Pinto Tavares points at an empty concrete hull of a building and with a straight face he says it symbolizes a bright future for Kitimat.
Snow crunching under his feet as he walks round the long vacant store, the construction contractor says Kitimat is bleeding but the community will heal and good times will return, along with the hundreds who have left.
Empty buildings, like this former Shop Easy grocery, can't stay this way forever, says Mr. Tavares, 66, who came to Kitimat in 1968 after serving in Angola with the Portuguese Army.
"I think Kitimat is just a matter of time," he said brightly. "Kitimat is going to be good, not for me, but Kitimat is going to be good in the next 10 years."
But today things don't look good for the company town located two days' drive northwest of Vancouver at the end of the fjord-like Douglas Channel. Figures from the 2006 census released Tuesday show it leads the country in declining population. Kitimat's population dropped 12.6 per cent — 10,285 in 2001 to 8,987 in 2006 — following a 12.1 per cent reduction from 1996 to 2001.
The town was developed around Alcan's giant aluminum-smelting operation. Carved out of British Columbia's northern wilderness in the 1950s, it is still 75 kilometres from its nearest neighbour. It was built with plans of one day boasting a population of 50,000.
People earn good money at the town's largest employer — between $80,000 and $100,000 a year — but Kitimat doesn't even have a tow truck and the only movie theatre is for sale.
It's a cruel irony.
The Dairy Queen — the only ice cream and burger joint in town — sits empty and locked tight, looking like it hasn't served an Oreo Blizzard in years.
Bailiff notices cover boarded-up storefronts of a once vibrant shopping area where Portuguese, Italian, Greek and German immigrant workers would meet for coffee after night shifts at the Alcan aluminum smelter.
The mall downtown has more empty stores than open ones.
With the highest vacancy rate in the province, entire apartment buildings sit empty, a jarring reminder of dreams turned bad.
"Being here 22 years, I've seen Kitimat do full circle basically," said realtor Michele Forbes. "I'm hoping it will come back."
Numbers from the Chamber of Commerce and B.C. Stats, which monitors provincial trends, suggest Kitimat reached its population peak in 1982 at 13,422 people. It now has about 10,000.
The District of Kitimat's most recent statistics confirm rental and apartment vacancy rates are currently the highest of 27 British Columbia urban centres surveyed by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Kitimat's 2006 housing statistics put the vacancy rate in 2005 at 44.5 per cent. Neighbouring communities Terrace and Prince Rupert post similarly high rates.
"You can see it in the way the streets are no longer as clean and shiny as they used to be," said Angela Eastman, who was born here and is raising four children in the crumbling community that was once a model studied by planning experts.
"I thought it was a real feat this year when I managed to do nearly all my Christmas shopping here."
Alcan employs about 1,600 people today. In 1974, its work force peaked at 2,730.
In the mid 1980s Alcan started cutting workers, citing changing technology and market forces, and by 1990 it was down to 1,900 people.
"A lot of our young people, they go to Fort McMurray to make their money. Fort St. John, places like that," Ms. Eastman said.
Outsiders are shocked at the dereliction but the locals hardly notice the decay right before their eyes.
For one thing, residents spend more time debating the rocky relationship between the town council and Alcan than finding ways to bring the town back from the economic brink, said Ms. Eastman.
After at least six years of mounting tensions that include divisive court cases, stalled development plans and municipal elections fought on Alcan issues, residents are seeking some form of resolution.
