Referendum early vote Wednesday

We have entered into an exciting new era for the development of the Northern Rockies. The new Provincial funding agreement gives us the ability to upgrade our facilities and services and to greatly improve our community.
In the past decade we have seen Fort Nelson Northern Rockies transformed. We have witnessed the discovery of three major shale gas fields. The Horn River, Liard, and Cordova are world class fields that contain the majority of Canada’s shale gas reserves. We have seen industry investing billions of dollars in initial development of these gas fields and we have seen the Province reap over $3.5 billion in royalties and taxes from the Northern Rockies over the past seven years.
The Province has made Natural Gas and LNG their highest economic priority. The Northern Rockies is and will be one of the most important regions in BC’s future for the next three or four decades as our enormous natural gas resources are developed and marketed on the world stage. Rekindling of demand for our tremendous forest and mining resources will add to the need for our community to expand its role as the one and only service centre for over 10 per cent of the Province.
Over the past seven years your Council has worked diligently with the Province, Industry, and First Nations to ensure that our community was given the necessary tools to fulfill our destiny as one of BC’s key resource communities.
There were two key pieces to this puzzle. The first was the need to establish a Regional Municipality that would link the vast shale gas property tax base to the community, and this goal was achieved with the incorporation of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality (NRRM) in 2009.
The second was convincing the Province that they have to take a major role in supporting communities challenged by major resource development such as shale gas. This goal was accomplished with the signing of the Infrastructure Development Contribution Agreement (IDCA) with the Province this month.
Our agreement will see the Province invest up to $200 million dollars into our community infrastructure over the next 20 years. These funds will be matched by the NRRM through our extensive property tax base.
We now have a partnership with the Province and we finally have the financial tools to build our community for our citizens, and to attract and house the growing workforce and their families. The NRRM will receive $200,000,000 in Provincial funding (up to $10 million annually in Provincial funding) to fund major infrastructure projects in the community.
The upcoming June 8th referendum will be the first opportunity for citizens to say YES on approving NRRM’s Loan Authorisation Bylaw 85,2013 which will kick-start provincial funding for NRRM’s infrastructure projects.
There would be no raising or lowering in taxation other than the normal variations that we have seen over the past 10 years. The goal is to maximise the amount of money received from the province without affecting taxation.
The formula for paying for the proposed infrastructure is a win-win scenario. The first five projects are summarized below:
Recreation Facility Completion            $34,287,700
Residential Lot Development    $7,494,040
Airport Upgrades        $5,864,330
Town Hall Upgrades        $1,062,740
Sewer Master Plan Works Phase I        $13,861,880
Total                              $52,570,690
A) Recreation Facility completion:
Will include an inside walking track, swimming pool, squash or racquetball court, change rooms, office, climbing wall, viewing area, and an exercise room.
B) Residential Lot Development:
To enable NRRM to succeed with residential subdivision expansions at the top of Simpson Trail, we have to ensure we have adequate water and sewer infrastructure there to encourage developers.
NRRM is investigating water and sewer expansions from Airport Road up to Fediw subdivision, over to new subdivisions and down Simpson Trail. This is all part of a long term master plan for water and sewer infrastructure.
C) Airport Upgrades
It is our goal to establish a safe and secure airport for the people who live and work here, and to encourage people to want to live and work here.  With improved apron rehabilitation and enhanced airport safety and security, we also hope to achieve greater competition for commercial airline flights to Fort Nelson.
We want to support our local economy, encourage airport operations here, and discourage industry from building an airport out in the gas fields which will not benefit the people of Fort Nelson. Part of the money earmarked for the airport will be for a paid parking lot which is expected to pay for itself in a few years, plus establish a revenue base for the development of additional parking capacity in the future. NRRM will continue applying for airport funding through the Federal Airport Capital Assistance Program (ACAP) which funds airport improvements.
D) Town Hall Upgrades
There are building code and safety deficiencies that must be brought up to current code in order to expand the existing office space.  For example, the building is not completely wheelchair accessible, nor does it contain a sprinkler system.
We are not looking for a grandiose upscale municipal building; we need a modern amenity with functional work spaces so employees will not have to walk through other people’s offices to get to their own office. Some employees are working in what was once closet space. The building is old and needs functional improvements; currently our staff must endure very cold or very hot temperatures inside their offices.
E) Sewer Master Plan Works Phase #1
Over the years, Mother Nature has changed the flow of the Muskwa River, which directly affects the location of our sewage outflow. As a result, the sewage outflow has to be relocated. This project is extensive in terms of scope and cost. We need to ensure that our immediate issues are specifically addressed, and that of future needs of the system relating to capacity, foreseeable legislation amendments, and our current system’s status.
For further information please contact the NRRM office at 250-774-2541.

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