NO further proof is needed about how Terrace and Thornhill are so inextricably linked than having the latter pop up in the former’s municipal election campaign now underway.
Outgoing Terrace mayor Dave Pernarowski’s musings at a chamber of commerce luncheon about the possibility of a ‘super municipality’ in which the two communities would be joined touched off reaction by Terrace municipal candidates.
There are basically two camps. One advocates a hands off approach in that Terrace has no business trying to influence Thornhill affairs while the other seeks a closer governing relationship of some sort.
Ted Ramsey, the Thornhill director on the Kitimat-Stikine regional district board, in suggesting Thornhill should incorporate, is quite right when he says “old Thornhill” is no more.
But if “old Thornhill” is no more then the same is true for “old Terrace” because the inescapable conclusion is that if large industrial developments such as LNG are to take hold at some date, the same kind of development and quality of life pressures will be felt by both.
So the issue then becomes how the communities can become prepared and how they can respond when the rest of the world shows up at our collective front door.
So “us” versus “them” has no role to play. It’s not who is driving the bus, it’s the final destination which ultimately counts.
Editorial, The Terrace Standard, Nov. 12, 2014