FORT ST. JAMES — Fort St. James mayor Jim Togyi expects the B.C. Liberal government to keep its promise not to sell or privatize B.C. Rail, the Prince George Citizen reported.
But he’s not particularly worried about the future of rail service to the northern B.C. town of 2,100.
Togyi says that’s because the rail link to Fort St. James, about 100 kilometres northwest of Prince George, is the biggest payload for B.C. Rail.
“I think everybody believes you could not move that wood out of Fort St. James without B.C. Rail,” he said.
About one third of the volume of wood logged in the Fort St. James Forest District is transported by rail — more than 1 million cubic metres, or 20,000 logging truck loads. There’s already a loaded truck going through town every five minutes, so any increase in road traffic would mean increasing highways to four lanes, suggested Togyi. “B.C. Rail has made is pretty clear they’re going to stay in the freighting business, and get out of the passenger business,” he said. “I don’t see any danger of that line being deactivated.”
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell had said during the 1996 election campaign — which the Liberals narrowly lost — he’d sell B.C. Rail. But Campbell changed his tune for the 2000 election, adding a promise not to sell or privatize the Crown Corporation to his party’s long list of new era platforms.
However, there’s growing concern among some community representatives and unions that B.C. Rail may be up for sale following its decision to get out of the passenger service business and its decision to sell assets like its marine division, and its truck transport segment. B.C. Rail has said its decisions have been pushed by economic necessity. It lost $107 million last year.
Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers official Frank Everitt noted that everything B.C. Rail is doing “leads you to believe” it’s up for sale.
Any decision to sell B.C. Rail would have a big impact on northern communities and workers, said Everitt, secretary-treasurer of IWA local 1-424, which represents a portion of maintenance workers at B.C. Rail.
“We think B.C. Rail was established to assist bringing economic revenue to communities, and that need hasn’t diminished,” he said. “It may have in fact have increased. For the government to sell off B.C. Rail, or lease it, would give them instant money. But the long term effects would be detrimental to the Northern Interior.”
Officially, the Liberal government continues to say B.C. Rail is not for sale.
Prince George North MLA Pat Bell said last week the government must find a more efficient, effective way to run the rail line so it can continue to move natural resources to market. “We said we weren’t going to privatize it or sell it, and I think that’s still the direction of government, but when you start hearing people rumbling and telling us that we should be doing that, you might want to rethink that, I don’t know.”