Last week and for the second year in a row, CityWest provided its sole shareholder, the City of Prince Rupert, with a distribution payment of $400,000 at a year-end shareholder event.
The payment was largely attributed to ‘hard work and capital investments’, in particular expanding into new markets with “cutting-edge fibre-to-the-home” services in Gitanmaax (Old Hazelton) and Smithers, introducing new products like Hosted Voice Service and Optical TV and taking advantage of the tremendous demand for Internet services, including some big-bandwidth customers.
“This payment would not be possible without all the hard work from our 80 employees who provide our customers with the best Internet, TV, phone and data network services in northwest B.C.,” said Don Holkestad, CityWest CEO, in a release last Thursday.
Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain and members of council were on hand to accept the cheque from the corporation and stated that the money will be used for downtown Re:Build Rupert revitalization projects like the Third Avenue sidewalks.
“We consider CityWest to be of great value as a service provider and employer in our community. It’s a great asset to have telecommunications services provided locally, enabling the City to keep those profits and jobs within our community,” said Brain.
Since 2005, CityWest has provided the City with $6.3 million in dividends and distribution payments, $1.75 million in local taxes and levies and has spent over $2.7 million to northwest vendors since January 2014, including $1.6 million just in Prince Rupert.