Industry And trades April 2017 Issue
STORY PAGE 8
Product of
Harris Hurries Helicopters
Forest Safety Ombudsman Calls 9-1-1 For Air Ambulance
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Inside
Prince George’s Original Wine Maker...............................................PG 3 Renovations Today - Citizen Looks Back To Morrow.................. PG 4 Harris Hurries Helicopters...................................................................PG 8 Working to be Canadian.....................................................................PG 11 Perrin Beatty’s National Dream........................................................ PG 13
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Prince George’s Original Wine Maker Written by Frank Peebles
Curt Garland didn’t like the silence of the telephone, and it made his well honed business senses tingle. He was in the Okanagan area looking for only a few acres of vineyard to grow his own grapes on. He had recently build new house on West Lake, it had a spacious wine cellar, and he wanted an active hand in filling it himself. But all the places for sale also had an expensive home on the property, and he didn’t want to take on home ownership 700 kilometres from his actual hometown. Garland made his name in several business ventures over the years. He took four tractortrailers in 1977 and turned it into the bustling Lomac trucking company that services the pulp industry to this day. He also owned a sawmill and plywood plant in Fort Nelson, a managed forest in Uruguay, and other business ventures. So when his eyes landed on an Okanagan newspaper item about a winery in receivership, he knew what to do. But when several days of his calls were not returned, he deduced the receiver was already courting someone else’s buyout offer. So he called the majority shareholder instead, and did a deal to buy the cash-strapped winery out of receivership. All of that happened in 2004, and 12 years later Hester Creek Winery is a star company in B.C. It took his decades of business acumen to turn around, but some key decisions led the way. The first was to not only pay off the secured creditors in the Hester Creek receivership case, but also pay the outstanding bills of the unsecured debtors. Most of them were small businesses nearby, and he knew they would have a bitter taste for Hester Creek if they got burned in the deal. The second move was to invest in key senior managers. “Anybody can build a winery, but you can’t make good wine if you don’t have good
people,” he said. “Right from the get-go I understood there were 150 other wineries around here so in order to compete I’d have to go for the top, right from the start. Everything is about people.” He is as passionate today about Hester Creek’s operations, and especially pulling new corks, as he was when surveying his empty wine cellar at West Lake in 2004. “It isn’t even considered work anymore. You’ve got to be having fun or it doesn’t work,” said Garland. He has as much excitement for his hometown as he does for his winery. He could easily have moved to the Okanagan to be closer to his grapes and his wine team, but Prince George still has that earthy pull on him. “I’m born in Prince George and I’m very committed to the town. I like to help. I really like Prince George, it has been good for me, and hopefully I can be good for Prince George.”
An Okanagan Winery Especially For PG
Prince George has a winery in the Okanagan with roots all the way back here to the northern capital. Hester Creek Winery is one of B.C.’s star wine companies, but it wasn’t always this way. Shuttered, falling apart, suffering on the balance sheet, the original company was only a shell when Prince George businessman and philanthropist (that’s his name on the Salvation Army’s service centre) Curt Garland stepped in to buy it in 2004. Today, it is a hive of activity with an applauded restaurant, splendid winery buildings and vineyards, and most importantly an award-winning set of wines. The latest is their 2013 Syrah Viognier, named as one of this year’s 12 Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence winners. It was the fourth time in the past five years that Hester Creek Curt has made this Gardland. exclusive list Handout Photo “and that’s a first for
any winery here in the Okanagan, and that speaks to the consistency of our process and the consistent results we’re getting,” said Hester Creek president Mark Sheridan. Sheridan and other key staff from the winery will be on-hand when Save-OnFoods unveils its first Prince George wine specialty store on July 16 and 17. In fact, Hester Creek is the only winery who will be there in person, pouring wines and having discussions with the public about how wine is made, what foods go best with which B.C. bottles, and how to get maximum enjoyment from the all-B.C. collection being sold in this new venture. “Hester Creek is very proud to be partnering with the Save-On-Foods group and being part of not only this opening, but also long term,” Sheridan said. These Save-On-Food wine boutiques are only possible due to changes by the provincial government in liquor licenses, after an exhaustive consultation process with the public and with industry. The licenses for these stores are in partnership with the British Columbia Wine Institute, of which Hester Creek is a dedicated member. “We see this as a new and exciting growth area not only for our province’s winemakers but for consumers to have access to our products,” Sheridan said. “Save-On-Foods has created the conditions for a very good fit, a solid approach, so we are just proud to be their partner.” The Prince George connections to Hester Creek Winery will tighten all the more when Northern Lights Estate Winery, Theatre North West and other associates hold the first annual Northern B.C. Wine Festival in October. Sheridan and Garland said their winery would be playing a prominent role in support of that event.
