Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Dawson Creek
Location of Dawson Creek within the Peace River Regional District in British Columbia, Canada
Area Population	20.66 km² 11,290
Location Altitude	55°44′N, 120°11′W 665 metres
Incorporation	1936
Province Regional District	British Columbia Peace River
Mayor MLA MP	Calvin Kruk Blair Lekstrom Jay Hill
Time zone Postal code Area Code	MST V1G xxx 250
Official website: City of Dawson Creek

The city of Dawson Creek is a small city in northeastern British Columbia, Canada. It covers an area of 20.66 km² with a 2004 population of 11,290 people, according to BC Stats. Its nickname is the "Mile 0 City" because it is at the southern end of the Alaska Highway. Dawson Creek derived its name from the creek of the same name that runs through the city. The creek was named after George Mercer Dawson by a member of his land survey team when they passed through the area in August 1879. Because the city is the service center for the rural areas south of the Peace River, the seat of the Peace River Regional District, and the crossroads for entering British Columbia north of the Rocky Mountains from Alberta, the city dubbed itself The Capital of the Peace.

History

Dawson Creek was one of the farming communities established by European-Canadian settlers moving west through the Peace River Country. The pace of migration increased after the homestead grants were given to settlers in 1912 by the Canadian government. With the opening of a few stores and hotels in 1919, Dawson Creek became the most important settlement in the area. The incorporation of the Dawson Creek Co-operative Union on 28 May 1921 bolstered the settlement's role as the area's main business centre.

After much speculation by land owners and investors, the Northern Alberta Railways built its terminus 3 km (2 miles) from the village. The golden spike was driven on 29 December 1930, and the first passenger train arrived on 15 January 1931. The arrival of the railway and the construction of many grain elevators attracted more settlers and helped Dawson Creek become incorporated as a village in 1936. In 1939, as World War II was beginning, refugees from the Sudetenland arrived in the region and settled on land bought from the Canadian Pacific Railway and held in trust by the Canadian Colonization Association. This helped the village's population surpass 500 people in 1941, but by 1943 the population was in the thousands. The community rapidly developed in 1942, as thousands of American army troops, engineers and contractors poured into the city, which had become the terminal of rail transport, to construct the Alaska Highway.

In 1951, with the completion of the highway's construction and the workers long-since gone, the village's population was approximately 3,500 people. Dawson Creek experienced tremendous growth during the 1950s, especially after the John Hart Highway and an associated rail line linked the town to the British Columbia Interior and the Lower Mainland. Western Canada's largest propane gas plant was built in this period, and federal government offices were established. The village obtained city status in 1958, and by 1961 the city's population had reached approximately 11,000 people.

Growth slowed in the 1960s, and the city reached a peak population of 12,392 in 1966. In the 1970s, the provincial government established offices, Northern Lights College opened a Dawson Creek campus, and the Dawson Creek Mall was constructed. Several modern grain elevators were built, and the town's five wooden grain elevators, nicknamed "Elevator Row", were dismantled. Only one of the historic elevators remain today, converted to an art gallery. Since the 1970s, the town's population and economy have not significantly increased. This is primarily attributable to the nearby town of Fort St. John becoming a centre for industrial development and Grande Prairie becoming the same in the commercial sector.

Since 1991, the city has undergone three boundary expansions. The first, in the southeast corner of town, incorporated undeveloped land on the basis of a planned veneer factory by Louisiana-Pacific Canada. However, the company abandoned its plans after the city extended services to the location, with the factory only half-built. The second expansion incorporated an existing Louisiana-Pacific Canada oriented strand board factory in the northwest corner of town, while the third incorporated undeveloped land south of the airport for future commercial or industrial development.

Demographics

The 1941 Canadian census recorded 518 residents living in Dawson Creek. Ten years later, 3,589 residents were recorded in the 1951 census, a seven-fold increase. Five years later, the 1956 census recorded 7,531 residents. This rapid growth was due to the construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942, which made Dawson Creek the terminus of the rail line from the U.S. via Alberta and brought thousands of workers to the city. The new highway made the city an important location for transshipment from trucks-to-train and a crossroads for entry to northeastern British Colmubia from Alberta. However, since the late 1970s, Dawson Creek's population has remained stable.

