Northern View – New Passport Office in the North

Dec 28, 2022 | 10:04 AM

We found out a few weeks ago that Prince George will be getting its own passport office next spring, which will not only serve the city but all Northern B.C.

Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP Taylor Bachrach might be the one we need to thank the most for this greatly needed new service in the North. The former mayor of Smithers has long been a strong advocate for Northern B.C. and has spent much of his first years in Parliament speaking to rural issues and challenges that many urban Canadians really do not understand, and, well, don’t really care about.

But in Ottawa Taylor repeatedly pressed the federal Minister responsible for passports and it paid off. But why did it take so long for the North to get its first passport office? When you speak to decision makers from down South or out East, they often see northern communities as needing a kind of hand-out, like we are a charity they might be able to help if only their more important southern issues could be put aside when it’s convenient.

But what the bulk of Canadians huddled along the US border don’t understand is that the significance of our communities reaches far above the numbers of our relatively smaller populations. People who live in places like Prince George, Burns Lake and Smithers maintain one of only two national highways that stretch across Canada, leading to the rapidly expanding port in Prince Rupert, which delivers goods to Asia several days faster than the more southern route through Vancouver.

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We also supply countless necessary resources like timber and minerals and maintain essential energy corridors that power communities well beyond our regional borders. And we maintain all the emergency services and hospitals to support those networks. Let’s not forget the billions in tax revenues that projects like natural gas pipelines pump into government coffers.

Without such vital northern contributions, the British Columbia that we all know and enjoy would simply not exist. So while representatives like Taylor Bachrach, and our own Shirley Bond and Todd Doherty here in Prince George, often face an uphill battle in Victoria and Ottawa, the North must continue to be at the top of their political agenda if we are to get our fair share of government services and supports.

Editors note: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of Pattison Media.

by Chris Beach

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Northern View – New Passport Office in the North

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