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Britannia Beach ponders becoming one of B.C.’s top tourist attractions

Federal, provincial government agencies, UBC involved in concept Imagine driving past Britannia Beach and seeing a glass elevator making its way to the top of the large step-shaped, refurbished concentrator where visitors can now dine with a view.

Federal, provincial government agencies, UBC involved in concept

Imagine driving past Britannia Beach and seeing a glass elevator making its way to the top of the large step-shaped, refurbished concentrator where visitors can now dine with a view.

Imagine pedestrian walkways to the dock where families and visitors can play and look out across the inlet.

Imagine a wetland, which is detoxifying mine-polluted water, as you wander its pathways.

It may sound fantastic but researchers, federal and provincial government officials, industry representatives, business interests, the local museum and the people of Britannia Beach are all working together to try and make the dream come true.

"Certainly the museum is very much welcoming it," said Kristin Clausen, director of the B.C. Museum of Mining.

"Even if this dream takes longer to realize than we want there is a really strong, positive will happening between everybody."

Currently the plan is at a concept stage. Designers were given a free hand, with no budget in mind for the development, to come up with ideas for the re-invention of Britannia Beach around it historical roots.

There are several bodies involved in the infant project: National Resources Canada wants to build a mining innovation centre; the University of British Columbia wants to build a research centre; the museum wants to expand; the new owner of Britannia Beach, Macdonald Development, is moving ahead with upgrades and development of the town site; and other interests, including the provincial government, which owns the mine and is working on the clean-up of the site, are also involved.

Funding would come from a number of sources including the private sector and federal and provincial governments. The plan must be economically self-sustaining to be undertaken.

"We undertook a conceptual design and pre-feasibility concept of locating a centre at Britannia," said Michael McPhie, senior policy advisor for Western Canada with the minerals and metals sector of National Resources Canada.

"(We wanted) to look at really capitalizing on what Britannia has already done which currently attracts 40,000 visitors through their modest infrastructure there."

The federal government is also keen to put a better face on the area which thousands of visitors will drive past everyday on their way to the 2010 Winter Games in Whistler.

"The truth is in our opinion if Britannia looks the way it does now when the world comes to Vancouver and Whistler and it still presents an image of the past in the way it does then we won’t have done our job," said McPhie, adding that NRCan has had a scientific presence at the site for almost two years.

"Britannia in its current state is really reinforcing a very negative stereotype and it constantly reinforces an idea that mining is just a thing of the past."

In fact, said McPhie, Canada is now the fifth largest diamond producer in the world, equalling South Africa.

In B.C. mining contributes about $3.5 billion to the economy. However, The cold reality is that the industry in B.C. continues to shrink. There are fewer people working in the industry, capital expenditures are down, both gross and net revenues are down, B.C. shipped less product last year than in 2001, cash flow has declined, and there are fewer operating mines left in B.C.

UBC first got involved in the site in 2001 when mining researchers put a plug in the mine to stop polluted water flowing into Britannia Beach.

That plug may also have helped prevent serious flooding at Britannia during the recent torrential rainfall.

Researchers got excited about the site and what it could mean to their work.

"We thought a research centre takes the pollution and the contaminated site and the tailings in Howe Sound and makes it a resource for research," said John Meach, director of the Centre for Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals and Material at UBC.

"It takes something that is a negative and makes it a positive. So a research centre gives us the opportunity to help transform the community into something that has a positive image about mining instead of a negative.

"This tourist attraction could represent the evolution of mining. Instead of people coming through and just getting the fantastic museum experience of the history of Britannia they could also see what the present is and where we are going in the future."

Currently about 30,000 visit the mine and another 10,000 stop at Britannia each year, said Meach, who is also on the board of the museum.

That figure could jump to 300,000 to 500,000 if the plan goes ahead.

The $10.6 million UBC research centre would be built at the top of Main Street and would be made to fit in with the historical character of the town.

It would focus on addressing the environmental problems of mining around the world and the whole issue of a concept called sustainable mining.

"What we are talking about is how can a company continue to operate as the ore body becomes depleted and how can the community sustain itself during the operation and post operation," said Meach.

That is also a concept the federal innovation site would be focusing on.

"There is no link specifically for the Government of Canada to be at the site other than an interest in regional development issues, attracting investment back into British Columbia, and supporting Canada’s image internationally about promoting sustainable development," said McPhie.

"It’s about mining, it is about investment in British Columbia, it is about Canada’s statement to the world and its commitment to sustainable development."

None of these projects would be under way if it were not for the provincial government finally taking over the clean up of the area earlier this year.

Local resident and chair of the Land Tenure Committee at Britannia Beach Lynne Cook said the projects, which could be completed by the end of 2008, are exciting.

"It would certainly put Britannia Beach on the map.

"The whole community is moving forward in a whole new direction. Britannia Beach will change but it will change for the better in keeping with the whole original historic flavour of Britannia.

"It is exciting and it is going to be wonderful for the community and for the people of Vancouver."