You might be able to pick up a Big Mac and a Happy Meal at the top of Vancouver Island in the future.
A development application submitted to the District of Port Hardy in late March is looking to have a McDonald’s restaurant added to the town.
The golden arches would be located on Granville Street at the site of a former Shell gas station across from the Save-On-Foods.
While the restaurant is not going through for sure just yet, District of Port Hardy director of corporate and development services Ross Blackwell says there is not much that would prevent it from being built.
“All kinds of things can happen that you can’t account for. However, that said it’s looking extremely likely,” said Blackwell.
Blackwell adds there is always the possibility that council could turn down the application, but the applicant could either address questions from council and bring the application back or reapply if council chooses to prevent the restaurant from going forward.
He adds the property is already zoned for a restaurant.
“Usually, in my experience, if they are willing to consider something on the site, they are going to try work within the existing application than kill it and make them resubmit,” added Blackwell.
Should the McDonald’s go through, it would be another franchise business in the area. Blackwell points out there is already an A&W, a Subway and others such as Scotiabank, Home Hardware and others.
“There’s nothing that causes people to sit up and take notice when there’s news of a franchise coming to town because you have some people that have no issue with franchises and others who take issue with franchises,” said Blackwell.
However, he feels there could be benefits to having a McDonald’s in the town, particularly for its youth.
“They have a demonstrated commitment to a special training program dedicated to youth,” said Blackwell. “There aren’t, I don’t think, many opportunities for school age youth to work in Port Hardy. School’s out at 3o’clock. Most stores are closed at 5.
“McDonald’s typically stays open later, so you combine the training component with the fact they’re open long enough that a student can have a meaningful number of hours of work every day, I think that’s a fabulous opportunity for the community.”
Blackwell says the application should be in front of council soon, however, he cannot say for sure when it will happen as he is still in some discussions with McDonald’s.
He adds they would like to be opening in the fall.
