Fort St. John – is seeing growth in their community that they have not seen in a long time; many people link this growth towards the Site C project that has been attracting many workers to come to Fort St. John to settle down because of career opportunities that are available.
Because of the growing community of Fort St. John BC Hydro has communicated to the public how they will be setting up work camps to accommodating their workers in the community.
The information that was released regarding the work camps including how BC Hydro has selected Two Rivers Lodging Group to construct the accommodations for the Site C workers. As they have meet all BC Hydro’s requirements which also includes their budget.
This housing will accommodate and house up to 2200 people once completed. It will also provide full suite lodge services. This will include catering, janitorial, maintenance and fire protection.
There will also be guest rooms available which have a private bathroom, a TV and Wi-Fi services. In addition, workers will have choices of dining options, indoor and outdoor recreational amenities, and leisure and entertainment facilities; like a gym and movie theater.
However, since then the public and the community has not received any update regarding the construction of the work camps for site C and as the date approaches closer. This has raised some concerns and questions that have not yet been addressed.
For example, Mayor Lori Ackerman has raised a question to BC Hydro with regards to adding new police resource to ensure the safety of the workers and the people of the community of Fort St. John; however, this question still remains unanswered.
In addition, the city still does not know how this work camp with operate and how it will affect the community as a whole.
Will there need to be more resources available for the community to be functioning in a productive and safe way? And how will the Site C work camp affect Fort St. John economically?
For these reasons, it makes it really clear how BC Hydro has failed to communicate with the public and the community with relation to the Site C work camps and the project itself.
The update that the city has received is by Jackson, socio-economic and heritage manager for Site C. “Who told the council she would share the city’s requests, and committed to restarting a liaison committee between local governments, Hydro officials, and builders selected for the project”.
In addition, the construction of the Site C Work Camp will begin early July, but there is no specific date that has been released yet.
But it has been known that BC Hydro “cannot do any work within the river until it receives authorizations and permits under federal fisheries and navigable waters legislation”, Conway said.
Unfortunately, there is not much of an update with regards to the Site C work camps from BC Hydro yet.
