TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. – Tumbler Ridge is a company town that lost its
company and survived.
Instead of having its homes hauled away on a flat deck truck, the town
has defied the odds and become a community with a future.
When Quintette Coal Ltd. announced in 2000 it would close its mine
early because of low coal prices, the town was devastated.
Already there were 500 vacant houses and six empty apartment buildings,
in a town with 1,192 homes and 403 apartment units, because of earlier
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layoffs at Quintette and the nearby Bullmoose mine. In its prime, there
were more than 1,700 employees at Quintette, the largest open pit mine
in Canada, in northeastern British Columbia’s Peace River area.
“The day I found out that it was shutting down three years early was
absolutely devastating,” said Clay Iles, who had just been elected
mayor.
“It was very scary.”
Instead of accepting defeat, the District of Tumbler Ridge worked hard
to transform itself from a coal mining town with a questionable future
to a premier tourist destination. It is a revitalization plan many
communities across the West have tried, but few have achieved the
success that Tumbler Ridge has.
“We made a commitment not one house would be moved from this town. We
were determined to keep our town intact,” said Iles.
Through a deal with the mine and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the
newly formed Tumbler Ridge Housing Corp. took control of more than 700
vacant homes and eight apartment buildings, which represented about 60
percent of the homes in town. A portion of each house sale was given to
the realtor hired to sell the homes, and the rest of the money was
given to CMHC.
“It took a heck of a lot of negotiating with CMHC to get it done.”
It was the kind of creative thinking needed if the town was to survive.
CMHC got its money, the town got its taxes. Most importantly, the homes
were full of people, key to keeping the community vibrant.
“If you don’t have ownership in your community, you don’t have a
commitment to the community,” said Iles, who has seen a mini boom in
house paint and renovation material. At least a dozen new businesses
have opened since the mine closed.
Low house prices were an incentive for young families to look at
Tumbler Ridge. With a starting price of $25,000, it took only 14 months
to sell all the homes.
While originally the town thought the low-cost houses would attract
retired people, young families have moved to the community. A recent
survey showed that before the mine closure, the average age was 25 to
44 years. Now it’s 45 to 54, the same as the provincial population.
Getting the town’s debt under control was also key.
When Tumbler Ridge was built between 1982 and 1985 by the B.C.
government as a way to diversify the province’s economy and supply coal
to Japan, the town began life with a $38.6 million debt.
The planned community had all the amenities of a big city including a
$13 million community centre with an indoor swimming pool, hockey
arena, curling rink, library, daycare and fitness centre.
Through negotiations with the government to get promised infrastructure
money up front, the debt was wiped out.
“It’s not new money. It was money that was committed by the government.
It was not a bailout,” said Iles.
The community has identified tourism as key to the future of the area.
There are seven major sets of waterfalls around Tumbler Ridge, one even
higher than Niagara Falls, now all with walking trails to them. There
are more than 300 kilometres of marked snowmobile trails in the
mountains to encourage recreation activity.
With a high-grade power line coming into the mine, the town has looked
at the possibility of producing electricity through coal or methane to
put back on the electrical grid. Even wind electricity has been
studied. Oil and gas reserves have been developed and the lumber on the
nearby mountains has been looked at.
“It was tough times and we’re not out of the woods yet,” said Iles
with the news the Bullmoose mine will close next year. While it’s been
a hard two years, he said it’s a community worth saving.
“It’s worth fighting for. It just was. Quitting was never an option.”