According to the 2001 Canadian census, there were 10,740 people living in the city in 4,410 households in 2001. The average age of Dawson Creek's population is younger than the British Columbia average, with 22.4% of its residents under the age of 15, compared to BC's 18.1%. Likewise, 11.1% of Dawson Creek's residents are over 65 years old, whereas 13.6% are province-wide. The dominant religion, with 37% of the population claiming adherence, is Protestantism, followed by a Catholic minority at 18%. Only 2.8% of residents claimed to be a visible minority, which is significantly lower than the 21% provincial average.

Also, from the 2001 Canadian census, Dawson Creek's unemployment rate was 10.4%, and its participation rate was 69.5%, whereas the provincial rates were 8.5% unemployment and 65.2% participation. Dawson Creek's higher participation rate reveals that more people in the city are employed or are seeking employment, but the city's higher unemployment rate shows that there are not enough jobs to satisfy the demand for work. The employment rate may be affected by the city's dominant industries, which involve seasonal and unstable (year-to-year) jobs in processing, mining and agricultural products, as well as oil and gas drilling. However, the incidence of low income with private households is lower, at 16.5%, than the 17.8% provincial average.

Economy

Dawson Creek acts as the retail and service center for the region between the Peace River to the north and the Rocky Mountains to the south. Historically, the town's economy has developed based on primary industries and has been dependent upon large resource-based employers. Agriculture is and has been the most important industry to Dawson Creek, as the city is a transshipment point for agricultural products. The city is surrounded by the Agricultural Land Reserve, in which the soils produce consistently good yields of quality grain and grass crops, such as wheat, oats, rye, barley, flax, hay, alfalfa and sweet clover. Livestock has been historically important to the region, but less so since the BSE crisis and the associated worldwide border closures to Canadian cattle. The oil and gas activities that have driven the Fort St. John economy have recently spilled over to the Dawson Creek economy as well. Discoveries south of Dawson Creek and higher energy prices have caused the city to seek more oil- and gas-related development.

As a service center, Dawson Creek has a large retail sector that caters to both the rural community and the city's inhabitants. However, the city has experienced significant retail leakage to the closest major Albertan city, Grande Prairie. Since Alberta does not charge any provincial taxes on retail purchases, and B.C. charges 7%, many British Columbians from the region travel to Grande Prairie in order to purchase high-priced items. The problem of leakage has been exacerbated in recent years by the introduction of large-format retail stores such as Wal-Mart. Even though they are located within Dawson Creek, such stores have a heavy amount of leakage to corporate offices outside of the city. Residents still cross the border for high-priced items, but these large-format chain stores offer the medium- and low-priced items that were formerly economically impractical to obtain in Alberta.

Dawson Creek also has a large tourism industry that supports dozens of hotels, motels and RV parks. Thousands of people drive on the Alaska Highway every year, starting in Dawson Creek and ending in Fairbanks, Alaska. This trek is done in RVs, cars, pick-up trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles. Many people do the trip in convoys, which first gather in Dawson Creek. In the winter, the hospitality industry caters to workers from the oil patches.

Transportation

Dawson Creek's road network was laid out in the mid-20th century as the town rapidly expanded. It uses a grid pattern of large blocks of land connected to one another by only a few intersections, such as at a bridge over a creek or at a railroad crossing. Because there are many internal intersections with stops signs in the grid pattern, traffic is forced onto two major roads. The two most heavily-used roads are 8 Street going north-south and Alaska Avenue going southeast-northwest. These two roads meet at a traffic circle where a metal statue marks the beginning of the Alaska Highway. The major trip generators are the businesses along the southern portion of 8 Street and the central part of Alaska Avenue. Most trips to and from Alberta go through town, especially work-related trips to the oil-producing rural areas. These trips come north along 8 Street, then northwest along Alaska Avenue, or vice versa. Despite the designation of highway 2, south and west of town, as a " dangerous goods route", many industrial trucks also use this route along 8 Street and Alaska Avenue, which often slows traffic and damages the road.

The city has developed as the crossroads of major highways and as the service center for the agriculture industry. The highways it has access to include Highway 2, or 8 Street (to Grande Prairie and southern Alberta), Highway 49, or Alaska Avenue east of the traffic circle (to Peace River and northern Alberta), and Highway 97, or Alaska Avenue west of the traffic circle (north to Fort St. John and Alaska and west to the B.C. Interior and the Lower Mainland). The city heavily promotes itself as the southern terminus, or Mile "0", of the Alaska Highway. While the 8 Street/Alaska Avenue traffic circle is the beginning of the Alaska Highway, there is a Mile "0" post several blocks west into town, which is a central landmark and has distances from Dawson Creek to other points along the route, culminating in 2,400 km (1,523 miles) to Fairbanks, Alaska.

