My wife and I moved to Prince George from Hope in July of 1978. About two miles past Cache Creek we noticed a sign that someone erected that read "You Are Now Leaving the Province of British Columbia". At the time, we thought this was quite comical, but over the years we have come to believe that the Province of British Columbia ends in an East-West Line from Cache Creek to the Alberta border.
Why do we believe this? Everytime I hear that the economy of British Columbia is on the mend, I ask myself "where"? It must be down south because the only place I see economic improvement is in Vancouver. When the Olympics were awarded to Vancouver, we heard of all the economic benefits that the province would reap. Where? In Vancouver. So far I have not seen one major economic benefit that has helped the city of Prince George.
When I hear that so far this year 78,000 jobs have been added in the province, I wonder where all these jobs are. Not here in the Prince George. Ledcor had a job fair last week and more than 500 people showed up for 150 jobs and these jobs were in Chetwynd. When we moved here 32 years ago, there was a quasi movement a foot to separate the Province of British Columbia from the North and South. At the time we thought this was outrageous, but maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.
As most of the revenue that Victoria sees comes from the North, maybe if the North was a separate entity and kept this revenue in the North we might see some of this economic recovery that we are being told about. When our elected leaders fully realize that British Columbia extends North of Cache Creek and Kamloops, then we might see signs of the economic growth that is supposed to be happening.
Gary Jorgensen
Prince George
