Northern Rockies Regional Municipality Mayor Rob Fraser remains hopeful a solution can be hammered out to assist 48 Fort Nelson workers who are to be laid off from the NorthRiver Midstream gas plant suspending operations.
The company stated yesterday (Wednesday) it’s due to a significant reduction in gas volumes being supplied by regional producers to the plant for processing.
Fraser told Vista Radio while the news isn’t great, he is not pushing the panic button.
“We’ve got six months to work with the producers and the other stakeholders and government to figure out if we can do something about this or not. North River Midstream is exactly that, a midstream company, they don’t actually produce natural gas. It’s the producers that produce it and they are not sending gas down the pipeline to them, there is nothing for them to process.”
“The actual layoff won’t happen for six months. There is time for us to work with the government agencies that work with the employees who get laid off and it’s too early for us to tell what that looks like.”
Fraser added there are a lot of good resources located in the northeast that can give their economy a shot in the arm.
“We just need provincial infrastructure to get us to market. We need good policies to allow the resources in the northeast to be produced and I think if the province comes to the table that helps us to help ourselves to get us through the fires and the economic downturn we are in.”
North River says they remain committed to continuing to work with area producers, the province and, other stakeholders on solutions to allow gas processing to resume.
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