Terrace city council candidate Allan McIntyre has some of the deepest roots in the area of those seeking municipal office this election.
They go back to his great-grandfather, missionary J.B. McCullagh, who lived and worked in the Nass Valley in the late 1800s and early 1990s.
And his grandmother operated a restaurant in the Nass Valley for years.
McIntyre, 43 and born in Terrace, himself lived in the Nass for 13 years when his father was stationed there as a fisheries officer.
“I went to school there and from that know some of the [Nisga’a] leaders of today. And hopefully those relationships will come in handy as we move forward with First Nations as our neighbours,” said McIntyre.
Now an independent construction contractor and safety officer on proposed pipeline projects and other developments, McIntyre worked at the Skeena Cellulose sawmill here when it went into bankruptcy protection and eventually closed in the early part of the last decade.
“A lot of families were disrupted and a lot of people had to leave,” he recalls.
It was that experience which makes McIntyre cautious about the improving economic climate of today.
“We need to be choosy about who we do business with. That’s not to say we’re closed to business, but we should be careful,” McIntyre states.
He favours the city encouraging the development of local trades training, particularly among the young First Nations population, to reduce the dependence on temporary foreign workers should major developments being promoted in the region take hold.
“They are future taxpayers and contributors to the culture of our city,” said McIntyre of the area’s youth.
He feels taxpayers are generally satisfied with the general direction the current city council is taking the city.
“I know there’s an issue about spending money on the Co-op lands,” McIntyre said about the city’s continued financial commitment to obtain environmental clearance so the property can be sold. “But it’s not going to get done otherwise.”
And although McIntyre has heard complaints about the city’s new recycling program, he believes it will grow on residents and he favours expanding it.
McIntyre was nominated by Carol Fielding and Ernest Froese.