NORTHWESTERN economic development agencies and local governments have created a common website designed as the door leading to information about planned industrial projects and resulting economic opportunities.
“It contains the basic information,” explained Evan van Dyk from the Terrace Economic Development Authority.
“Once you are in, you can go to any particular site for more information on a project. This is really meant to give you the basics about what is going to happen in the region,” he said.
The www.investnorthwestbc.ca project began after van Dyk, after having a casual conversation with several local business owners, realized there was no one central website providing an easy reference location for major industrial projects.
“So this is really for someone living here as much as it is for an investor from elsewhere,” he said. Van Dyk said the region is poised to take part in a major economic boom and that it’s important to make available consistent information.
“Next up, next year, we foresee a job board for every company and a community page for each community,” he added.
The theme of a regional cooperative approach coming from the central website was taken up by Alex Pietralla from the Kitimat-Terrace Industrial Development Society. “What’s going to happen here is going to be large, very large,” he said. “We can do so much more if we are together. If are not, we are all going to miss some of the opportunities coming our way.”
Pietralla says Terrace has a future in building on a foundation of being a services hub for the region.
Along with the City of Terrace, the Terrace Economic Development Authority and the Kitimat-Terrace Industrial Development Society, economic development agencies in Prince Rupert and Kitimat and Haida Gwaii and governments in Stewart, Hazelton, New Hazelton and Smithers are taking part. Grants were received from the Northern Development Initiatives Trust and the federal government’s foreign affairs and international trade department.