As it has been all along
a whole lot of talk and that is it...
patting himself on the back for doing nothing????

Patting themselves on the back to set themselves up for failure?

I just do not understand why anyone would do that. I suspect that we should wait till things play out a bit more. After all, they do not have to hype this up to the extent that they have. It is not as if the election is coming up this May.

Rustad is a real lightweight. Doesn't seem to be able to do anything but parrot what others say and suck up to El gordo. Couldn't even organize the committee he was chairing to appoint a new Childrens's representative without dropping the ball and looking like an incompetent fool. You would think that after his pathetic performance on the public school board people would have known better than to elect this guy to higher office. The Peter Principle is alive and well!

He's just looking ahead. His next job will be to fill containers with lumber at the BCR Industrial site.

Rustad is a backbencher. Do you think that a backbencher would get up in the house and spout off something which the party in power would not approve of?

Ministers make annoucements. Backbenchers provide hints, as long as they do not take the wind out of the minister's or premier's sails.

So, is he providing us with hints? Or is he a backbencher out of control?

The retoric is in the right direction, but the question is if there is anything backing the retoric, or is it simply political. If its purely political than he is doing his constituents more harm than good.

More often than not these announcements for PG are purely political and as such are snake oil for the electorate in deciding on who to support for the agenda determining our future.

I feel that there are lot of people betting that this inland container port is going to happen here.
Maybe! But I doubt it is going to be as big as it is being promoted.....
I think there are a lot of people in for a big let down in the near future.....
very few will gain by this....
my opinion....

If you look at Rustads statements you will see that there is nothing of substance there.

(1) Asia account for 60% of the worlds population. So whats new?

(2) Prince George is ideally situated as an inland container port to help move GOODS THROUGH THE REGION.

(3) The Initiatives Pr George study determined that there is an opportunity for an Inland Port that would be largely determined by the TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY.

(4) The study also concluded that there would be economic benefits for other communities.

If this is not rhetoric, then I dont know what is.

I think it has been determined that all loaded containers from Prince Rupert will go to Eastern Canada and the US Midwest. (No new business here)

Empty containers coming back will be loaded wherever they can find loads and if there are empty containers that get to Prince George they will be loaded with Lumber,Pulp, Paper, and some Log Houses. This business presently goes through the Port of Vancouver. (No new business here)

You will have a Container Reload yard located at the old BC Rail Industrial Yard., and maybe a empty Container Storage yard, on the CN Property on First Avenue. If they use 1st Ave., to store containers then the view from Victoria St.and 1st to the cutbanks will be blocked as they usually stack containers in storage 6 or 7 high which would be roughly 70 ft or more.

There is no other Industry within a 200 mile radius of Prince George that produces anything that would be sent to South East Asia in any quantity. (Maybe some copper concentrates)

Some people would say that this Inland Container Terminal in conjunction with the Airport expansion is a 20 year plan, and that Industry will locate here once the Port is established.

I say this is BUNKO. If the mandate of the Airport Authority did not force them to spend all the money collected from Airport Improvement Fees ($1,600,000.00 per year) on Airport Improvements there would be no expansion. Who ever heard of spending 30 Million dollars on a project on the basis that they might get some business some day. Only people spending taxpayers money would ever try such a venture.

There is no New Industry coming to Prince George that I am aware of that could support an Inland Container Distribution Terminal, mainly because they are located close to huge population areas, which only makes sense. Prince George has a mere 77,000 people, and maybe 175,000 in a 250 mile radius, so unless you can come up with something besides a **Call Centre** I think people are living in a dream world.

welllll, i think i would rather have people dream on and think positive about possibilities for PG than just shoot down any idea that comes along. As I understand it an inland port is being considered by the rail company. If it ends up in PG we will get jobs and benefits. Period. We need to start thinking along these lines if we are to reduce our dependence on the forest industry.
I cant see any reason to slag Mr Rustad for making some noise about PG as a good candidate for an inland port. Thats his job, people. If it turns out we get the port, great. If it turns out otherwise, surely our chances will not have been damaged be Mr Rustad singing the praises of PG. Also, it is a fact that positive PR goes a long way to building confidence as far as potential investors are concerned.
PG can have a bright future only if the people here start to beleive in it.

Thanks for reminding us all of that caranmacil .... don't bet on it as in thinking that it is owed to us, but set the scene so that we are in the best position possible to draw such activity to us.

And if we take business away from the Vancouver port, all the better for our road systems and likely more efficient use of energy as well. I am sure Vancouver will not be worse off for it.

caranmacil. Elected officials, Municipal, Federal, Provincial, have a responsibility to give taxpayers the facts. Making vague statements about various projects without giving out all the information is misleading.

Since the beginning of the speculation that an Inland Container Port could be located in Prince George they have hyped the fact that jobs would be created. Not once have they ever indicated that jobs would be lost. This is my point. If you are going to make statements about projects etc;, then lets get all the facts, not just those that serve your purpose.

As I said in the past there are approx 75000 Containers loaded with Pulp, Paper, and Lumber that comes from this area, that are presently loaded in Vancouver. This Pulp,Paper, and Lumber is presently handled to Vancouver via Truck, and Rail. Once this traffic starts to load to Prince Rupert it will kill off some of the jobs in Prince George that presently handle this traffic to Vancouver. Ie; Primarily trucking jobs out of Prince George.

To give you an example. One local carrier presently handles 40 Super-B-Trains a month of lumber to Vancouver for loading in Containers. If this lumber is loaded in Containers in Prince George you will lose this business to Vancouver. In other words 480 Truckloads per year. This loss must be viewed in regards to less Diesel Sales, Less tire sales,less repairs, less saleries
to Drivers, etc; Now this particular carrier is a small player when it comes to trucking lumber to Vancouver, so you can see that overall there could be a huge loss of jobs if these trucks are no longer required. There are a lot of other jobs that will be lost to a Container Terminal, and of course there will be jobs added., however the bottome line is at this time, no one, I repeat no one, can say that there will be a net increase, or a net loss of jobs.

Its not a question of shooting down ideas. Its a question of trying to get all the facts out. Another example of the hype, is the expansion of the runway at the PG Airport, and the jobs that it may create. This is alway highly publicized,. but they rarely mention that since the Airport Authority took over the Airport in 2003
they have reduced their manning by 20 People. So first and foremost we have a decrease in full time jobs. These jobs may be replaced over time with the expansion, however until it actually occurs, what we really have is a loss of 20 jobs. Get it.

My speculation at this point is that at best you will not have a net gain in jobs, with an Inland Container Terminal.