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Renovations Today –
Citizen Looks Back To Morrow Written by Frank Peebles
When people say they know something like the back of their hand, it was never more true than Trelle Morrow knowing the Prince George Citizen building. Morrow was staring at the back of his own hand for every stroke of the pencil on the graph paper. He sketched for hours, he measured and calculated, he dreamed every inch of the structure. He dreamed them wide awake and those dreams were in Prussian blue.
Morrow was the architect that W.B. (Binney) Milner called upon when the tycoon decided it was time the old Citizen operation needed a bigger home. Milner was the owner of the town’s daily paper at the time. He was also the owner of Eagle Lake Sawmill, a Salmon Valley dairy farm, Northern Dairies milk shipping company and several other ventures. Morrow wasn’t sure just what all Milner owned, since the wealthy industrialist lived almost exclusively in the Lower Mainland. “I only ever met him a couple of times,” said Morrow. Almost all of the architect’s deal-
Architect Trelle Morrow takes some pictures of the renovation being done to the Citizen building Monday. Morrow drew the plans for the orginal Citizen building on Brunswick street as well as the addition to the building. Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
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ings at that time were through Milner’s local intermediary, Gordon Brownridge. That time was 1962, when the architectural work took place. The building was built the following summer and opened in November 1963. One afternoon this past March, 55 years after he first put pencil to paper, he stopped by his architectural creation at 150 Brunswick St., to walk through the gutted shell of his brainchild and relive that construction project. It is sometimes said that a building “has good bones” and for The Citizen, and now for new owners Kopar Adminstration, those bones are
exceptional. Morrow smiled a delighted but knowing grin when Kopar’s Rob Glavina told him the findings of their engineering research pertaining to snow-load capabilities. In those days, the roof of a building had to be rated to hold up about 47 pounds per square foot whereas the building code today insists on 60. “(Contract engineer) Fergus Foley did the calculations for your building. It’s 80,” Glavina said. It’s no surprise to even the most casual of viewers, but only now can it be fully appreciated. The Citizen had, somewhere along the
compiled and sent it down to Vancouver (for way, installed a lot of T-bar false ceiling, hidthe glue lamination process). I’m not sure who ing most of the visual treasure – a soaring 17 they used but it was probably American Fabfoot ceiling of hulking wood beams holding ricators, they were doing a lot of good glulam up a wooden roof. Glulam (glued laminated work in those days. They would dress it down, timber) beams are not uncommon, even in get it ready, glue it all together, dress the architecture of that vintage, but these ones beams, plane them and all that kind of stuff. were unusual. Then they’d ship it all back again. “These beams are spruce so they were made “If we’d have used fir, it would all have come about 30 per cent deeper (than typical spliced from the coast. There’s really no fir in this wood beams),” Morrow said. area, until you get It had to be specially down to Williams calculated by engineers because Milner Everybody who comes Lake.” Although getting the had his sawmill and through marvels at wood and milling it access to enormous into lumber was cheap amounts of spruce. these open beams. for Milner, it probThe industry standard They are practically ably cost more than was to use fir, because had he just ordered fir, it is stronger for holdunaffordable now. due to all the shipping ing up roofing spans. involved down and Using spruce meant back, but Morrow said Milner didn’t think more wood to hold the same weight. anything of it. He was making a personal “Everybody who comes through marvels at statement with this wooden structure. these open beams. They are practically unaf“We just decided in those days that expense fordable now,” Glavina said. wasn’t that critical and what the hell, let’s “It was a prestige thing for Milner. He wanted have six or eight feet above the ceiling so to show the country – and he did – that we the ductwork guys aren’t complaining at us,” were the spruce capital, so let’s use spruce,” Morrow said. Morrow said. “Architects continually get complaints from “They hand-picked the lumber, got it all
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tradespeople: this is too tight, I can’t get in here to work, so they end up with duct work that looks like a contortionist designed it. But it allowed for that mezzanine at the back, too, y’see,” referring to the rooms added later as a quasi second floor in some parts of the building. Likewise, for the same reason, aiding in laying pipes and wires, the crawlspace underneath the main floor was more of a walkspace. “In the 1960s, the thought of an economic building was not as prevalent as it is today. Money was still tight, but when you get somebody who’s got lots of it, what the heck?, let’er go,” Morrow said. “He didn’t care.” Hence the four-inch decking used for the roof to get that huge snow-load rating and the thick double-tongue-in-groove decking used for the flooring. “A common complaint with buildings is the floors squeak, and it’s because they don’t secure the decking,” said Morrow, confident those well-linked hunks of wood would never rub a sour note. The final result was a clear, carefully stated message to the future about a particular era in Prince George’s history, even if you don’t consider all the documentation that went on – all the culture and politics, crime and business