Passenger rail service began in 1931 with the Northern Alberta Railways building its northwest terminus in the town. In 1958, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (later known as BC Rail) connected Dawson Creek to the B.C. Interior so that Pacific ports in Vancouver and Prince Rupert could be reached. As the town has a resource-based economy, moving commodities such as grains, oil and gas by-products, and foresty products via rail was always more important than moving passengers, and so the last passenger train left Dawson Creek in 1974. Today, BC Rail connects Dawson Creek to Chetwynd, from which the rail extends southwards through the Rocky Mountains to the BC Interior and northward to the cities of Fort St. John and Fort Nelson.

Greyhound Bus lines connect Dawson Creek to Vancouver via a 19-hour bus ride along Highway 97 and Highway 1. A small airport was built in 1963 and had its 1,524 m (5,000 ft) runway paved in 1966. This airport was privatized from Transport Canada, and is now locally owned and operated. Today only one commercial airline, HawkAir, maintains regular flights from Dawson Creek.

Geography and climate

Dawson Creek is flat, rising only in the northeastern corner above the rest of the city. The creek from which the city takes its name runs east-west through the middle of the city, though it is no longer used by fish. According to the Canada Land Inventory the city is on, and surrounded by, class 2C soil wherein the soil has moderate limitations, due to an adverse climate, that restrict the range of crops or require moderate conservation practices.

Dawson Creek is located in the southwestern part of the Peace River Country, 72 km (45 miles) southeast of Fort St. John, and 134 km (83 miles) northwest of Grande Prairie. It is in the B.C. Peace Lowland ecosection of the Canadian Boreal Plains ecozone on the continental Interior Platform. The area has a subhumid low boreal ecoclimate as it is in the Cordillera Climatic Region. The city draws its water supply from the Kiskatinaw River, 18 km (11 miles) west of town, which drains north into the Peace River.

In the summer the city is often dusty and dry. Heavy rain showers are sporadic, lasting only a few minutes. The average precipitation in July is 83.5 mm with an average temperature of 15.2 ºC. In the winter the city can get bitterly cold and dry. It gets an average snowfall of 171 cm per year with a January average of 33 cm and −14.7 ºC. The city is subject to very heavy winds year round. The area uses Mountain Standard Time year round since it already has long daylight hours in the summer and short daylight hours in the winter.

Culture and recreation

Before leaving Dawson Creek, travellers gather at the Northern Alberta Railways Park. This four acre site is the official beginning of the Alaska highway, offering a photo opportunity for travellers and their vehicles under a sign and metal cairn pointing the way to Alaska. The park also includes the Dawson Creek Art Gallery which is located in a renovated grain elevator; it exhibits works from local artists and craftsmen. The Station Museum, also in the park, displays artifacts and exhibits associated with the construction of NAR railway and the Alaska highway. A heritage village, called the Walter Wright Pioneer Village, is located in the northwest end of town in the Mile Zero Rotary Park. The village groups some of the first buildings constructed from the area's pioneer days, as well as many artifacts from those days.

Dawson Creek has a golf course, and several parks provide areas for outdoor activities, including swimming, ice skating, and tennis. Nearby Bear Mountain, located south of the city, provides over 20 km (12 miles) of snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails, as well as, areas for downhill skiing. There is 500 km (300 miles) of trails for snowmobiles that meander between Dawson Creek, Tumbler Ridge and beyond. In the summer, these trails are used for mountain bikes and ATVs.

The city boasts three arenas (two hockey and one curling rink), an outdoor speed skating oval, an indoor swimming pool, a skateboard park and youth center, all grouped together in the heart of the city. However, the South Peace Community Multiplex is a new community facility under construction in the southeast corner of the city. This facility will replace the swimming pool, and has been controversial due to its escalating costs and poor location. The Multiplex was originally projected to cost CAD$21.6 million but once construction began the projection was at CAD$35 million. Also, its location is separated from any local communities, and on the back side of the Wal-Mart store in the midst of industrial land. However, it is located close to the Exhibition Grounds and will feature an indoor rodeo arena, convention center, and a potential gambling area.

