Herb Pond, the mayor of Prince Rupert says the city is poised to become a boom town once again.
"What I want to do before anything else is give you a sense that the systems are working, that we are emerging as a miracle, overnight success, 25 years in the making, some would argue, 115 years," he said in his opening remarks during an address to the Chamber of Commerce at its luncheon June 18.
Pond went on to enumerate some key advantages the city has including being the terminus of a CN line and the third-busiest port in Canada.
"And thirdly, the advantage that we were working from is that the city itself has great bones; it was well made up," he said. "You can't change that easily if you're in another community and struggling to develop what we want to develop. And along with good bones, we've got really talented people, and we are implementing a very consistent, multi-decade legacy of good policy and great planning."
The mayor didn't make any significant new announcements Wednesday afternoon, but he cited major developments underway in the city including, $3 billion in port-related projects, the BIG project, the A&W at the corner of McBride Street and 3rd Avenue, the 70-unit apartment building going up on 11th Avenue, the five-story apartment taking shape by the middle school and the new middle school itself, before reeling off numerous other smaller projects.
And, of course, Pond didn't waste an opportunity to talk about the new roundabout now under construction in front of the courthouse.
"While it's not a City of Prince Rupert project, it is completely Department of Highways, they're the one in charge of it, we are getting a ton of water pipe work done in the process, millions and millions and millions of dollars of water pipe work being done before they can complete the roundabout," he explained. "You can decide about whether you like the roundabout, that's fine by me, but thank your lucky stars that you don't have to pay for what Highways is paying for under all of that area."
Aside from recapping all the development that has been completed and is currently underway, Pond hinted there is a lot of political interest in Prince Rupert with the federal government pushing for diversification of trade to offset the trade conflict with the United States.
"I get media calls now every time [Alberta Premier] Danielle Smith opens her mouth," he said. "They want to know about pipelines, and I'm thinking they're talking water pipe lines.
"But it's not just Danielle Smith, it's [Canadian Prime Minister Mark] Carney. I'm told that when the premiers get together, about every third sentence gets shifted over and they get onto a topic, and then they get on to Prince Rupert.
"It's our time."
Pond told the Northern View following the meeting, he is not necessarily against Alberta's proposal to build an oil pipeline to Prince Rupert and lift the North Coast oil tanker moratorium if the project properly meets environmental standards and First Nations concerns. However, given that there is no project at this time and there is a tanker ban, he is not giving that much thought.
More importantly, he said, there are a lot of products other than Alberta bitumen that could be shipped out of Rupert.
"There is a realization that diversifying trade means moving products through the ports and the Port of Prince Rupert is seen as a big part of the solution," he said.
In addition to political interest, the mayor said there is unprecedented corporate interest.
"I am hosting major investor groups regularly, in a way that I haven't ever before," he said. "Serious players with serious money looking to put their serious money to work."
The bottom line for Pond is that he is very optimistic about Prince Rupert's future. He shared he was talking to Carolina de Ryk on CBC's Daybreak North program and she asked him to help the rest of her audience understand why Prince Rupert is so excited about getting an A&W.
"I said, it's the canary in the coal mine," he recounted. "It's been something we think we're getting. We think we're getting just a little bit of proof that we're turning the corner."
