Prince Rupert was met with a passionate ovation at the 2025 North Central Local Government Association (NCLGA) convention for successfully rehabilitating Watson Island, a failed industrial site it inherited unwillingly.
During the May 14 plenary session of the conference, Corinne Bomben, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Prince Rupert, shared how the city transformed the site from a costly liability into a vital economic engine. She noted that the City’s lessons could help other resource-based communities facing similar economic and industrial decline.
A Site Abandoned and Burdened
The trouble began in 1997 when the Skeena Cellulose pulp mill went into receivership and was bailed out by the Province. By 2002, 600 workers lost their jobs when the mill was sold. After changing hands again, the property went up for tax sale in 2008, but no one bid. Under provincial law, the City of Prince Rupert became the default owner in 2009.
“The city had inherited a facility abandoned overnight, surviving on a standby generator... it looked like an abandoned city with the landscape taking over,” Bomben said. Offices still had family photos and coffee cups on desks. Warehouses were full of outdated equipment and food still sat on cafeteria shelves.
The site also came with serious environmental and safety challenges including 15 million litres of industrial chemicals, hundreds of tons of dry materials, two unmonitored landfills, a massive wharf, and a damaged environmental record. The city’s first step was to create safety, security, and environmental monitoring plans.
For five years, the city faced legal battles over the site. A settlement in 2013 finally cleared the land title and allowed the city to begin dismantling the mill in 2015.
A Community in Crisis
The closure of the mill had a deep impact. Prince Rupert’s population dropped from 16,700 in 1996 to 12,800 by 2006. With the loss of its largest taxpayer, the City cut back services, including reducing the number of firefighters and cutting the RCMP complement by 20 per cent, as well as, decommissioning trails and parks, and stopping infrastructure investments.
Businesses, schools, and even churches closed their doors. The City also eliminated its Economic Development Department. The community began to unravel as families were forced to separate, with members leaving to find work elsewhere.
Turning the Tide
A new city council and administration sparked change. In 2015, the City partnered with a recycling company, not a demolition crew, to begin a responsible decommissioning of Watson Island. A dedicated team was formed, and a national RFP (Request for Proposal) process was issued.
Over 40,000 tons of scrap were recycled, and much of it was repurposed into Hyundai vehicles in Korea. More than 15 million litres of chemicals were safely recycled, and public auctions helped recover further value.
The project achieved a 95 per cent recycling rate with a minimal carbon footprint. By 2017, Prince Rupert secured a $300 million investment to build a liquefied propane export facility on part of the site, now known as the Watson Intermodal Trade and Logistics Park.
The city used revenue from LNG-related agreements to fund the decommissioning and redevelopment, relieving taxpayers of the financial burden.
A Strategic Vision
Bomben said the City leaned into its natural advantages. Watson Island is one of the few pieces of flat industrial land in the Canadian Pacific, with strong road, rail, and shipping links, and it is two days closer to Asia than other North American ports.
Working with the BC Ministry of Environment, Prince Rupert pioneered an innovative site redevelopment process that made the land attractive to global investors. The propane facility now brings in revenue which supports the city’s local infrastructure and services.
Instead of selling the land, the city chose to lease it, a strategy that protects long-term community interests, avoids liability for contamination and provides a steady revenue stream. This approach also allows the city to adapt to changing markets and prevent dependence on a single industry after its life cycle ends.
Looking Ahead
“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We’ve learned it’s okay to lean in on the cliché and make lemonade. Our efforts and those of our partners helped to rewrite this depressing story to give us something to hope for,” Bomben said.
Today, the City continues to market Watson Island to various industries, with the latest interest coming from companies focused on hydrogen production, distribution, and export.
Prince Rupert’s Watson Island story is now one of resilience, vision, and a future reimagined from abandonment to opportunity.
NCLGA is a non-profit organization representing more than 240 elected officials in 42 local, regional and First Nations governments spanning from 100 Mile House in the south to the Yukon border in the north and from the Alberta border in the east to Haida Gwaii in the west.
The North Coast Regional District, the City of Prince Rupert, and the District of Port Edward co-hosted the 2025 NCLGA conference from May 12 to 15.
