National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 67

bright LUCAS. NATIONAL POST SUPPLEMENT Shell's upgrader facility near Fort Whether boasting about its business climate or its residential growth, Strathcona County is one happening place ROY COOK Edmonton Journal Staff Writer STRATHCONA COUNTY, ALBERTA World's biggest, Canada's best, stateof-the-art, fastest growing, lowest cost the words are used again and again in describing Strathcona County, Edmonton's eastern neighbour. And rightly so. Shell's bitumen upgrader and $400-million expansion of its Scotford refinery is touted as the biggest industrial construction project currently underway in North America and the biggest energy project in the world. Petro-Canada is in the second year of an even bigger 10-year, $4-billion refinery upgrade and Imperial Oil is spending $500 million to modernize its refinery.

In all, more than $8.5 billion worth of new construction is underway or planned. Building permits last year alone to- Greater Edmonton Outlook 2002 EDMONTON JOURNAL, APRIL Strathcona County Saskatchewan is part of a suite of projects for mining and talled more than $200 million- up 16 per cent from the previous year. Included in those were nearly 1,100 housing starts, strengthening the county's claim as Alberta's third largest municipality with a population of more than 72,000. With its partners in Alberta's Industrial Heartland Association (Sturgeon County, town of Lamont, and the city of Fort Saskatchewan), Strathcona is transforming a 194-sq. kilometre area northeast of Edmonton into Canada's largest processing centre for petroleum, petrochemicals and chemicals.

To date, more than 30 companies representing more than $11 billion in investment have located in the Heartland area. They read like a Who's Who of international business: Amoco, Air Liquide, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Shell, Imperial Oil and Sherritt International. But it's not all big business. Smaller companies are growing, and others are moving to Strathcona County, lured by the hot economy and quality of life. Companies like Jireh Industries, which does aerospace quality machining and makes robots that inspect on surface and underwater pipelines for cracks and corrosion.

Or Lockerbie and Hole, a 104-year-old Edmonton firm that began as a plumbing company and branched out into oil and gas, petrochemicals and pulp and paper. It is consolidating its Edmonton operations in the county, where it just A NADA INTERNATIONAL WINTER CONSTRUCTION SYMPOSIUM EXPO NOVEMBER 3-5 IN 0 0 03 Tools Techniques and Maximizing the Building Season A Cold weather regions around the world are faced with climates hostile to effective and productive management, design and construction. The impact of these conditions is felt by every industry sector. The International Winter Construction Symposium and Expo, November 3-5 in Edmonton, will focus on the tools, techniques and technologies that can be applied to minimize the impact of cold weather construction on the following industry sectors: Oil Gas Buildings Forestry Transportation Mining Industrial Manufacturing Power Generation Infrastructure This event will showcase national and international expertise and knowledge as well as provide a venue for the presentation of cutting edge research from global sources. Get Involved! Here's How: Event Contributors: Be an Exhibitor Be a Delegate Alberta Be a Presenter ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT For more information Edmonton visit www.iwcse.com CRIC contact: Construction Research or Institute of Canada IWCSE Namao Centre, Box 31051 Economic Development Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5Z 3P3 Edmonton Phone: (780) 970-8324 Fax: (780) 917-7668 Western Economic Diversification Canada 2002 EJ7 and refining heavy oil originating at Fort canada.com For more information on Fort Saskatchewan, Sherwood Park and Strathcona County, go to www.canada.com/edmonton and click on Outlook 2002.

opened a $10-million, state-of-the-art fabrication facility. Or Lockwood International a Houston-based oil and gas equipment distribution company that just opened a warehouse in the Griffon Industrial Park a development that sat empty for 19 years, but which is now attracting a lot of interest because of a shortage of good quality, fully serviced industrial land. Excellent links to roads and railways For B.C. lumber giant Canfor, the attraction was Strathcona County's excellent road and rail links, its strategic location at the junction of major eastwest and north-south transportation corridors and its cost advantages. Canfor owns 129 acres of land north of the Yellowhead Highway, the TransCanada highway's northern route.

Each day it ships more than 80 trucks loaded with dimensional lumber everything from 2x4s to 2x12s-from its mills in Alberta and B.C. to Strath- McMurray. Construction, now employing 6,000 cona County. There, the lumber is sorted, transferred onto more than 30 rail cars and shipped to markets in Eastern Canada and the United States. Ian Shepherd, Canfor's manager of transportation, says it's cheaper "We're in the most for Canfor to fortunate region in truck its lumber all of Canada, to Strathcona possibly in North County than to America.

We're a ship it by rail di- blessed with strong rectly from its growth in mills or through manufacturing, we Vancouver. have become more T.A.G. Reload- ing does the sort- we enjoy the best and quality of life in ing Westcan Canada." Bulk Transport the shipping un- Strathcona der contract to County Mayor Canfor. Vern Hartwell T.A.G. owner Tom Gandolfo said the reloading facility- the biggest of its kind in Western Canada -has been open for just over a year.

Canfor chose the Strathcona site for its $5-million-plus facility because of its easy access to both CP and CN Rail. "This is one of the few areas in Edmonton or Strathcona that both railways are close enough to each other that they can service one parcel of land," Gandolfo said. More than 30 million board feet of lumber are stored on a 15-acre paved pad at the Canfor facility. The rail spurs JOHN THE EDMONTON JOURNAL people, is scheduled to finish in 2003. CP and CN- run down the centre of the pad.

In addition to handling Canfor lumber, T.A.G. also buys lumber from other mills, and recuts and repackages it for shipping. "We're well served as a transportation hub," said Strathcona County Mayor Vern Hartwell. But more than road and rail, Hartwell says that also applies to pipelines. "We have the ability to market petrochemical products anywhere in North America, readily and economically." And the county's is growing fast and furious.

Corridor Pipeline is spending $700 million on a bitumen pipeline, Williams Energy $235 million on an interconnecting pipeline and ATCO Pipelines $8 million on the South East Edmonton natural gas pipeline. "We're in the most fortunate region in all of Canada, possibly in North America," said Hartwell. "We're blessed with strong growth in manufacturing, we have become more and we enjoy the best quality of life in Canada. It gives us the ability to attract major corporations as well as small Hartwell says energy will always be a mainstay of the county's economy, but he sees new opportunities for businesses such as call centres, pharmaceuticals, software companies and agricultural processing firms. See STRATICONA EJIO Alberta's future looks Alberta's economy is hot.

And as Alberta grows, so does The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. NAIT offers over 190 programs and 1,500 part-time courses, plus business seminars and customized training. In addition, 45 per cent of Alberta's apprentices 14 per cent of all apprentices in Canada train at NAIT. And starting this fall, IT students will learn in the new $50 million state-ofthe-art NAIT Compaq Centre for Information and Communications Technology. The right skills for today.

And tomorrow. 01! the future For information on 11762 106 Street Edmonton, Alberta T5G 2R1 how NAIT can help (780) 471-6248 you prepare for your future, visit 40 Nail ENCA THE NORTHERN ALBERTA www.nait.ab.ca TE OF TECHNOLOG.