stuffed between the newspaper pages – inside those softwood walls. “I am on the heritage commission and I tell the people around the table all the time to never mind when a building was built. Maybe it’s old but maybe it’s junk. What’s important is the context of a building. How was it made? Why was it built that way? What was it for? Those are the important questions when you look for historical value in a building. This one happens to be loaded in all that,” Morrow said. The only part of the historical significance lost to the transitional renovation was the original demountable partitions put in as interior walls between some of the rooms. “They were the first ever used in Prince George,” he said. Morrow’s story doesn’t end at 150 Brunswick St. When the newspaper industry changed to offset printing from the previous method of hot metal (lead) typesetting, the printing operation had to be moved. The building across the street at 145 Brunswick St. was obtained for the new press. By coincidence, it, too, was designed by Morrow. “The Citizen bought the Hudson’s Bay Wholesale building across the street. It was owned by Rupert’s Land Trading Company which was just a holding company (a division of the Hudson’s Bay Company, chartered in 1670
and still in business today). I was working for them at the time because I supervised the Hudson’s Bay store construction on Third Avenue. The architect in Winnipeg who did the design was Jerry Sweet and they needed somebody locally to supervise it. I designed that building for them, the wholesale division, built a year or two after (the Citizen). Then about 10 years later The Citizen bought it for the offset presses. They (the press machines) came in from Chicago. That was a fancy building, too, it was all cavity-wall construction. There are very few in Prince George. There is an outer layer of brick, there’s a two-inch gap, then
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there is an inner layer of masonry. So that air space acts as insulation.” The Citizen’s offices are now located at the USW Building at 201-1777 Third Ave (the corner of 3rd and Winnipeg). The Citizen’s press will remain at 145 Brunswick St., where it will continue to print The Citizen five days per week, as well as its sister newspapers, the Alaska Highway News and the Dawson Creek Mirror. In the meantime, 150 Brunswick St. is a beloved memory for the management and staff of The Citizen, and is now making new memories for the personnel of Kopar.
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Written by Frank Peebles
Harris Hurries Helicopters Forest Safety Ombudsman Calls 9-1-1 For Air Ambulance
A helicopter ambulance system needs to be implemented for B.C. Southern urban residents aren’t just getting better healthcare than their northern / rural peers, the gap is turning a simple injury into a potential death. One of the main solutions is a properly established helicopter healthcare program. Grassroots residents have been suggesting this for a long time. A logger on Haida Gwaii had a leg injury turn into an amputation when it took paramedics 10 hours to get him from incident to proper hospital. Had there been a properly outfitted helicopter, the move could have been made in a thin fraction of that time. In another case, a woman in Fort Liard suffered a suspected stroke. An ambulance ground crew eventually got her to stabilization care at Dawson Creek’s hospital 10 hours later – a distance of about 700 kms, then another 14 hours to primary care at Prince George’s hospital. A helicopter could have made the Dawson Creek jump in about two hours, round trip, or direct to Prince George in less than four. One clear voice of concern came from Trauma Services BC. They said, in a 2014 information sheet, “trauma is the leading cause of death
in the first four decades of life costing British Columbians anestimated $5-billion dollars per year, the third largest cost contributor to the B.C. health care system. Improving trauma services is clearly an important part of improving healthcare for B.C.” That echoed a voice of alarm that spoke directly into the ear of the Legislature only a year earlier when Auditor General John Doyle brightly and specifically spotlighted the problem. “My overall conclusion is that the BC Ambulance Service is unable to demonstrate the quality, timeliness and safety of its patient care. This is largely because the BC Ambulance Service lacks a performance-based approach for managing its air ambulance services. It has not clearly defined objectives or measures and - while it has processes to support quality care, timeliness and patient safety - it does not assess its own performance to find out how well it is doing and look for ways to improve. “Further, it has not undertaken an overall assessment of service demands to ensure that paramedics and aircraft are located and dispatched to best meet patient needs.” When nothing occurred in response to this stomp of Doyle’s foot, and when the system providers declared that the Haida Gwaii case followed all rules, the province’s BC Forest
