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VANCOUVER — The proud owner of a B.C. ghost town figures he will get the last laugh. But Krishnan Suthanthiran still has a long way to go before making his unorthodox investment in the remote community of Kitsault pay off, if ever. Row after row of houses and other buildings sit empty, waiting for the first occupants since 1983. For now, the town serves as a time capsule from the early 1980s.
Mr. Suthanthiran paid $7-million for the community in northwestern British Columbia in 2005, when the region went through another round of rough times.
Today, the area’s economy is faring much better, fuelled in part by Rio Tinto Alcan’s massive modernization project at its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, a 230-kilometre drive south of Kitsault. Across northwestern British Columbia, several energy firms are doing preliminary work on their liquefied natural gas proposals.
Mr. Suthanthiran serves as president of Kitsault Energy Ltd., the name of a fledgling project to export LNG to energy-thirsty customers in Asia. Kitsault Energy is one of 17 B.C. LNG proposals announced to date, though it is far from certain that even one export plant will get built.
He recalls the puzzled reaction when news spread in 2005 that he bought Kitsault lock, stock and barrel. An affiliate of Phelps Dodge Corp., an American company that was subsequently acquired in 2007 by Phoenix-based Freeport McMoran Inc., sold the property to the American entrepreneur.
Amax Canada had produced molybdenum, an additive that goes into steel production. But the market for molybdenum collapsed in 1982, forcing the Amax mine to close after only 18 months. Nearly 1,200 residents abandoned Kitsault by 1983.
Mr. Suthanthiran is undaunted by the remote location at the head of Alice Arm, a 1,440-kilometre drive north of Vancouver. He reckoned there would eventually be an economic revival to trigger demand for some 90 houses and 150 apartment units. There are also community amenities such a recreation centre, supermarket, shopping mall, hospital, public library and curling rink, to name a few of the now-empty structures – part of a building boom from 1978 to 1980.
“One man’s garbage is another man’s gold,” Mr. Suthanthiran said in an interview during a stopover in Vancouver.
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