The candidates for the municipal election are undoubtedly feeling the heat as the Nov. 15 polling date approaches. And if the numerous calls to The Chief's editorial department are any indication, one issue is arising as most pressing in much of the community's mind - local employment.As job losses increase every week with Kiewit's pull out and the slowing down of development, problems are staring every candidate in the face. But although it clearly weighs heavily on every candidate's mind as well, responses to questions of jobs creation have been uninspired. One reason for the lack of ideas may be that the District of Squamish is often hamstrung when it comes to retaining business. Woodfibre's shutdown was the most recently dramatic example of this fact. The most recent exodus of jobs - although having nowhere near the same impact - is another example. And it's occurring under the noses of those tasked with discovering employment opportunities on the district's downtown peninsula land, the Squamish Oceanfront Development Corporation (SODC). The SODC joined forces with neighbouring property owners Westmana and BC Rail to form the Peninsula Land Corporation and develop the entire seaside peninsula in the hopes of benefiting the downtown and the entire community. But the SODC had little say in BC Rail Property's decision to nix eight local, high-paying jobs by refusing to renew a local company's lease. Hydor-tech, a chemical plant located on the shore of the Blind Channel that produces water treatment solutions for municipalities across Canada, has been in Squamish for decades. Now it's closing its doors and moving to Calgary after the company's landlord, BC Rail Properties, announced it would not renew their lease. BC Rail has been tasked with divesting its properties throughout the province, and in Squamish it means selling off this piece of land to an as-yet undecided private developer who, it's being reported, could build 300 residential units on the site. But in these tumultuous economic times, we will be interested to discover how long the property remains abandoned until its sale and development actually occur. The district can block the required rezoning of the land from its current industrial designation to residential, but besides that, it has little control over BC Rail, or its decision to lease to Hydor-tech. BC Rail Properties is by no means finished with Squamish, and who knows how much say the new council will have over its future decisions? It seems all the town can hope for is that BC Rail's future interests mesh with its own.
