June 2018

190 191 all the cranes and activities. Everything from apartment buildings to duplexes, carriage houses, multi-family, large industrial buildings. Our hos- pital is undergoing a $312 million upgrade that will be structurally complete at the end of 2018, and physically open a year from now.That invest- ment is a huge boost to our economic development, creating a lot of jobs over the past three years and, once open, it will improve health services to our aging communities.There will also be a training center for the University of British Columbia doctor and nursing programs.Hopefully, this new expanded medical facility stimulates a significant amount of health-related offshoots, as well. “We recently announced that B.C. Housing has partnered with local company, Metric Modular, in building another 52 units of modular housing to deal with homelessness. The project is address- ing housing needs up and down the province and creating major employment opportunities for businesses such as Metric Modular, which has grown from 18 employees to more than 100 and hopes to be at 150 later this year.” BVM: Is downtown revitalization a priority? Mayor Jakubeit: “It is. Over the last couple years, we’ve done downtown revitalization in the 100 and 200 blocks, and now the 300 block; replacing 60-year-old underground pipes and enhancing FortisBC Inc. and FortisBC Energy Inc. use the FortisBC name and logo under license from Fortis Inc. The Energy at work FortisBC logo and design is a trademark of FortisBC Energy Inc. (18-160 05/2018) Thinking differently about energy FortisBC plays a key role in helping the Province deliver on its climate and energy goals to make life more affordable for British Columbians, improve efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drive innovation. We support these goals by strategically managing B.C.’s existing natural gas and electricity infrastructure while investing in new low carbon energy infrastructure, such as renewable natural gas, natural gas for transportation and electric vehicles to name a few. That’s energy at work. To discover more about FortisBC visit fortisbc.com PENTICTON, BRITISH COLUMBIA the pedestrian experience with wider sidewalks and cosmetic upgrades.We’ve invested about $14 million in downtown revitalization, which has translated to about $50 million of private sector money in new residential and commercial buildings and renovating.We did the main street cosmetic upgrades and property owners kicked in 25 percent of the improvement cost. So, they have some skin in the game. “It’s cost about $2.2 million per block; $1.7 mil- lion in core infrastructure upgrades and $480,000 for beautification. In the 300 block, property owners are contributing $300,000 and the other $180,000 comes from the city.We were able to leverage dollars so that was one of the reasons we approved it. Downtown is right by the water, it feeds into our parks, it’s where we gather as a community - a destination where we want people to work, live, and play.” BVM: What’s in the future for Penticton, the ‘hockey town’? Mayor Jakubeit: “Memorial Arena is a 66-year- old building with a lot of hockey history.The 1955 World Champion Penticton Vees played out of here, and we’ve always had very storied junior hockey team success. Grandparents and parents are now taking kids to play hockey, so there’s a lot of sen- timental, nostalgia value.To decide its future,we created a task force that suggested building another twin sheet arena, alongside our state-of-the-art, South Okanagan Events Centre.That campus al- ready has two rinks plus Memorial Arena. Once the new arena is built, we’d transition to a dry floor