Barbara Latkowski
Caledonia Courier
It was the MoM Festival that brought him back to Fort St. James.
This has been a regular annual event for Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP, Nathan Cullen for the last few years.
“This is such a great festival. There’s so much musical talent out there especially from Northern B.C.,” Cullen said.
Cullen’s musical tastes are broad from the Beatles to the many new musical bands from Northern B.C.
But for Cullen, attending events such as this is also about being with the people.
“In the summer months, I do try to attend a lot of festivals and markets. It’s such a good way to meet up with people and see them having fun.”
For Cullen, it’s the smaller towns that make up the real backbone of Canada.
“Towns like Fort St. James are the heart and soul of this country and they need support,” Cullen said.
Cullen continues to be a strong voice for the Northwest and British Columbia in Parliament.
The MP was thrilled to see his riding receive close to $9.2 million of $73 million in infrastructure funding and in February, Cullen held a Town Hall meeting in Fort St. James regarding the funding.
“The infusion of federal funds to help Northwest communities build, upgrade or outright replace community infrastructure will really help to get some of these important projects off the ground,” Cullen said.
Since the Town Hall meeting, Cullen says that all of the results from various communities in Northern B.C. have been put together and issues will be further addressed in Parliament in September.
In Fort St. James, issues raised included areas in: transportation, housing and health.
“Obviously, the groundwork has been done,” Cullen said. “The government has asked that we consult on these issues and we have already done that. My eyes are set on the needs of communities like Fort St. James.”
Despite it being summer, Cullen remains busy.
“It has been a busy summer. I’ve just put a committee together. It’s all about changing our current voting system.”
But all in all, Cullen is happy to have made the trip back to Fort St. James.
“There’s such a great sense of community here and you can really see that,” Cullen said.