Dalhousie turning from industrial past as it tries to find a new identity
In New Brunswick’s northernmost city, indicators of an industrial period nonetheless loom over the waterfront.
Dalhousie’s sweeping view of the Restigouche River and Quebec’s Gaspe Peninsula is partially blocked by a rusting steel gas pipeline and mangled fences round an enormous tract of land. The pipe, which as soon as carried gas to a thermal producing station, is coming down this fall.
Because the view over the river adjustments, city officers hope notion of the group will even start to shift. After dropping three main industries which shed tons of of jobs, the municipality is cleansing up the waterfront and investing in tourism, arts and tradition.
Mayor Normand Pelletier stated Dalhousie by no means thought-about alternatives past trade till just lately.
“We have been hit laborious. However we’re nonetheless alive and kicking,” he stated.
“We by no means actually checked out tourism at the moment. However as a result of we have misplaced all the things, folks began to comprehend the fantastic thing about our space and these are the tasks you need.”
WATCH / Former N.B. mill city discovering new life in tourism
New Brunswick’s northernmost city is specializing in cleansing on its waterfront and investing in tourism, arts and tradition.
Industrial period
Dalhousie was as soon as a busy centre of trade in northern New Brunswick, with a paper mill that employed folks throughout the area for greater than 80 years.
A busy port and different companies on the town supported it, together with the forestry trade.
The city additionally had a chemical plant and an N.B. Energy thermal producing station.
The paper mill and chemical operation each closed in 2008, leaving tons of of individuals with out work. Then in 2012, N.B. Energy closed the ability plant was completely.
The mill and elements of the Dalhousie Producing Station had been demolished, however oil tanks and the gas pipeline had been left behind on the waterfront.
Dalhousie employed consultants to draft an bold plan for creating the prime waterfront property, as soon as the tank farm is demolished.
The sketches present a imaginative and prescient with dozens of recent housing models, a campground, photo voltaic panel farm and a ship launch.
Pelletier stated whereas the city had been holding out for another use for the land, it is time to transfer on.
“We felt the tanks had been up in age and it was time for them to go. We see a greater potential for that property,” he stated.
“Dalhousie now’s now not an industrial-based city and we’re on the lookout for a greater future for our future era.”
‘It is beginning to change’
Jean-Robert Haché remembers a time when William Road, Dalhousie’s principal enterprise space, was lined with shops and companies.
“Folks may store for something from a automobile to a toothbrush. They’d all the things right here,” he stated.
In wake of the mill closure, a lot of these shops shuttered and residents started driving to close by Campbellton. However the picture of deserted and empty storefronts is step by step altering.
Two new shops have opened in latest months, a house decor enterprise and a store promoting native artwork and items. Regardless of the city’s small inhabitants of three,223 folks, it nonetheless presents a financial institution, two supermarkets, two pharmacies and different companies.
We have been hit laborious. However we’re nonetheless alive and kicking.– Normand Pelletier, Mayor of Dalhousie
Dalhousie’s inhabitants is even beginning to develop after a long time of decline. It added 97 new residents within the 2021 census, the primary recorded enhance for the reason that Sixties.
That development is coming from new residents interested in the reasonably priced price of dwelling, and from people who find themselves shifting again house.
Haché, a councillor and chair of the cultural committee, stated the city is creating its present cultural services and likewise increasing.
“If you wish to try to develop tourism and tradition it takes extra time. That is the one disadvantage,” he stated. “It is beginning to change.”
The native museum, which features a historic jail, has grown and now contains an artwork studio. The group additionally has an almost 500-seat theatre which hosts live shows.
Revitalizing the city
Dalhousie just lately opened a brand new park on William Road to rejoice the totally different cultural teams within the space.
It commissioned a bench with two statues carved out of driftwood, and hopes so as to add a leisure path to the waterfront and a “Pioneer’s Park” showcasing the historical past.
The land the place the paper mill as soon as stood stays vacant, overgrown with brush and new timber sprouting up. American Iron and Metallic, which bought the property to demolish the plant for the scrap steel, owns the parcel..
Pelletier stated the city is in talks about the way forward for that land, which overlooks the purpose the place the Restigouche River meets the Chaleur Bay.
“It is going to revitalize our city, entice folks to our municipality. And that is precisely what our objective and ambition is. To scrub up our city and provides it extra life.”
