Ready for the boom

Final in series of 12, hotel and restaurant operator says Dawson Creek needs economic boost from gas pipeline project

Patricia Jones

PNA Contributing Writer

Canada’s oil and gas industry has not made a lasting impact on the community of Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaska Highway.

In fact, Dawson Creek has been mostly bypassed by natural resource development, according to Heidi Kux-Kardos, who, with her husband Charles, operates the colorful Alaska Hotel, Café and Pub, located just a block off the Alaska Highway.

“In 30 years, we’ve seen the ups and downs from the pipeline, and gas development from Fort St. John to Chicago,” she said. “There’s not too much going on —much more in Fort St. John. We get the overflow.”

She doesn’t expect much to change, should a gas pipeline be built from Alaska south along the highway to existing infrastructure in northern Alberta.

“There’s a big trucking industry up and down the highway,” she said. “Very often they are in a hurry. They bring two in their truck, take turns sleeping in the bed in back so they drive straight through.”

Rather than overnight guests, her business sees more impact from the oil and gas industry in the dining room and the pub. “Management who come up for meeting will have dinner here,” she said.

The couple keeps the hotel rooms in a boarding-house style, she explained. “They share bathrooms, and there’s no TV or telephone (in each room) so it’s not for someone who wants to do business,” Kux-Kardos said.

Yet she hopes that gas prices might decline, with construction of a new pipeline through the area. Despite lots of local gas exploration, she said, fuel prices are still very high.

“We have no break in the process to heat a monster like this old building,” she said. “And we’re sitting right next to a hydroelectric dam, and there’s no break in that price.”

Dawson Creek could use an influx of business, Kux-Kardos said. The sleepy community of about 10,000 people has not grown much in recent years, unlike its neighbor to the north.

“Fort St. John is different — they have oil,” she said, adding that the community’s population has increased about 40 percent in recent years.

“People are building, there’s four or five grocery stores there,” she said. “They do market research and they know if something is in the air.”

On the other hand, a large percentage of Dawson Creek’s residents are on social assistance, she said.

“We get transients who come to Dawson Creek, and they come here penniless,” she said. “We are all ready for the boom.”