Economy
While the Government of Alberta is the largest employer in the town, with over 15 government departments located within its municipal boundaries, it is followed in close second by resource extraction, principally forestry, agriculture, oil and gas and their support services. Over the years, Peace River's economy has expanded to include professional services, manufacturing, health/social services and construction. Major construction companies in the Town of Peace River include Ruel Bros. Contracting, T.H. Gust Builders Ltd. and Glen Armstrong Construction. LaPrairie Works is based in nearby Grimshaw. Among the larger heating and air conditioning contracting companies located in the Town of Peace River is Peace River Heating (1971) Ltd.
Many major Canadian financial institutions now have offices in the Town of Peace River. Horizon Credit Union, a Peace Country credit union, is based out of Peace River and recently completed its new head office building on Main Street Peace River.
The Town of Peace River sits in the proximity of Peace River Oil Sands, Alberta's 3rd largest oil sands deposit. In May 2010, Penn West Energy Trust signed a $1.25-billion deal with China Investment Corporation to finance operations in the Peace River oil sands area in anticipation of significantly ramping up its production. As part of the deal, $817 million took 45% stake in the oil sands operations and $435 million took 5% equity stake in the trust itself. In January 2010, Shell submitted a regulatory application for an 80,000 barrel-per-day expansion.
The Peace River is the largest river in Alberta and yet has the least water allocation licenses. Only 0.2% of provincial water allocations and only 0.3% or 9.1 million cubic metres of all estimated water use in the province are in the Lower Peace Region, implying that less than 1% of the average annual flow is allocated or used. It is for this reason that large energy projects are being considered in the region. In March 2008, Bruce Power made an application with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to build a 4 GW nuclear power plant in the area 30 kilometres west of the Town of Peace River around Lac Cardinal. After a detailed review of that site and other potential sites, Bruce Power Alberta, a subsidiary of Bruce Power announced that it has selected a different site approximately 30 kilometres north of the Town of Peace River. It is currently reviewing the business case of the potential plant just as the Peace River & District Chamber of Commerce declared its support for the plant.
Read more about this topic: Peace River, Alberta
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Everyone is always in favour of general economy and particular expenditure.”
—Anthony, Sir Eden (1897–1977)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)