Safety Ombudsman, Roger Harris, took the matter so firmly in hand that he and his department authored an assessment report that is, all told, written in northern blood. It’s title: Will It Be There? The report is splashed with words and phrases like “double standard” and “rural-urban divide” and most importantly “choice” - meaning things could indeed be done differently. What Harris’s report does not do is implicate the service agencies responsible for healthcare transportation in the province. He saw that they were, as the Haida Gwaii assessment indicated, operating exactly as designed. So, he sharply proclaimed in the report and in an exclusive interview with the Prince George Citizen’s Industry & Trades Magazine, it is the design itself that must change. “There is no recommendation to BC Ambulance Service. There is no recommendation to Emergency Management BC. They do the best they can with what they’ve got within the legislation they are mandated by,” Harris said. “Continuing to shuffle the chairs around on the deck of the sinking ship isn’t going to get us there. The problem is the legislation needs to be fixed. We need mandated timelines for response, similar to other jurisdictions. It needs to be publicly funded. That will create the core infrastructure. We need changes to an act that
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was written in 1974 if for no other reason than it is 2017. That opens up what is now a very large human resource available to us everywhere in this province that is underutilized. Because healthcare doesn’t begin when you see the doctor, healthcare begins with the numbers you dial when there’s an emergency.” Harris made three primary recommendations. He did so from a strong position of legislative realism, as a former government MLA and the Minister of State For Forestry Operations. One: establish timeline guarantees for all patients in the province, no matter where their injuries may occur. Then, position transportation
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assets to fit that math, not shoe-horning the mathematics of population numbers into asset decisions. That would indubitably require air ambulance service and helipads to be placed in many areas not presently serviced. Two: review and update legislation to meet the realities of today. One of the most important elements of that was the aforementioned 1974 laws written when the BC Ambulance Service was first launched and in times before the province wasn’t awash in highly trained volunteer firefighters, search and rescue volunteers, ski patrollers, workplace first aid attendants, and private industrial emergency responders,
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etc. In many incidents across B.C. these are the first people who attend to a patient. They are often qualified as highly as an ambulance paramedic, but that 43-year-old legislation doesn’t allow for them to transport a patient. This slows and otherwise complicates the healthcare of the patient. Three: when helicopters are used in B.C., contrary to many other jurisdictions, the primary system of transporting a patient is called longlining. It involves dangling the patient by a line under the helicopter. This is highly effective in some incidents. Harris pointed out that there is a second well-established way as well, called hoisting, which gets the patient right inside the chopper and is superior to long-lining in many cases. The province is ill-equipped to do much more than long-lining, however. That needs to change. Amen, said David Elstone, Executive Director of the Truck Loggers Association (TLA). It is the foresters in his organization, and many other industrial workers and their families who pay the lion’s share of the provincial government income but their work in rural and remote areas puts them at the disadvantages verified by Harris’s research. “Harris has put a spotlight on an important safety issue both in the woods and in our rural communities. The report makes several useful
bills. observations and recommendations,” said An argument Harris rejects out of hand is the Elstone. “I think the approach going forward phrase “those who live in rural and remote must be flexible and not attempt to solve this places have to expect they can’t have equal problem with one solution across the entire medical service.” He said those words actually province. I want to stress that the primary came out of the mouths of some senior staff of focus here needs to be on what is best for the healthcare agencies as he did his research. He injured worker. We need to close this gap in admitted that equal healthcare was certainly the safety net. Elstone added that, “the vast majority of timber not possible or expected, but to not even strive in B.C. is harvested by independent timber har- for semi-equitable healthcare conditions was infuriating to northern vesting contractors and and rural residents, and many of them, through necessity, work hours We have a moral obligation he shared their glare. “When I think of from a paved road, let to ensure these men and equitable healthcare, alone a hospital, in women have timely access I think it is clear that B.C.’s remote workto emergency medical not every community ing forest. We have can, for example, have a moral obligation to transportation services a hospital so they have ensure these men and when they need it most. to have a clinic,” he women have timely said. “But as you go access to emergency medical transportation services when they need into those communities where those infrastructures decline, then you should have enhanced it most.” emergency transportation. You shouldn’t be Harris went a step further. The moral imperadouble-whammied by having first a lack of tive also covers the spouses, children, grandfacilities and infrastructure but also a lack of parents of those workers and the people who adequate resources to make sure that the peoprovide them services in those remote places ple in your community can get in front of the – people like teachers, shopkeepers, etc. who right doctor at the right time, in those critical may be few in number but enable this importimelines. You have a situation where, in the tant industrial activity that pays the provincial
