A8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 16, 1998

TERRACE STANDARD.

Business REVIEW

wat on Re cad

FINNING product support sales rep Ken Rosentreter

and finance manager Mitch Stclarchuk stand beside

equipment that's been selling slowly due to the forest —

industry downturn.

Finning trims jobs

NEARLY a quarter of the jobs have been cut this year at

Terrace’s Finning Ltd. branch, but the heavy equipment ° sales and service centre has averted the layoffs that have |

marked other B.C, branches.

The branch is down from 33 positions previously to 25 -

today — with most of the jobs eliminated over the sum- mer. Branch manager Barry Bourgeois said the reductions

were achieved largely through attrition or moving affected -

employces elsewhere. ‘We've only had to lay off one person,” he explained. The branch continues to look at other cost saving op:

tions, including a four-day work week possibly as part of a

federal work-sharing program.

The company has been hit hard province-wide by the

forest industry slowdown.

Bourgeois said that while equipment sales are extremely slow, the shop is very busy. _

"That tells us people are out there working,” he said.

He noted that while the operation caters mainly to log- ging contractors, it also services mining companies and Al- can, Which continue to provide steady business.

Bourgeois is optimistic that sales will lift if Asian economies recover slightly in 1999, ;

“If global markets just open up somewhat next year we'll have a runaway,”’ he predicted. ‘‘People are poised to purchase equipment again — they’re just waiting for some signs of stability in their markets.’’

Licence drop

a symptom of downturn

Construction slump blamed

A DROP in the number of business licences in Terrace this year reflects the con- striction downturn here more than any decline in the city’s core business com- munity, say city officials.

The number of business licences has decline from 1,323 about a year ago to 1,236 now — a drop of about seven per cent.

Senior building inspector Paul Gipps said a certain amount of fluctuation is normal as businesses open and close.

While 124 new business licences were issued througi November this year, 200 were closed.

“It’s down but I’m not concerned about it,”’ Gipps said, ‘With core businesses I would say there’s been

very little change and maybe even a bit of gro’ aad .

He traces the change in numbers ta the fact the city has seen the slowest con- struction year in a long time in 1998.

Just $7.75 miflion worth of building permits had becn issued to the end of Novem- ber — down from $20 to $25 million to the same point in the last few years.

“A lot of it is related to coustruction,”’ he said. “‘In a normal year we have tons of construction companies that come into town,”’

Gipps noted that the ab- sence this year of large projects like Canadian Tire, the Real Canadian

Wholesale Club, and the Park Avenue Medical Centre has cut into the num- ber of business licences issued to out-of-town con- tractors and sub-contractors.

“When Canadian Tire came in here we probably li- censed 10 to 15 subs out of that ane job, same with the Wholesale Ciub,’’ he said.

He said the local builders and trades people simply haven’t been able to keep up with the extraordinary level of construction thal had been going on in town, and the shortage had attracted many out of town firms.

‘We've had seven in- credible years,’’ Gipps said. “You can only build so big so fast.’’

Gipps anticipated — the slowdown last year when he gave city council a projec- tion for building permit

“revenue in 1998 of just

$40,000 and total construc- tion of $10 to $12 million.

While the city hasn’t even hit $8 million yet, the permit revenue prediction has been surpassed because of. the tendency this year towards -many small projects and vir- tually no big ones.

While Gipps won't say if he sees any large projects on the horizon, he said he does have a number of inquiries for houses and duplexes.

His prediction for 1999?

‘Forecasting the level of construction is a roll of the dice,’’ Gipps says. ‘But I would expect much the same as this year.”

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Thank you also to the local schools and Gitsxan Health for their support.

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