2025 has been an eventful year for the sleepy town of Tumbler Ridge. Here’s how we saw the year that was.
January started out with BC Assessment releases their 2025 assessment, with the average property value going up 13 percent. That made it the fourth year in a row that housing values went up. Will 2026 continue that trend? We should know by next issue.
In January, Ken Klikach resigned from council. A few month’s later, former mayor Keith Bertrand was elected to fill his seat, in a nailbiter of an election that saw both he and another former mayor, Don McPherson tie.
In February, news broke that Conuma would buy Peace River Coal from Anglo American. This wasn’t really a revelation, as they’d been in discussions for about two years, but that was when the sale finally went through. The mine is still idle. The plans were to restart sometime in 2026, but the government worker’s strike meant that a lot of the regulatory work was unable to get done. The strike is over now, and work continues.
In February, the boiler at the Community Centre died (again), and the Community Centre had to be closed for the better part of three weeks. It was the second time in a decade the boilers there had failed. Later in the year, the boiler at the Recycling Centre also gave out.
The local snowmobile club had to deal with the temporary closures of a number of riding areas after the government cancelled the club’s permits for riding in the active riding areas in the Tumbler Ridge area.
In March, Conuma and West Moberly Industial Metalworks began the Hope Truck program, where a single truck with a specially painted orange box raised money per load for youth programs in Tumbler Ridge, Chetwynd, West Moberly and Saulteau. In the end, they saw 9285 loads of coal hauled by the truck, raising $151,917.44.
Also in March, there was an incident on Bullmoose Place after shots were reportedly fired; two people were taken into custody.
After years of BC Housing saying they were going to tear down Chamberlain Place, due to lack of maintenance, the houses came down. There is still no word as to what will happen with that space.
The federal election came and went, and while there were a number of candidates from a number of parties (Mary Forbes for the Greens, David Watson for the People’s Party of Canada, Corey Longley for the NDP and Peter Njenga for the Liberals), it was Conservative incumbent Bob Zimmer who carried the day, with the Liberals forming a minority government.
The Consumer Carbon Tax was eliminated in April, knocking $0.20 off gas prices in one fell swoop.
April also saw Tumbler Ridge’s first prescribed burn, which seems to have been a great success. While the nearby community of Kelly Lake and the recreational properties around One Island Lake were evacuated due to wildfires, Tumbler Ridge barely even had to deal with wildfire smoke.
That is not to say there were no wildfires. A series of wildfires were sparked off alongside Highway 52 at the end of April, as well the Mast Creek fire on May 2. But those were the exception.
Speaking of fires. On June 7, 216 Spieker was destroyed by fire. The cause of the fire is officially listed as undetermined. While many people were home, all humans made it out safely, though many pets were not so lucky. The fire also spread into the nearby trees. Fortunately, there was a crew of Wildfire Fighters in town at the time, and they were able to put out the fire before it spread too far. (This is the exception to my earlier statement that Tumbler Ridge was mostly wildfire free.)
In July, the on-again, off-again Murray River project went off again, when HD Mining returned the project to Care and Maintenance Status. The mine got its Environmental Certifications in 2015, then got a five year extension when it still hadn’t started by 2020. If it hadn’t made a “substantial start” by 2025, it would have needed to go through the Enviromental Assessment Process again. So over the last year, the mine put in the work to get a declaration that the mine had indeed made a substantial start, which means the Environmental Assessment Certificates are good for the life of the project, no matter how long they sit on it. Apparently.
In August, PNG shuttered its gas plant near Tumbler Ridge. Instead of converting sour gas to sweet, they’ve moved into a purchase agreement with CNRL to provide them with sweet gas, meaning that Tumbler Ridge is no longer going to be on the hook for about $2 million in repairs to the gas plant.
Vying with the fire at 216 Spieker for story of the year was the announcement in September that Northern Health would be closing the Tumbler Ridge Emergency Room on evenings and weekends.
The cause? Two of four doctors were leaving the town and finding doctors to replace those two was proving to be difficult. The town had already seen a series of diversions as there were not enough doctors and/or nurses to cover all the shifts. It’s been over three months and there’s been little movement on that front (see stories elsewhere this issue).
Also in September, Conuma got a permit extension, allowing them to move into Big Windy Pit.
In the last few months of the year, we’ve heard about a new proposed wind project in the Hourglass area, about a new movie about the Monkman Pass (which is now on YouTube), the library’s new privacy pod, and, alas, the death of Erin Wanvig.
She was just one of a number of people who have passed away in the community, but was one of the most notable, as she helped spearhead many events in town, from the annual Jr. Idol program, to the occasional Rocky Horror screening to many of the events around Winter Carnival.
Another notable passing was Scott LaPrairie. LaPrairie Crane is one of Tumbler Ridge’s biggest business success stories and Scott was instrumental in that.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