The biggest event in Dawson Creek is its Fall Fair & Exhibition which has been held annually since 1953. This five-day event in August includes a professional rodeo, a fairgrounds, a parade and exhibitions. Other annual events in Dawson Creek include the Dawson Creek Symphonette and Choir in March, the Dawson Creek Art Gallery auction in April, the Dawson Creek Spring Rodeo in June, and the Peace Country Blue Grass Festival in July.

Dawson Creek is served with several regional newspapers. The Peace River Block Daily News and the Alaska Highway News, both part of the Canwest Global chain of local papers, are dailies available in Dawson Creek. However, the Peace River Block Daily News is published in town and focuses more on Dawson Creek news whereas the Alaska Highway News is published in Fort St. John and focuses more on that town. The Northeast News is a free weekly published in Fort St. John but which has sub-offices in Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson. The only radio station broadcasting from Dawson Creek is CJDC 890 AM ( country music) and the only television channel broadcasting the town is the CBC affiliate CJDC-TV.

Government and politics

The City of Dawson Creek has a council-manager form of municipal government. A six member council, along with one mayor, is elected at-large every three years. Two school board trustees, for representation on school board #59, are also elected on the same ballot. The mayor and council approve all municipal by-laws and yearly budgets. The city funds its own fire department, which covers the city plus 5 miles into the rural areas, but contracts police work to the RCMP.

Dawson Creek is situated in the Peace River South provincial electoral district and is represented by Blair Lekstrom in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Lekstrom was elected mayor of Dawson Creek in 1996 and re-elected in 1999. In the 2001 provincial election he was elected as the district's Member of the Legislative Assembly and re-elected in 2005. Before Lekstrom, Peace River South was represented by Jack Weisgerber. Weisgerber was originally elected as a member of the Social Credit Party in 1986. In the late-1980s, as part of the ruling government Weisgerber served as the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources and Minister of Native Affairs. While his party lost power, Weisgerber was re-elected in 1991, and he served as party leader in 1992-1993. In 1996 Weisgerber won re-election again but as leader of the Reform Party of British Columbia even though Dawson Creek polls put him in third place behind the BC Liberal Party and New Democratic Party candidates in a close race.

B.C. Election 2005: Dawson Creek polls in Peace River South
Party		Candidate	Votes	city %	riding %
	BC Liberal	Blair Lekstrom	2,167	56.74%	57.74%
	NDP	Pat Shaw	1,314	34.41%	32.76%
	Green	Ariel Lade	338	8.85%	9.50%

B.C. Election 2001: Dawson Creek polls in Peace River South
Party		Candidate	Votes	city %	riding %
	BC Liberal	Blair Lekstrom	2,176	66.93%	64.20%
	Social Credit	Grant Mitton	530	16.30%	17.33%
	NDP	Elmer Kabush	252	7.75%	7.69%
	Marijuana	Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek	134	4.12%	4.45%
	Green	Stacey Dean Lajeunesse	126	3.88%	4.08%
	Unity	Garret Golhof	33	1.02%	2.25%

Federally, Dawson Creek is located in the Prince George—Peace River riding. The riding is represented in the House of Commons by Conservative Party Member of Parliament Jay Hill. Before Hill, who was first elected in 1993, the riding was represented by Progressive Conservative Frank Oberle. Oberle served as its MP for 20 years, between 1972-1993. Like the rest of the riding in recent elections, Dawson Creek voters heavily favour the conservative candidates.

Canadian Federal Election 2004: Dawson Creek polls in Prince George—Peace River
Party		Candidate	Votes	city %	riding %
	Conservative	Jay Hill	2,291	60.53%	58.71%
	NDP	Michael Hunter	785	20.74%	20.69%
	Liberal	Arleene Thorpe	435	11.49%	13.76%
	Green	Hilary Crowley	232	6.13%	5.71%
	Action	Harley J. Harasym	38	1.00%	0.83%
	M-L	Tara Rimstad	7	0.18%	0.27%

Canadian Federal Election 2000: Dawson Creek polls in Prince George—Peace River
Party		Candidate	Votes	city %	riding %
	CA	Jay Hill	2,951	69.58%	69.61%
	Liberal	Arleene Thorpe	739	17.43%	15.53%
	NDP	Lenart Nelson	209	4.93%	4.66%
	Prog. Cons.	Jan Christiansen	204	4.81%	6.14%
	Green	Hilary Crowley	103	2.43%	2.17%
	Action	Henry A. Dunbar	39	0.92%	1.64%
	M-L	Colby Nicholson	11	0.26%	0.23%