VETERAN NEW Hazelton councillor Pieter Weeber Sr. who passed away this week from cancer drew a mention from Premier Christy Clark in her closing speech to the Union of BC Municipalities today.
She quoted Weeber concerning the prospect of a potential liquefied natural gas industry in the region.
“'You hear that sound of helicopters, that is the sound of money, that is the sound of growth, that is the sound of change,'" said Clark in quoting Weeber regarding the use of helicopters in natural gas pipeline survey work.
"Peter died on Wednesday. But I am so glad that that great mayor of that small, plucky optimistic community got to see change again,” continued Clark.
“I'm glad he got to be a part of that change as we get started on it in British Columbia. And now our job is to make sure that change keeps going,” she said.
(Although he has been mayor of New Hazelton in past years, Wieber was a municipal councillor when he died in the early morning hours of Sept. 18.)
He sat either as a New Hazelton councillor or as that community's mayor ever since the municipality was formed in 1980.
Wieber was also a long time Kitimat-Stikine regional district representative and a school trustee.
He also ran for Parliament as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Skeena in the 1984 federal election but was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat NDP incumbent Jim Fulton.