An infrastructure project that would make it easier to get to and from the Metlakatla and Lax Kw’alaams villages took a step closer to being made a reality.
Earlier this month the Mayors of Prince Rupert and Port Edward, Jack Mussallem and Dave MacDonald, and the chief of Lax Kw’alaams, Gary Reece, all met with the provincial Minister of Finance, Kevin Falcon, and Minister of Transportation Blair Lekstrom, to discuss the project’s future and about acquiring provincial funding.
“I think it’s a he opportunity to open the Tsimshian Peninsula for tourism and economic development and all the sorts of things that go along with it,” says Lax Kw’alaams Chief Gary Reece.
The project – known as the Tsimshian Access Project – would merge all three different ferry services going to the two villages on the Tsimshian Peninsula and the ferry to the airport into one service. The terminals at Fairview in Prince Rupert and the Du Vernet terminal on Digby Island would both be reconstructed. New gravel roads would be built from the new terminal on Digby Island to Ven Passage. The plan calls for a new bridge to span Ven Passage and connect to the Tuck Inlet road on the other side, which would have a new branch that would connect to Metlakatla.
The end result will be that people living in either of the villages will be able to drive from their homes down to the improved ferry terminal on Digby Island and ride the ferry into the City.
“The best part of it is that it would then allow people to live in Metakatla and Lax Kw’alaams and be able to drive to work in Prince Rupert or go to school in Prince Rupert and then drive home at night,” says the chief administrative officer for Port Edward, Ron Bedard.
The idea for the access project has been kicking around in one form or another since 2001, it never got off the ground due mostly to the fact that it was thought up before the container terminal had been thought up yet, and it was hard to justify the investment to the provincial government. According to the presentation material given to the ministers, local community leaders were pitching the project as crucial for the expansion and development of the port.
According to the community leaders, the reaction from the two ministers during the meeting about the project was very positive and they asked the communities to develop an action plan for moving the project forwards with help from both the provincial and federal governments.
“We need to put together more information for them, we’re in the process of doing that, and then we’ll have to arrange more meetings again,” says Reece.
According to the presentation material, the entire project is estimated to cost a total of $181-million to complete. The communities are arguing that the investment will end up contributing $191-million back into the economy later through the creation of jobs and other business opportunities, although these numbers appear to assume the construction of a Potash Terminal by Canpotex, a project that has been uncertain for over a year.