Ghosts of Canadian Tire and other retail fables of the past, bring Mayor Pond to Defence of Civic Business welcome

Every once and a while residents around Prince Rupert rake a look around at the landscape of the City and engage in that ages old Question game of ... How come we don't' have a ...

To which some old favourites like Canadian Tire, KFC and A and W get rattled off  on the community wish list.

The latest round of that long running community theme came from the Prince Rupert social media page Prince Rupert Community Bulletin Board. 

The original entry from Tuesday one which has since generated over 100 comments. 

The thread of conversation that followed was also marked by a few entries from Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond, who came to the defence of the city's business strategy and how City Hall. and City Council and staff remain open for Business.

The Canadian Tire story goes back to Mr. Pond's first term as Mayor close to eighteen years ago, a period of time when Canadian Tire had been kicking tires around the old Bowling Alley location now the home for Kal Tire.

The BC Hydro site right of screen and across Highway 16 
along Chamberlain Avenue both were once considered
for expanded retail options for the Community
(image from City of PR website)

As noted by the Mayor, the high profile Canadian retailer later had explored being part of some big plans for a proposed Shopping  Village by the Alberta Development company Royop.

The area around Portage Avenue and Highway 16
Prince Rupert's Field of Retail Dreams
They didn't build, we didn't come

The shopping village a project which would have brought a big city look to the North Coast.

The Mayor's observations of the week recounting some of the challenges to that development.

Some of the notes that charted the accelerated exuberance that the proposed shopping village of 2005-2008 brought to the civic discussion can be reviewed below:

November 2005 -- No name dropping in Podunk
December 2005 -- Are we chasing a wave that's already crested?
April 2006 --  The slow path to Big Box Heaven
June 2006 -- Ooh, Ooh Canadian Tire! Canadian Tire!
August 2006 -- Highway 16 Shopping village, still more speculation than substance 
September 2006 -- Shopping village looking at spring for construction 
December 2006 -- Bigger, Better and to be zoned for your shopping convenience
December 2006 -- The Big Box Backlash doesn't rule the day
December 2006 -- Shopping village opponents building their case 
December 2006 -- Is Squamish the blue print for Rupert's Big Box Dreams?
May 2007 -- Royop hopes to reveal retail partners in the next few months 
May 2007 --  Caution is in the wind over further shopping developments on the highway
August 2007 -- Terrace merchants can look forward to two more years of traffic 
May 2006 -- Land rush on the Highway 
May 2008 -- Shopping village suffers a setback
May 2008 -- If they don't build  it, we can't shop
May 2008 -- Don't give up on your. shopping dream just yet 

The Mayor observed this week of the Council of the times and its desire to have seen that project move forward, though it should also be noted as you can discover  from some of the links above, it was not a unanimous belief on Council or for some in the city.

Councillor Joy Thorkelson was the most outspoken contrarian to the idea, reflecting the views of more than a few residents in town that the arrival of the Big Box Village might sound the death knell of the city's downtown business core.

The topic was one that framed some of the debate for the municipal election period.

More recently it was the prospect of the city finally gaining a return for an A and W restaurant that captured the attention of residents. 

Though a proposal for an  A & W restaurant in the upper level parking area of the Rupert Square famously became a talking point in 2019 for then Mayor Lee Brain, who offered no support for that proposed location to grab your Papa, Mama and Teen burgers.

As noted in his comments, Mr. Brain had suggested at the time that the City was actively working with the proponent for the large Canadian burger chain for a spot in the city, though nothing had come of it by the end of the former Mayor's two terms of office.

Back when he was a candidate for his latest turn in the Mayor's office Mr. Pond expanded on some of the commercial quests for the community and outlined some observations on the challenges that Prince Rupert was finding in attracting them.

From Mr. Pond's contribution the Social media commentary this week; the City he says is very Open for Business, though it's not a topic that the current council membership tend to discuss much. 

And when it comes to active conversations at Council related to any proposed developments; there hasn't been a large scale commercial application up for public review by Council in a very long time.

The most prominent reviews of potential Commercial development plans came out of the 2030 Vision program Delivered in 2019, which appears for the most part to have shifted the city's retail focus to the East of City Hall and into the Cow Bay Area. 

That vision plan outlined the path forward to service a projected population estimate of close to 24,000 residents. 

Though as we noted last week, that ambitious population forecast was recently tampered down a bit by provincial data that suggests the Prince Rupert population won't top much more than 17,000 residents by 2046.

Some additional commercial sector themes were developed as part of the city's work on the Official Community Plan in 2020, that guiding document for Council was adopted in 2021.

If Council wants to follow up on the theme of attracting new stores, new restaurants and other services, judging to the reaction to this weeks social media discussion topic,  there seems to be a fairly interested audience out there. 

A collective waiting to hear what they may have to say and what the city's strategy to attract them might be.

You can review the state of the city's commercial sector from our archive page.

Our notes on what Council does talk about at their Regular public meetings can be reviewed here.