|". .and’ Jaeger’ will become more.

June 12, 1968

a Wednesday,

Terrace a ‘soul-mate’?
= S

Alberta oil sands key to Kitimat boom?

ky PATRICK O’'CALLAGHAN

(Mr. O'Callaghan, assistant
to the publisher, Edmonton
Journal, was recently in the
Pacific Northwest on a fact-
finding tour for his paper. The
following controversial article
is the result of his investiga-
tions here).

Kitimat, that miracle of in-
stant civilization. believes Ed-
monton and northern Alberta
can be the means of turning it
into the Vancouver af northwest
British Columbia.

In 1948, when the Aluminum
Company of Canada began sur-
veying the area. Kitimat-- “The
People of the Snows” according
io Indian legend—knew only a
few trappers and the occasional
prospector, In 1951, Alean pulled
the Nechako River out of its bed
lo create a huge power dam at
nearby Kemano and Kitimat
was finelly on the map. At once,
iL began talking in terms of a
50,0C0 population, but the buoy-
ancy of the early days got a
litle waterlogged in 1957 when
a drop in world demand for
aluminum led to the Jaying-off
of 1,700 workers. .

Kitimat took two years to
weather that storm and the re-
sult was that the optimism of
the past became tempered with
the reality of a town that de-
pended directly or indirectly on
ene: company for all but 109 of
its jobs,

For two years up to last
Christmas the giant Alcan smel-
ter operated at fuli capacity;
now it is back to 87 per cent
but there are no longer fears
thal Kitimat would return to the
bush if anything drastic happen-
ed to Alcan,

The reason for the renewal of
Kitimat’s glowing promise is to
be found in the tar sands of
Alherta.

The Japan Petraleum Explor-
ation Co. (Japex) owns an oil
sarids permit fer 49,600 acres in
the Fort McMurray area, 250
miles northeast ef Edmonton,
and is planning to extract crude
in great quantities. In looking
for the quickest roule to the
Orient it has apparently given
extremely favorable considera-
tion to using the’ deepwater port
of Kitimat. Japex. according to
a statement by Alberta Mines
and Minerals Minister A. R.
Patrick. in February, is plan-
ning a bigger project in the tar
sands then originally envisaged.
This could be in excess of 200,-
009 barrels a day, he said.

TREATMENT PLANT

‘The Japanese inlend to build
a treatment plant in the Fort
MeMurray area and then to car-
ry the crude via pipeline to a
iranshipment refinery. It is the
prospect of having this refinery
established at port-side in Kit
imat that is now exiting the
residents of the aluminum town.

Japex could well employ 750
to 1.000 men. wherever it builds
its terminal refinery and, while
Mr. Patrick mentions a praduc-
tion figure of 200,000 barrels a
day there is talk in Kitimat that
it might reach 200,000° barrels,
To put this figure into perspec:
tive, it is more than three Limes
the capacily of the Imperial Oil
refineries in Sarnia, Ont, — and
total production of all refineries
in Western Canada is only
about the same figure.

- Kitimat is being seriously con-
sidered as ‘the Japex terminal
for a variety of reasons, Main
ones are that Kitimat has a nat-
ural harbor. and is one day clos-
er to Japan’ by cargo ‘vessel,
than is Vancouver. The dis:
tance advantage. of Kitimat
over Vancouver applies to prac-

. tleally all Eastern Pacific ports
and extends to East Africa. It
-has been. estimated by the’ Brit-
ish Columbia..Researeh Council
that annual savings generate?
by shipping through | Kidmat
rather than Vancouver gould.

“exceed $100,000 for one yaesel
moving exclusively:on a Kiti-
mat-to-Japad. route, 9

“It is expected that bulk car-.
siera in the range of 100,000 tons;

common. Kitimat is already in
a position tu handle these and
the savings on vessels in the
30-09)-ton range is estimated at
eight per cent over Vancouver
and at five per cent for 100,0C0
tons and over. (The narrowing
of the gap is because the 400,
000-ton vessels would have to
choose a slightly different chan-
nel fram Kitimat).

OCEAN TERMINAL

If Kitimat is stirring in the
wilderness with visions of be-
coming an acean terminal, it is
doing so with a look at its own
past history. In 1908, when
Grand Trunk Railway was push-
ing the steel from the Rockies
ta the west coast. Kilimat was
considered as a possible end to
the line. But Prince Rupert was
chosen instead, mainly because
it is 75 miles closer to the Orient.

The same argument of choice
between Kitimat and Prince
Rupert no longer applies. The
tewn of Prince Rupert is built
on a rock above the harbor—
the third biggest natural harbor
in the world—and this may well
prove too expensive a barrier to
be overcome in the building of
warehouse and dockside facili-
ties.

Kitimat has advantages over
most world ports in natural
‘depth of the harbor area and
relative abundance of | land

1,000 feet beyond the tidal flats
of the Kitimat River are as
great.as 250 feet. In addition,
Kitimat has 3.000 or more acres
available for industrial develop-
ment, The Greater Vancouver
area, with a population of near-
ly 1,000,000, is only using 6,000
acres.

The exiting possibilities of Kit-
imat asa northern harbor have
been seized on by Kitimat
Wharves Ltd. a subsidiary of
the world - wide British firm, .
Samuel Williams. The company
has announced plans for a three-
stage $11,000,000 harbor devel-
opment in Kitimat. Eventually,
a 16-berth wharling program .is
envisaged.

IMMEDIATE TARGET

While Japex may be looked
upon as a major customer of the
harbor in the future, the more
immediate -target for Kitimat
Wharves is Eurocan, the $100,-
000,000 pulp mill now being con-
structed in Kitimat by Finnish
interests, This is the first of two
mills planned for the area. Bulk-
ley Valley Pulp and Timber

Paper Co. and Bowater Cana-
dian Corp., is planning another
$100,00,000 development near

of Kitimat, and this would be
_another big exporter by sea.

