A SIGNING ceremony at the airport on a sunny April day in 2007 established the groundwork for what’s regarded as a necessity today for development in British Columbia.
Glenn Bennett, then the chief councillor at Kitselas, and Jack Talstra, then the mayor of Terrace, put their names to a memorandum of understanding setting out the broad framework for a partnership to develop the industrial park.
The land is within Kitselas traditional territory and an agreement between the city and the Kitselas would answer a key question for potential industrial users before it was even asked – has there been involvement and approval by the First Nation on whose traditional territory the land is located.
The 2007 signing resulted in a more formal 2011 agreement setting out who pays for what.
Sales and lease monies will first go to repay development costs, then it will go to repay any losses, then to repay contributions made to the joint venture, then to an infrastructure reserve account, and then will be split between the parties, according to the joint-venture agreement.
Terrace will assumes 100 per cent of the losses, which will be a charge against revenues.
For tax revenue, laid out in the revenue sharing agreement, a formula based on the census population of Terrace and Kitselas is used to determine each amount.
“We are the first First Nation in B.C. to enter into such an agreement and I’m pretty proud of that,” said Judy Gerow, the Kitselas chief councillor in 2011.
“It just strengthens the relationship between Kitselas and Terrace and I’m excited about the prospects of entering into the business partnership with them.”