Vancouver area, they have the best healthcare facilities but BC Ambulance Service has also concentrated all its resources there as well.” The saddest irony, he said, was that investing in a helicopter network dovetailed into the healthcare plans of the province would end up being cheaper in the long run. Money put into the machinery and human resources (remember, savings would be realized, too, if the legislation was changed to encompass the trained volunteers and private first aiders) would cut down on the bigger expense of looking after big injuries that could have been small. Furthermore, those who suffer needless major injuries often have reduced abilities to earn a living, provide for their families, participate fully in the economy. The best part, as far as Harris is concerned, is that it takes little heavy lifting by the provincial government. If legislators simply set the correct guidelines, the healthcare agencies and private interests involved would bring the solutions to the table on a region by region basis. The needs of the north coast are definitively different than the Okanagan or the Peace. But putting decisions into the hands of communities will lead to air support and that will lead to patient support in the most critical of moments. Moments – not excruciating hours.
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Working to be Canadian
Written by Frank Peebles
There are too few Canadians for the number of Canadian jobs. If those jobs aren’t filled with qualified employees and entrepreneurs, the Canadian standard of living goes down.
This is a mathematical condition that has been striding towards modern reality for several decades. The answer Canadians are left with is, despite some domestic people being unemployed or underemployed, is to bring in workers from other countries. Lots and
lots of them. Canada has welcomed in about 250,000 immigrants per year dating back to the early 1990s. The modern record low was during the Great Depression / Second World War period when fewer than 40,000 new residents moved here, compared to 1913
when more than 400,000 newcomers arrived within our borders (the third year in a row of 300,000-plus numbers). In 2017, the federal government has set a target for 300,000-320,000 new Canadians. The increase has everything to do with a pair of demographic realities that leave
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the nation little other alternative, or businesses and communities will falter. The first reality is the babyboomer surge in population from the late 1940s to the early 1960s. That group is now retiring en masse across the national workforce leaving almost every form of profession untended. The second reality is the echo of the babyboom - the babyhalt - that took place ever since 1971, the last year on record during which Canadian families had a total fertility rate high enough to replace the number of people who died with the number of people born. The Total Fertility Rate or TFR needs to be 2.1 children per woman for a nation’s people to replace themselves. For the past 40plus years, Canada has been at a rate of about 1.7 and last year it was 1.6. A bubble of retirees combined with a birth replacement deficit means the economy right now is faced with a massive decision: discontinue the jobs and small businesses (and all the community services that go with them) or call in reinforcements. A number of government programs are in place to accommodate these newcomers (Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, Canadian Experience Class, etc. and language training is usually built into that) but someone has to help connect the employ-
no Canadian willing to do the work on offer, ers in need of workers with the newcomers often the most menial of jobs. needing jobs to feed their families. Keresztesti said her position addresses both “The immigrants are coming. They are here. those concerns. She can only act for busiThat part is covered. I need to hear from nesses who can show to the satisfaction of companies who are looking,” said Costina the federal government that they have tried to Keresztesti of Northern Immigration Services find a Canadian for their labour opening, and (NIS), a Prince George company facilitaton the other hand the incoming immigrant ing those connections. NIS is partnered with must work by rules that favour the sponsor Chand & Company Law Corporation to help employer who is likely vexed by turnover, HR recent arrivals navigate the system of permits uncertainty, and the and applications, plus cost of advertising for practical things like There is a criticism of job openings. where the kids might go to school, where the plan to fill jobs with These same rules ensure immigrants don’t to get groceries, how immigrants while there get into the labour to get into a proper force on pretenses of home, how the comare Canadian-born from one munity’s business and people unemployed or skipping employer to another. recreation options underemployed. It is difficult to switch, might be obtained. It once a contract is is a cheaper and more established. thorough service than hiring an international “Foreign workers must work for the sponsor headhunter. There is a criticism of the plan to fill jobs with company only, they are bound to them for the duration of their work permit, one-year or immigrants while there are Canadian-born two-year permits, usually,” said Keresztesti. people unemployed or underemployed. This “The company then can breathe easy that they criticism fails to account for the distribution have an employee with the qualifications they of skill and will. In other words, there may want, or the willingness to learn, and they be no Canadian available for the particular qualifications of a vacant job. Or, there may be can’t quit on them or go to a competitor.”
