Ep. 144: The Fate of Fort St. John, Alberta and Site C Dam

Guest: Fort St. John residents

Fort St. John is a town on edge.

With all the talk about pausing or cancelling Site C, no one is looking at the impact on the people who work on the project, the impact on the City and Not For Profit organizations.

Jamie Hartnell is a carpenter foreman at Site C. He loves his job. It's long term, it's good work and it allows him to go home to his family at night.

If the project is cancelled, he worries he will have to leave his hometown and look for work elsewhere. The official unemployment rate is the highest in the province at 10%; unofficially it's higher.

Hartnell says, "There won't be another job like this in Fort St. John."

Mayor Ackerman says the City will lose more than the $1 million dollars a year that BC Hydro is committed to paying during construction. Not-for-profit organizations will also be hit. Add in the downturn in oil and gas, and Fort St. John is a city on the edge.