Kitimat Travel Guide

The District of Kitimat is a coastal city in northwestern British Columbia located on tidewater in the second of only two wide-flat valleys on the Coast of British Columbia. (Vancouver's Fraser Valley is known as the first and foremost tidewater valley on Western Canada's Pacific Coast) Kitimat's municipal area spans some 242.63 km² (93.69 sq mi) by design -- as this area is one of the few locations on this coast that has substantial room for affordable growth. The city population in 2006 was 8,987 people and the community anchors the largest Northwest British Columbia population conjointly with the city of Terrace in the Kitimat Valley. Both urban centres are within the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine. Kitimat was designed and developed in the 1950s as the Provincial Government attracted Alcan to develop a world-scale hydro-electric facilities which would support one of the worlds most power intensive and sustainable industries of all time: the aluminum smelting industry. The company built a dam, 16 km (10 mi) tunnel, powerhouse, 82 km (51 mi) transmission line, a deep sea terminal and smelter. The company was also responsible for designing and constructing the city of Kitimat which did not exist prior to Alcan coming to British Columbia. The Kitimat Arm had been home to the Haisla First Nation for centuries prior to Alcan selecting the Kitimat Valley as its manufacturing centre and community base. The company was interested in creating a sustainable future for itself and used the services of an award-winning city planner Clarence Stein in order to ensure the community design could handle substantial future growth. Kitimat benefits today from this extraordinary planning and from its Garden City design concept. A number of important considerations were upheld by Stein: industry to remain well separated from the community with large areas for expansion; overall a small footprint for looped streets surrounding an urban City Centre Mall but linked by over 45 km's of walkways enabling connection to and from all areas of the community. The design by Stein also ensured substantial greenspace areas and future expansion concepts which have been upheld by the city planners. The fact that Kitimat's natural environment is a predominant feature cherished by citizens today is publically acknowledged through community branding: Kitimat has been and will remain "A Marvel of Nature and Industry". (...) more....

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