Initiative

Kitimat is an industrial city. A deep-water port – one of only three on the west coast of Canada – converges with big power and water availability, competitively advantageous transportation access, big aluminum and LNG industries, and big block industrial land availability.

But Kitimat is also more. Nature’s oceanside cathedral is special here. Kitimat is where the really wild things are – the everything bigger and taller in its bears, trees, water, and mountains. It’s also an affordable community with great jobs…where one can get ahead with a dream of what can be and the work ethic to make it happen. Kitimat is a connected, friendly, and industrious community on the rise, with much progress in recent years and a number of plans in place that will witness continued, positive transformation. If life is like a see-saw, that Kitimat is BIG BY NATURE is the soul of the community….the more balanced “Marvel of Nature-Industry” story the community wishes to tell, and will tell in its actions.

Kitimat’s challenge for the immediate future isn’t job creation; it’s community-building to attract and retain workforce needed to sustain industry and contribute to a dynamism that is alive with energy. The Kitimat Economic Development Strategy is about accelerating the enablement of a community people WANT TO LIVE IN. Key Strategy directions include a revitalized downtown, a Kitimat-beautiful movement, housing choice and affordability, nurturing enterprising ways as small business, and workforce attraction & retention.
Five goals and 51 initiatives represent the heartbeat of the Strategy.

Breakthroughs include: 1) creation of a first-ever, sharp vision statement and vision story to connect the dots between strategic directions; 2) catalytic bold moves to aggressively address the #1 surveyed community desired: downtown enhancement; 3) a “connect the dots” strategy that leverages several good, existing plans into a singular, cohesive vision of the future and strategic direction; 4) focus on action planning to enable visible and tangible progress, and 5) pride-building brand extension to downtown and merchandising.
With an Economic Development Strategy in place, Kitimat will continue to forge its role as an industrial leader in Canada in balance with lifestyle-living.