A unique endeavour that waits

to explore multi-partisan nature of communities and cities 

 

The city of Prince George is a forestry city. The city of 70,o00 occupies a pristine spot of earth full of lively people. Prince George has a frontier spirit; an outdoor adventure waits at every corner.

 

Economically it is sound, and amazingly the smell of cedar wafts in the air from the forests that line pathways in numerous parks combing the city.

 

Indeed, the forest owns all of Prince George and will always do it. I am no expert but it seems to me the cedar smell I caught between wiffs of pulp and paper production reminds me of the coast, and is in fact at the eastern end of an interior rainforest. With all the industry, beginning at the very start of industrial development in British Columbia, including an ambitious railroad project that stalled at the sinking of the Titanic, Prince George has long since developed into a crossroads for travelers to all points in Canada and the world. The typical Western Canadian tourist season creates interest in the place from outsiders contained to the most summery times. This doesn’t mean Prince George wraps up and goes to sleep for the winter. The locals will tell you, only the bears do that. The bears.

The people are of multiple nations, races, colours, creeds, backgrounds, and it is a mosaic with a capital Z. It has a First Nation milieu that rivals any Aboriginal milieu in the world. It is a fact, said my friend Martyn Syme, the First Nations in the regions throughout BC, by and large, live outside any charters or conditions of treaty that designated surrender to Aboriginal Rights and Title, and, other than those living the exceptional lifestyle created by the government for their race, few First Nations people are actual subjects of the Indian Act as they would be if they lived on reserves where, with a few exceptions, they must live by Indian Act rules. In cities like Prince George First Nations should run important parts of the mainstream economy. They do not have positions in banks or stores or hotels, I am learning, but they demonstrate a strong skill set in social developments. They are not in other professions yet, at least I am not sure they are there yet. They may be moving into positions gradually. The UNBC will be an important facility making these changes in the local economy, where First Nations come to manage the Ramadas and the airlines, and the big paying jobs. They eventually will occupy positions like the rest of the guests in their territory, maybe a city council seat or two, someday, but even so they would probably have a few differing opinions.

First Nations happen to be prevalent at the street level (if not alone there, for the poverty is multicultural and diverse as well). The student population up at UNBC is growing, Martyn tells me, and he has two kids First Nation descendants enrolled this September. But on the streets I am likely to find a regular pattern in many cities in this province because 1/5 of Canada’s population of Aboriginal people resides in this province. I have been through the province doing writing in the past. I only stopped for a day at a multi-plex where they had the 1997 Elders Conference in Prince George. I always sort of drifted through onto the west. It is, however, a common fact that the cosmopolitan nature in Prince George has a First Nation cosmos, because everybody I talked to has said their home remains entirely familiar territory, and they all know where they come from.

Articles here discuss the local friendship centre. This is one of those friendship centres renowned in BC and Canada for providing a level of services for all citizens for it is a large and indeed impressive 6 story office building overlooking the downtown and the Nechako Valley. It is an older office building in the style built late 1960s in western Canada. They bought it through a gracious (retired) realtor I happened to meet named Wayne Jenkins, who invited me into his rapturous garden one evening and discussed a few things. His amazing good fortune includes this crazy dog called Max, a Portuguese water dog. Max lives for water, as do we all, except Max looks good doing it. And not all of us do. A wonderful thing is that dog, for it gives Wayne peace of mind.

I visited the University of Northern British Columbia. This school is relatively new and of course has a multicultural student composition, and the students come from Northern BC communities like Smithers or Hazelton or Prince Rupert. It is a new university but the college has programs are across the board and First Nations are in study at nursing, pre-med, pre-law, all the usual faculties.

Did I mention a river or two run through the city? I am joking. Two big powerful rivers run through the city. The Fraser and the Nechako meet, more accurately; the smaller Nechako enters the larger Fraser at the east end of Prince George, converging from the north. The pulp and paper industry uses some of the Nechako’s abundant supply of water to produce paper.

 

The site contains other articles about the city of Prince George. I work for Crime Watch Canada magazine and have a dialogue about Prince George and area underway there, and appearing in glossy nationwide. For a look at the crime situation visit www.crimewatchcanada.com.