage at Watson Island which the city wants Sunwave to remove.
The city of Prince Rupert says the joint venture group’s study of the business case for Watson Island could take anywhere from 6 months to a year to complete.
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Use the existing stockpile location for wood chips and the exiting infrastructure for the Co-gen unit and they could put one in place there cheeper than anywhere else in the province... and lets face it they have no hope of ever having a forest industry in that region unless they can sell their split off product like hog and wood chips.
Between the natives, abundant access to wood fiber, economic development, the need, the location, the advantages all point to one thing....
AIMHO