To the Editor,
There has been much discussion about how to get Nanaimo’s economy rolling again.
Tourism is constantly being touted as one path, but in my view, Nanaimo will never become wealthy making beds and slinging hash and booze at conventioneers or tourists.
Real wealth comes from industry and the heavier the better, as far as wealth goes.
Duke Point is sorely underdeveloped. It should have a graving dock and take on a percentage of the mandatory routine inspection and repair of ships in the Pacific area. It could handle a garbage incinerator/electric generation/cement production facility for all southwest B.C.’s garbage.
To stabilize the energy input/output, coal from the Compliance mine at Fanny Bay could be used, limestone from Texada and sand from dredging locally.
Waste heat could heat an industrial greenhouse industry on the extremely fertile alluvial soils of the delta.
A container ship dock could easily be constructed on the deep water there, to sort out and store, containers, as Singapore does.
As for tourism, we have the Depression-era gold panning school site up the Nanaimo River along with a hard rock open gold mine, a natural bridge and a huge hanging rock along with alpine meadows and the remains of the Green Mountain ski resort, along with the ‘Whistle Farm’ and a herd of fairly tame elk, all of which could be developed as tourist attractions.
Alastair James Berry
Nanaimo
