Business in Vancouver zeroes in on Port Edward's place in the LNG landscape

The prospect of major growth for
Port Edward is profiled in
Business in Vancouver magazine

It would seem that Premier Clark isn't the only person who is a booster of Port Edward and Mayor Dave MacDonald, with the publication Business in Vancouver giving the north coast community and its Mayor a shout out in yesterday's news flow.

Port Edward was one of the featured attractions on the business magazine's website on Tuesday, with the article Welcome to Port Edward: Ground Zero for B. C.'s gas export industry ambitions, one part history lesson and another an enthusiastic preview of just what kind of change may be heading the way of Prince Rupert's neighbouring community.

And while even those that live in Port Edward may get a chuckle out of the line from the story that describes the centre of their community "The first work camp will be about a mile from what passes as downtown Port Edward", a location which we gather is the community store on Skeena Drive.

The article does however provide some good background on how Port Edward is attempting to battle back from the darkest days of the North Coast's financial troubles of the last ten years or, noting the community's efforts to build a new community school and some of the major development plans that have been proposed for the District should the Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal project begin its construction phase.

From housing development plans, to what could be the development of something that one day would
resemble a more complete downtown area for the community, the Business in Vancouver article highlights much of the progress that Port Edward has made when it comes to getting a share of the economic boost that we have been told is on the way for the region.

The work of Port Edward Mayor
Dave MacDonald  is highlighted
in an article in Business in Vancouver

The challenges that are in place are noted as well, infrastructure issues, funding concerns and acknowledgment that some in the community are not in favour of the large scale development that is on the District's door step.

One theme that might get picked up by sharp eyed readers is the suggestion that the Lax Kw'alaams Band appears to be softening its stance on the proposed project, something which may be percolating in the background somewhere, but for the moment hasn't received much in the way of a public declaration.

Another is the the sense of optimism that Mayor MacDonald continues to exhibit about the prospect of what would a major change for his community. With the Mayor making note of how different Port Edward could look once development gets moving forward.

Noting that he believes the project is coming, he just doesn't know the date. Though he adds towards the end, that any decision from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency isn't expected to be made public until after the ongoing Federal election campaign.

You can review the full Business in Vancouver overview here.

For more notes related to Port Edward see our archive page here.

An overview of the Pacific NorthWest LNG project can be found here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review