These jobs are often very specific in nature. The most common sectors Keresztesti has helped place workers in are trades, high-tech, and food services fields. “What I’m seeing and hearing about a lot is those employees want to stay on even longer than their permits, so they go through the process of becoming permanent residents and Canadian citizens,” she said. “They bring their families over from their home countries, they have kids here, they buy houses, they buy cars, they join teams, they take classes, they become our friends and neighbours.” In British Columbia, the unemployment rate is currently about five per cent, meaning almost anyone who wants a job has one. However, the job vacancy rate is about 3.6 per cent, meaning the amount of vacant jobs for which there is no prospective employee, whether that be because none are suitable or none are willing. That’s the kind of gap Keresztesti and her counterparts seek to fill with the people who have recently crossed the border, ready to work and eager to earn their place in Canada. With all the people interested in joining Canada’s open and free-enterprise culture, looking across our borders makes for many good business fits in our home grown enterprises. Companies like NIS can make the introductions and the arrangements.
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Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO, Perrin Beatie speaking at a Chamber meeting. Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
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Perrin Beatty’s National Dream Capitalizing On Social License Story on page 14
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Written by Frank Peebles
Chamber of Commerce – to outline our current challenges and opportunities. “One thing is for certain,” he said. “Humanity will be consuming natural resources. As long as people need food, shelter, tools, and toys we will the energy and materials from our land to make it happen. The real question is, which Perrin Beatty served natural resources will deep within that govHe is uniquely we need? Does the ernance structure, as a positioned to shed world have enough of senior cabinet minister it? Can we meet our under Prime Minislight on Canada’s needs while respecting ters Joe Clark, Brian economic structures the world’s limits? I’m Mulroney and Kim and its position on sure that you know Campbell. With portthere is no simple or folios that included the global stage. universal answer to Minister of National these questions.” Revenue, Minister of The rise of the middle Defense, and Minclass in enormous population bases like China, ister of Foreign Affairs, as well as a slate of India, Brazil and others is pointing to one posts and positions outside of politics (he was recently the CEO of the Canadian Manufactur- point in particular, Beatty said, and that was consumption of energy and demand for mateers & Exporters and is currently the CEO of rial goods like food, clothing, machines and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce), he is vehicles was about to grow. That need not be uniquely positioned to shed light on Canada’s the death knell of global humanity, he alluded, economic structures and its position on the because the world was well positioned to global stage. He stood on a couple of stages mitigate the challenges and the country poised in Prince George – one at the BC Natural Reto lead this new way of doing business was sources Forum and one for the Prince George One of Canada’s most decorated conservative business leaders came to Prince George to map out his vision for the nation as the country reflects on its 150th anniversary as a federation.
