An Estonian cruise ship converted to serve as a floating hotel – and help ease a housing crisis – was scheduled to arrive in Kitimat March 9.
Rio Tinto Alcan has contracted the 170 metre long Silja Festival, capable of housing 600 workers plus its 100 crew, to house crews working on the $3.3 billion Kitimat aluminum smelter modernization project.
"We have already installed a 1,700 bed camp for our workers, which is nearly full. We expect to utilize close to 500 more beds," Rio Tinto Alcan spokesperson Colleen Nyce said in an email. "A number of options were looked at to supply the additional beds. There isn't enough room in Kitimat anymore, with the [liquid natural gas] projects doing early works in the region as well. The floating accommodation... turned out to be the most efficient and fastest way to provide the accommodation required."
The ship will be docked at Rio Tinto Alcan's marine terminal for up to a year, during a peak period of construction work, Nyce said. The ship will be known as the Delta Spirit Lodge, named after the Delta King – a steamship converted to house workers during the original construction of the smelter in the 1950s.
The ship is being operated by Richmond-based Bridgemans Services Ltd. and the Haisla First Nation. According to information on Bridgemans Services' website, the ship features 575 single-occupancy rooms, a 378-seat dining room, three licensed lounges, gym, laundry meeting space and other facilities.
Spokespeople for Bridgemans Services and the Haisla First Nation weren't available as of press time.
Kitimat Mayor Joanne Monaghan said she's optimistic the floating hotel will help ease the lack of housing in the town, which has had a massive influx of residents and workers since 2011 when construction of Rio Tinto Alcan's modernization project began.
"I feel that we do have a lack of accommodation right now," Monaghan said. "If they can move... over to the ship, that will help out some of the situation we have."
In the 2008 census, Kitimat was reported as the fastest-shrinking municipality in Canada.
Between 2000 and 2010, the rental vacancy rate in the town ranged from 13.7% to a peak of 45.4%, according to housing report by the District of Kitimat. The average rental price for a duplex or single-family home hovered between $450 and $650 per month.
But now, in addition to the smelter project, initial works for the proposed Pacific Trails Pipeline – a 463-km natural gas pipeline that will link British Columbia's gas fields to a LNG terminal in Kitimat – are underway.
Although not yet approved by the federal government, Enbridge Northern Gateway plans to build a 1,177-km twin pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to Kitimat and B.C. media baron David Black has proposed the construction of an oil refinery in the town to serve export markets.
"Our population has gone from about 8,500 to 11,000 now. The only way we can go is escalate further," Monaghan said. "We'll see the big influx when the final investment decisions are made."
In October the vacancy rate in Kitimat was 1% and still falling. The same homes that would have rented for an average of $450 per month in 2010 commanded an average monthly rent of $1,800 in January.
The average sale price of a single-family home has skyrocketed from $92,896 in 2004 to $228,000 in January – if a you can find one. According to the District of Kitimat's housing report, only 16 residential properties were listed for sale in January.
"When you're down to 8,500 [people] you go as low as you can [on rent] to keep your building full. Now people are asking $1,200 for a two-bedroom apartment," Monaghan said. "If you're on a low income, that's too much."
Monaghan said B.C. Housing met with the District of Kitimat council last week to discuss the situation.
"We're trying to make a plan to have some affordable housing built," she said.
Because B.C. Housing regulations restrict rent increases for existing tenants – the maximum rent increase this year is legislated at 2.2% – some landlords are "renovicting" their current tenants, Monaghan said.
Landlords can seek B.C. Housing approval to evict tenants to conduct internal renovations to their properties. Once the units are renovated the landlord can set a new, substantially higher, rent.
One person facing renoviction is Teri Apps. Apps works with disabled students at Mount Elizabeth secondary school in Kitimat as an education assistant.
In February she got a letter from her landlord saying they were applying to B.C. Housing for approval to renovict everyone in her apartment building. Currently she pays $750 a month for her two-bedroom apartment, which she said she was lucky to find last June.
After she got the letter, Apps began looking for apartments or houses to rent that would take her, her dog and the disabled young woman she cares for out of her home.
"People are asking $1,300 to $1,500 for an apartment. A lot are advertising them fully-furnished, which I don't want," she said. "I'd have to leave. I have a career, but I will have nowhere to go."
As a single person on an education assistant's salary, she simply wouldn't be able to afford to live in the town where she grew up and has lived for almost 30 years.
She's looked to buy a place of her own, but the last time she checked the real estate listings there were only six places for sale and all were asking more than her budget.
"I've stopped looking, it's too depressing," Apps said. "It's sad. Us locals were here [during the tough times], but unfortunately they're driving us out. I don't think they are thinking of the day-to-day people. Somebody still has to run the town."
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