Regional Industrial Development
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Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal BC employees competing in the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival in Vancouver. |
Overview
It is increasingly recognized that even small and remote communities – that may have relied primarily on one industry in the past – benefit from creating and pursuing opportunities for economic diversification, and the improved community stability that comes with it.
Rio Tinto Alcan recognizes that its interests in a strong employee and supplier base are advanced if the local economy is more resilient. It also recognizes the particular imperative of diversification when the amount of employment it provides is decreasing.
Accordingly, Rio Tinto Alcan has established innovative and collaborative partnerships with community interests, aimed at leveraging corporate and community assets in support of diversification.
Strategies and Initiatives
Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal BC employs a full-time regional industrial development coordinator. This individual leads support for diversification, working in close coordination with the Haisla (First Nation) Business Development Corporation, the Terrace Economic Development Authority (TEDA), local chambers of commerce, the KT Industrial Development Society (KTIDS), and many other stakeholders with interests in economic diversification.
An important shared objective among many of these groups is to create awareness of the potential for an expanded industrial corridor in the Kitimat Valley, with its attractive mix of available land, port access, and services.
Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal BC focused in 2007 on ensuring that local suppliers are positioned to participate in the the $2.5 billion Kitimat Modernization Project. Some local suppliers were invited to Quebec, where they saw the operation of the technology planned for use at the Kitimat smelter, and met with suppliers there who worked with Rio Tinto Alcan during a similar modernization process.
Capacities were analyzed and an extensive database of northern BC suppliers developed, in order to be prepared to mobilize local resources. Local suppliers became involved in preparatory work for the modernization project during 2007, contributing to a particularly high proportion of spending within northwest BC. Use of local resources is also an important criterion in the selection of suppliers from outside the region.
Support for the Kitamaat Port Development Society continued and, in 2007, it completed a study of the feasibility of a commercial break bulk port facility at Kitimat. Discussions with potential investors and users were under way when this report was prepared, and the outlook was positive.
In recent years, opportunities have been found to support local economic and community development through the strategic disposition of surplus lands. In 2007, the mapping and categorization of Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal BC’s remaining surplus lands was completed. This will support ongoing efforts led by the KT Industrial Development Society and Haisla First Nation to better market the economic potential of the region.
A final major strategic thrust in 2007 involved exploration of opportunities based on Kitimat’s Pacific Rim location. (See “Helping Open Windows on the East”.)
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Community Investment Program
Rio Tinto Alcan Primary Metal BC dispersed $1.1 million through its Community Investment Program in 2007, in support of programs benefiting its operating areas (extending from Kitimat-Terrace to the Nechako watershed region) and BC as a whole. High-profile initiatives supported in 2007 included the Rio Tinto Alcan Dragon Boat Festival and the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award in Vancouver, the Northern BC Winter Games, the Terrace Sportsplex expansion, the UNBC Northern Medical Programs Trust, and White Sturgeon recovery efforts. More localized support was given to a large number of initiatives including the Kitimat Arts for Youth Band Program, the Terrace Regional Historical Society, the Haisla Community School and Hippy Program, and the Nechako Senior Citizens Friendship Club.