Thus, with all these million-
dollar plans in various stages of-
planning and development, plus
the continued production by Al-
can and logging operations by
both Crown Zellerbach and
Macmillan, Bloedel, Kitimat
has every right to think ‘of itself
interms of aboom.

G. H. Gwyn, works manager
of Alcan, who has been in the
tawn for 12 years, says: “Alcan
is settled here and we go on.
You will hardly recognize this
town in five years."

But he is realistic enough to
realize that the world is no long-

comes to aluminuin, even though
world demand for the product
is
bounds,

GUYANA

Guyana used to be the, sole
source of hauxite, raw material
for alumimim. It was brought
through the Panama Canal to
Kitimat in the Alead company's
fleet of ships. But Kitimat no
Jonger handles raw bauxite. In-
stead, it takes alumina, a pro-

and turns it ‘into aluminum,
About four tons. of bauxite pro-'

tralia and Africa as .well- as
Guyana and there are aluminum
plants in Mexico, Japan, Brit-
ain, Australia and a as well
as Canada: nw

/-. Nevertheless, Alcan will re

‘moves

available, Depths in the harbor.

ALCAN ALUMINUM SMELTER AT KITIMAT. DEEPSEA WHARF IN FOREGROUND

main the backbone of Kitimat’s
economy.

Kilimat is not having it all its
own way in its drive towards be-
coming the Vancouver of the
North. Prince Rupert, striving
to overcome its handicap af lack
of back - up harbor land, is
planning a wharf development
of its own and a group of local
businessmen are seeking assist-

‘ance from both federal and pro-

vinelal governments,

However, there are those in

Prince Rupert who think the
town's future went down in the
Titanic in 1912 with Charles M.
Hayes, president of Grand
Trunk. He was the man who
dreamed of Prince Rupert as a
major port. .
_While Kitimat Wharves is lin-
ing up major customers for. its
year ~ round ice - free harbor,
Roberts Bank, near Vancouver,
through the political
streamers of red tape towards
development as the promised
super-port that is needed to ful-
fil a $656,000,000 export contract
for Fernie, B.C., coal, The coal
is destined for Japan, and Kais-
er. Steel, handler of the con-
tract, claims the Japanese have
been given Canadian govern-
ment assurances that Roberts
Bank will be ready in 1970.

XO DISMAY = «ig 4,
Kitimat’s boosters are undis-

mayed. pointing out that the
coal will place an added burder

on the singleline tracks through
the Fraser Canyon on both CNR
and CPR, Any delay along these
winter - threatened routes is
bound to cause some feverish
searching for alternative routes
to the sea and Kitimat is putting
high hopes of its own into the
contract agreed wilh Japanese
industrialists for the export of
the Luscar area coal from Al-
berta. This coal, says Kitimat,
could mave with greater ease on
the CNR from Jasper to Terrace
and then to Kitimat, enjoying
the advantage of a day’s less
sailing time to Japan.

The line from Terrace to
Prince Rupert, on the other
hand runs through the narrow
valley of the Skeena, where the
rain clouds are quick to frown
on the mountain tops in sum-
mer and where a 3(-foot snow-
fall is a constant winter men-
ace to the single track — an-
other reason why Prince Rup-
etr has a question mark over
its port development scheme.

Prince Rupert, visited by
some 100,000 tourists in a year
as the Alaska ferry ‘stopping
point, is the end of the road in
more ways than the strict geo
graphic sense, according to its
detractors. Nevertheless, it
claims to be ‘the centre of B.C's
fishing activities and .has .a
thriving pulp industry, one by-

product‘of which is the highest-"}

grade pulp that is used exclus-

ively for all of Canada’s filter-
tip cigarettes.’

Prince Rupert is about 95
miles west of Terrace, the log-
ging boom town that is looking
upon itself as the distribution
hub for Kitimat and the Stewart-
Cassiar read (still to be built)
that will bring minerals and
prospectors pouring into Ter-
race. With its airport set on a
natural -shelf above the town
and serving Kitimat, some 35
miles away, Terrace feels it
has a prosperous future as a
soul mate of Kitimat, :
MAGIC FIGURE .

Population estimates for the
Kitimat of the future range from
the magic figure of 50.000 being
touted hy the optimists, to the
16,500 - 30,000 range predicted

for 1991 by the B.C, Research }}

Council, That Kitimat is sitting
on the edge of an economic ex-
plosion as a bulk-laading port
seems without question; ‘though
the major inhibiting factors ta-
wards assuming the big-league
city status remain it isolation
and lack of basic raw materials
for any manufacturing industry,
It is significant, for instance,
that while alecan was prepared
to spend some §$500,000,000 de-
veloping Kitimat’s cheap - power
facilities to build the second-

a biggest-aluminum smelter in the

world, it still prefers to turn ita
aluminum into - manufactured
goods elsewhere.

Co., a joint venture of Bathurst -

Houston, about 200 miles east -

er Canada's oyster when it |. .

drink tot

increasing by leaps and_

cessed bauxite, from Guyana’

duces one ton of aluminum.
Bauxite is now’ found in .Ause:

 Labatt’s Blue’
comes In cans

too.

-Now you can enjoy smooth, easy-drinking Labati's ‘Blue’ In acnoss canaca

_ compact, fast-cooling, easy-to-open, no-return cans. So next
time ask for Labatt's ‘Blue’, in cane or bottles. More and more
people-do, For free home delivery and-bottle return phone: |.

"

| ERAT TST |

‘4

"BG. a0

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