The last week was spent travelling to Vancouver and Calgary so not able to update on my activities. The week began with a series of meetings on Monday at city hall, hosted a group of students for a tour and a visit with the Mayor. Met with Sam from tourism on the advertising money from the airport promotion City Council provided. I also had a great visit with a couple from the city who have always been very active in our community. they wanted to ask some questions about the budget. I left Tuesday morning for Vancouver where I was invited to attend a session hosted by National Geographic and Shell on the world Energy conversations. It is evident our corner of the province and world is getting international attention by the awareness of the activity in our area. I then travelled to Calgary on Wednesday where I had a series of meetings with some of the Industry companies who are developing in the area and our city. I am continuing to beat the drum with industry that we are a city that wants and appreciates them doing business in our city AND we need them to support our local business community. The main purpose of the trip to Calgary last week was a forum I was invited to attend hosted by CSUR. Canadian Society for Unconventional Resources. This is the development of the shale gas in our area and other parts of the world. I sat at a table with a lady from Norway and there were people there from around the world, Argentina, Netherlands, etc. It is amazing to me and highlights the emphasis that North East BC is a topic of discussion at these conferences. People from around the world are talking about the development of the Monteney field and I feel it is extremely valuable for me to be present at these forums to promote our city. I will give a specific example of that occurring in the last few weeks. I reached out to CalFrac about 3 weeks ago as I wanted to thank them specifically for making the move into Dawson Creek a few years ago. This is an international company and will be a significant employer of people as the Monteney natural Gas field develops. I met with the President of CalFrac international, The President of the Canadian Division, and the Vice President and chief engineer of Global Services. Our meeting consisted of discussion around our desire to help them build their operations in Dawson Creek and our appreciation of their investment to date in our community. While I was at Thursdays conference I was introduced to CalFracs Vice Chairman and Founder who thanked me for reaching out to their company and appreciated the fact we had taken the initiative. He was not at the meeting 3 weeks ago but knew I had met with the senior executive. CalFrac have the potential to have 500-600 people employed here and could be one of the most significant employers in our city. If we can attract these types of companies there are 5-7 jobs created to support them. It will create other opportunities and with that growth will come growth in our other sectors such as retail and construction. More new homes, more purchasing of vehicles, groceries, supplies etc. I have been struggling a bit with the amount of travel only because of how to balance the time you spend in the community in the role of Mayor vs how to ensure we attract the benefits of the industry and service sector growth. Right now I feel I need to continue to try and attract all of the attention to our community with the service sector for this growing industry. We arranged to have a major part of NorthWest Business Magazine focussed on Dawson Creek IN March. I have purchased advertising and arranged for a major interview for an LNG Magazine in Western Canada, this also will feature Dawson Creek and the companies in our area. this is all being done through our economic Development budget. I caught a flight home Friday Morning and finished the day off meeting with Hank Bridgeman who is working on updating our community video to help promote the quality of life in our city. I then went for a tour of the Calvin Kruk Performing Arts center for an review of the progress with John Hegge and Duncan Redfern. Hegges are a quality family and company, I am so pleased to have them involved in completing this project. I am now closing out as I am heading to Victoria this afternoon for a series of meetings in Victoria tomorrow. Meeting with Minister Oakes on the Fair Share agreement, a delegation attending, Chair Goodings, PRRD, Mayors Ackerman and Jarvis. Meeting with Minister Yamamoto (Small Business) and the Minister Cadieux (Children and Family). Just keeps getting better being Mayor of Dawson Creek. Have a great week everyone.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 15:04:42 +0000
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