by Ted Crossley City of Powell River Mayor Dave Formosa painted an overly pessimistic picture of a future without Catalyst Paper Corporation Powell River mill in the recent article “Court okays financing” [February 8].
It’s true it would be an economic setback and it would certainly speak for a drastic reduction in the city budget, a budget that has been fortified by the mill and increasingly in recent years, by burdensome annual general tax hikes. It will mean hardship for many people and may hurt real estate values for a while. But Powell River is not Ocean Falls and industrial-based cities have made the change and survived.
Powell River is a short distance from Vancouver, one of the most livable cities on the planet. We are on a marine highway that every summer carries billions of dollars worth of pleasure boats right past our door on route to the best cruising destinations on the coast.
We need to build on the excellent work that has been done on our waterfront and be imaginative in offering people more reasons to stop in and visit. The little bit of turf that was designated Spirit Square really represents something much larger. The people of this city and district have a remarkable depth of spirit that is evinced in the sort of effort that has brought us our own CT scanner, that every other year mounts the logistical and musical miracle called International Choral Kathaumixw, that creates access like the Sunshine Coast Trail and that animates dozens of other huge volunteer and co-operative efforts in our midst. Certainly, the physical beauty and cultural resources are here.
When heavy industry has to depart it needs to be succeeded by a new attitude, one that encourages an influx of people who want peace and quiet in a clean beautiful place and who will bring their own vision and charm and businesses with them. It’s true that Powell River has been a wealthy and privileged place and that it may be facing leaner times, but think of a busy city like Puerto Vallarta that somehow survives, with over 10 times the population and a tiny fraction of the resources and education, with little help from senior governments and with very little else apart from climate (which is a relative sort of thing) and a welcoming smile.
Ask yourself: is there any reason for Powell River to fade off the map? A walk down Baker Street in Nelson, BC, a now vibrant former single industry town, gives one a sense of the sort of vitality possible when the doom and gloom have passed and the economy shifts focus. But it means demanding from the province and Ottawa help for fledgling clean industries, real help for our fisheries and forests, and an end not to logging and development, but to logging and development that damages our waterways and other tourist resources.
Regardless of what the future may bring, I believe a community will continue to live here because of the locale and its people.
Ted Crossley is a retired carpenter and has lived in Powell River since 2004. He was a longtime resident of the West Kootenays.
