Article written by Rod Link and published to Terrace Standard
The city and its residents can’t handle increased industrial activity in the region without more help from the provincial and regional governments, says mayor Sean Bujtas.
Speaking at a city meeting held Dec. 9, 2025 to discuss its planned 2026 budget, Bujtas warned Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Mark Carney that Terrace will expect nothing less.
“We’ve got all of the impacts and none of the revenue,” Bujtas said of existing industrial activity outside of Terrace’s taxation authority.
“We can’t leave Terrace behind,” Bujtas said of the substance of a meeting held earlier in the month with Eby in Victoria.
And with a number of the federal government’s 12 favoured major industrial projects to date that are located in the Northwest, Bujtas said the federal government has a role to play.
“There’s phase 2 of LNG Canada, Cedar LNG, Ksi Lisims LNG and Newmont is talking about expanding Brucejack and Red Chris. And we haven’t even touched on the Golden Triangle,” he added.
“You can’t leave Terrace in the dust,” Bujtas said.
He reminded the audience that when Carney was here in November to announce that more projects would be referred to the federal Major Projects Office to speed them along, that he said his plan is to “make Terrace strong.”
“My intention is to hold him accountable,” Bujtas said.
The mayor cited cost increases due to the financial presence of large companies on city capital projects — such as rebuilding streets — on rents, on housing, and on wages.
Bujtas keyed in on a shortage of housing as a continuing problem in the city, noting that since his time on council, an estimated 800 units of housing of all kinds have been added.
“And we still have a zero occupancy rate. We’re going to need supports,” he said.
He said he has been unsuccessfully pursuing the provincial government to provide the city with a parcel of Crown land on the bench so that the city can work with developers to increase the housing inventory.
“I’ve said ‘give me that Crown land. It’s up on the Bench, doing nothing’,” he said.
One participant at the Dec. 9 meeting also relayed his observations, saying the economic pressures of increased industrial activity have raised basic living costs in Terrace to between $2,000 and $3,000 a month. “I’m paying $1,200 [a month] for a basement suite,” he said. “We’re getting sideswiped by major industries.” Bujtas said major industries are now obligated to sign economic benefits agreements with First Nations, an avenue not open to northwestern B.C. municipal governments.
He did, however, acknowledge the $34.5 million the city is getting over five years from the $250 million North West B.C. Resource Benefits Alliance deal with the provincial government.
The money is meant to assist northwestern B.C. local governments with infrastructure and other costs arising from increased industrial activity.
“It’s critically important to the City of Terrace,” said Bujtas, noting the grant was used to redo the portion of Thomas Street on the Bench this past year and will be used in the upcoming complete reconstruction of the 4600 Block of Lakelse Avenue.
