Support for Economic Development
Rio Tinto Alcan BC recognizes that long-term prosperity and growth in Kitimat, and throughout its operating region, depend on economic diversification. Fortunately, northwestern B.C. is attracting growing interest from proponents of often large-scale potential projects – in fields ranging from transportation to mining and power generation.
Rio Tinto Alcan BC is committed to playing a role in facilitating economic diversification and development in Kitimat and the surrounding region. In 2003, it commissioned Unleashing the Potential, (3.5MB pdf) (summary version 222KB pdf) a major assessment of the region’s development opportunities, and, in 2004, appointed a full-time coordinator for regional industrial development in northwest B.C.
This individual is coordinating Rio Tinto Alcan BCs close collaboration with other regional economic development interests, such as the KT Industrial Development Society and the Haisla (First Nation) Business Development Corporation.
Rio Tinto Alcan BC has also played an important role in the formation and advancement of local programs and institutions that foster economic development, such as the Regional Industrial Development Centre and the Kitimat Valley Institute for Industrial Education.
Rio Tinto Alcan BC is particularly focused on exploring uses for company-owned properties that are surplus to its own needs, and that have the potential to support economic development and job creation if put to other uses. Opportunities to leverage existing infrastructure, such as Kitimat’s deep-water port, are also being explored.
In actively promoting economic diversification in the Kitimat region, Rio Tinto Alcan BC is following a successful model deployed elsewhere. Through similar efforts in Quebec, for example, Rio Tinto Alcan successfully collaborated with various local interests to create some 800 new jobs in diverse fields over a two to three-year period.
Rio Tinto Alcan BC's Coordinator of Regional Economic Development (Northwest BC) can be contacted: kevin.dobbin@riotinto.com
