What’s good for region is good for Kamloops

Coun. Ken Christian writes From City Hall in rotation with other members of City council.

By COUN. KEN CHRISTIAN

FROM CITY HALL (COLUMN) — Last week, Coun. Tina Lange and I went to Ashcroft in our capacity as directors on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) to celebrate the opening of the new Ashcroft Terminal.

After a four-year gestation, the notion of a true inland port has finally landed.

Ashcroft Mayor Andy Anderson was beaming.

Rail cars can be loaded and sea containers can be handled on the 320-acre site. What this means is significant to both the B.C. Interior and the Lower Mainland, particularly Delta and Vancouver.

Raw materials, such as wood and wood products, minerals and industrial goods, can now be trucked to Ashcroft Terminal and loaded directly into sea containers and shipped by rail to the Port of Vancouver or the Delta Seaport.

The sustainability implications are huge — less trucking, safer roads and highways and reduced carbon emissions.

At some point in time, the reverse will also happen, whereby containers filled with products destined for Interior sites can be offloaded at the ports and shipped to Ashcroft Terminal by rail and then unloaded to trucks for a faster and shorter trip to their customers and consumers.

This venture is a perfect fit for the Ashcroft Terminal in that both CN and CP run side-by-side right through the site and the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 97C are only a few kilometres away.

It is little wonder Anderson was smiling, as the economic spinoffs of this venture are critically important to the Village of Ashcroft.

But, on a more global sense, they are important to the entire TNRD and the province as a whole.
Some might ask: Why Ashcroft? Why not Kamloops? We have access to the two mainlines.

The likely answer to that is probably the fact the site was actually large enough to provide for the total master plan to become a reality. That should not be seen as a loss for Kamloops.

When significant enterprise is developed anywhere around us, we share in that success. The new Forestry Training Centre in Merritt, a new mine in Vavenby or a new hotel at Sun Peaks should all be viewed positively.

Employees or their families, clients, customers or tourists will all, at some point, shop in Kamloops, study in Kamloops or play lacrosse or join gymnastics in Kamloops. We are a regional hub and, as such, we need to support and encourage regional economic development.

The TNRD is the perfect vehicle to support all kinds of regional initiatives. The TNRD Film Commission takes a regional approach to attracting the movie industry. The Thompson Regional Health District manages the ever-important health file. The TNRD Library System manages all of our library services.

Even things like search-and-rescue funding are ably managed by the TNRD.

That’s why Kamloops has six directors on the TNRD and that’s why Lange and I found our way to Ashcroft last week. Regional governance and celebration of regional successes is an important part of what we do.

kchristian@kamloops.ca