How to help small and medium sized businesses take advantage of some of the opportunities in Northern BC.
Cariboo North MLA Coralee Oakes says that was the focus of the True North Business Development forum that took place in Prince George late last week.
“Looking at some of the opportunities around LNG, you know the pipeline and some of those major projects, the refinery in Prince George, looking at some of the other major value-added opportunities that are happening.”
Oakes, who MC’d the event, says they also talked about the stresses that are happening right now in the Cariboo region…
“By the downturn in what we’re seeing in the forest sector. The challenge becomes, what does that transition piece look like and how do we make sure that there are certain supports in place to help our small and medium sized businesses to transition to maybe opportunities that we see that are on the horizon, both in the region and in the province. We still have a lot of work to do, we have supports that certainly need to be put in place around financing and some support around retooling and retraining that we’re certainly advocating for.”
Oakes says the focus was on the entire north however, including different challenges like in Houston…
“How does a community that has significant growth happening in the region, how do you make sure your small businesses are first and foremost at the front line of some of those opportunities, so those are conversations that I think are incredibly important.”
Oakes says the Liberal caucus also spent several days in Prince George.