social challenges while providing people with our own. energy, with materials, with food. We don’t “Canada is a unique state in the trends that are export our natural resources alone, but also shaping global resource industries,” he said. assembling the technology and the know-how “We are a resource economy like no other. to extract these resources in the right way. In Few countries can match the diversity of Canada’s resource endowment. As the exhibits trading these commodities, skill becomes a outside this hall show, Canada is a global play- crucial part of this plan. B.C. is actively following this strategy. The expression ‘Made In er in the full range or resource commodities, Canada’ should be synonymous with quality including energy, metals and minerals, forest products, agriculture, fisheries, right across the products, produced with the highest standards, and produced with the lowest possible enviboard. We are an extremely fortunate nation; ronmental impacts.” the most fortunate on the face of the earth For someone so unabashedly under the conserwhen you consider our resource inheritance. vative banner, with an unceasing track record Few countries can match our combination of of doing big free enterprise, participating in resource wealth and technological know-how. globalization and the epitome of capitalism, Canada’s unique position in the global picture it rang odd for Beatty to be so openly camis that we are both a resource economy and paigning for words like “sustainability” and a knowledge economy. Few countries can “environmental protection” and “aboriginal” match Canada’s passion and commitment for and “regulation” to be built into the common environmental protection (and) democratic phrase book of Canadian business. institutions.” He did so for two chief reasons. One, it was Adhering to democracy was itself a selling clear that Beatty espoused the concept of feature for Canadian goods, services and uplifting people around the world to higher human resources. When other countries are stations in life so that they might do ever showing signs of wavering on the principles better business with Canada. Two, he didn’t of peace, order and good government, Canada want people – perhaps was standing firm. everyone – to die grinThat, said Beatty, was When other countries ning at all the futile scoring massive points are showing signs wealth they had usewith international lessly accumulated. investors. of wavering on the “Let’s talk about “This is not a predicprinciples of peace, climate change. tion for the future, order and good Climate change is but a vision of what real. And represents Canada can acgovernment, Canada an existential threat,” complish if we use was standing firm. he said. “Ultimately our natural resource the best hope, though, advantages to make lies not in consigning developing countries global trends work to our advantage. Here’s to permanent poverty (to curtail their energy what it looks like: Canada becomes the consumption so that we might keep ours) but world’s natural resource superstar. We do this in inventing and implementing the technoloby becoming the place the world turns to for solutions for the technical, environmental, and gies that will allow us to meet our growing
“An indefinite maybe can sometimes be worse energy needs while protecting and enhancing than a decisive no,” he pointed out. “There is the environment…It’s not a case of one or the no reason why a thorough regulatory process other. It’s not a question of ‘can we?’ but we can’t also be an efficient one. The current sysmust have both at the same time.” tem’s duplication, inefficiency, delays and unTake care of the people, take care of the envicertainty do not lead to better outcomes for the ronment, and business gets rosier for Canada. environment or for communities. Yet is does The emblematic industry he used was the pehave a major impact on business costs and troleum sector – one of Canada’s richest eggs the appetite to invest in the natural resource into major projects in export basket. “We will need every We need to be building Canada.” He warned against form of energy, both the physical and blaming environmenrenewable and nonrenewable,” he said. “Of regulatory infrastructure talists for opposing projects, because there the world’s exportthat will help Canadian was a real risk that ers of oil and gas, businesses come out on must be transparently which among them mitigated each and evis more democratic the winning side ery project, or blaming than Canada? Which aboriginal people who among them is more were merely exerciscommitted to environing their fundamental rights and basic logic mental protection than Canada? Which among in demanding that they be factored into the them will do more than Canada to ensure the decision making and the economic benefits. proceeds of the sale will not be recycled into Build those considerations into your business armed conflict or into terrorism? And which plan, he said, and the value of the Canadian among them can give greater guarantees than Canada can that the tap won’t simply be turned economy will only grow as a whole. “So that’s the future I want for Canada. It’s off as a political weapon when tensions rise a vision of a prosperous Canada, where innovafew years from now? When I travel internation and care for people and the environment tionally I hear from our customers that for all of these reasons, they want to do business with are put at the centre of economic growth. And yet we are at risk of messing it up. FundamenCanada. Yet they are also very clear with me tal changes are taking place in our economy. that we are either unable or unwilling to meet There will be winners and losers both here their needs. They have no choice but to give and around the world. We need to be building their business to the other suppliers who are the physical and regulatory infrastructure that already knocking on their doors.” will help Canadian businesses come out on the The key problem, though it is a big one, is the winning side. For Canada’s resource industries morass of regulations that an industrial proponent must endure to get a project from drawing to win, businesses, governments, and communities all need to come together to figure a way board to reality, he said. And he stressed that forward on four interrelated policies: trade he did not advocate for cutting protections, promotion, investment in trade infrastructure, just cutting the red tape. Invest in the people regulatory clarity, and a renewed relationship and technology required to speedily get to an with our indigenous peoples.” answer.
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