Prince George, British Columbia
Manufacturing software in Prince George.
Custom systems for Prince George mills, fabricators and haulers. A northern BC grant covering 75% of a project closes 15 October 2026. Free walkthrough.
Money toward it
There is money on the table and it closes 15 October.
Start with this one, because it has a date on it.
The Business Diversification and Sustainability Program, run by Northern Development Initiative Trust, has $1.8 million. It covers up to 75% of a project, to a maximum of $200,000, for equipment, new technology and capital work that raises productivity. It is for small and medium businesses across northern BC. Applications opened 2 September 2026 and close 15 October 2026 (Province of BC announcement, 28 Aug 2026, read 18 Sep 2026).
NDIT’s other one, the Northern Industries Innovation Fund, is fully subscribed for 2026 and will not reopen until January 2027 (NDIT, read 18 Sep 2026).
So there is one door and it shuts in four weeks.
The money
What the money would be buying
We mapped a 90 person fabrication shop. 28.5 hours a week went into work nobody sells (the payback chart on pragmabuild.com/how-it-works).
- $31.43an hour, median. A production planning supervisor in the Cariboo region.
- $896a week. 28.5 hours times $31.43.
- $46,579a year. $896 a week times 52.
Wage: Job Bank, Cariboo region, 2024 data, read 18 Sep 2026.
Yours is a different shop, so your number is your own. The walkthrough measures it.
Your town
Yes, this is your town, and we know what year it has been
The City says manufacturing and forestry employ nearly half the labour force directly or indirectly, across 7 lumber mills, 3 pulp mills and 1 paper mill plus secondary manufacturing (City of Prince George key industries, read 18 Sep 2026).
We are not going to pretend that is a growth story right now. On 14 July 2026 a Prince George pulp mill announced it is closing, about 300 jobs, wound down through late 2026, blamed on oversupply, falling prices and fibre supply (BNN Bloomberg, 15 Jul 2026, read 18 Sep 2026).
When the market is that tight, capacity without hiring stops being a nice idea and starts being the whole plan. The work still has to get done, with the people you already have.
Your industrial land: the BCR Industrial Lands, about 1,000 acres cut through by the CN main line (BC Hydro listing); the Danson Industrial Area, about 533 acres (City of Prince George); and the Airport Light Industrial area beside YXS.
The work
What we build
Know what you own.
Every asset catalogued with its parts, its vendors, its rebuild and used options, and what it costs you an hour when it is down. Photograph a machine on a walk round and it names itself.
Know what is on order.
Requisition to purchase order to receipt in one line, with the promise date sitting next to the job waiting on it.
Know where the job is.
A live state the floor sets by touching a screen.
Keep what your people know.
Written down while the man who knows it is still here.
One more, and it matters up here. When a site changes hands, a buyer inherits a yard and no list. We have built that: a man walks the yard with a phone, each machine identifies itself, pulls its original vendor, and files itself with a reliability rating and a downtime cost.
What we hear
What usually stops people
“Forestry is shrinking. This is the wrong year to spend.”
It is the right year to stop paying people to re-type. The map prices every item and orders it so the first build pays for the next one.
“We have run this way for forty years.”
And half of what we do is fixing the flow before anybody writes a line of code. Automating a broken process just makes it break faster.
“You are nine hours away.”
About 714 km, roughly 8 hours 39 minutes (Prince George to Kelowna). A walkthrough runs on a screen share and a phone camera in your operator’s hand. When a job needs boots on the floor, we get on a plane.
“We will not get the grant in time.”
The walkthrough is thirty minutes and the map is written. That is enough to put a real number and a real scope on an application before 15 October.
Next step
Book a walkthrough.
Free. Thirty minutes. A written map of your operation, priced, in payback order. Yours either way, and it is the document an application needs.
Straight answers
- Do you work in northern BC?
- Yes. Most jobs run remote. When the job needs boots on the floor, we fly.
- What is the deadline on that northern grant?
- 15 October 2026 for the Business Diversification and Sustainability Program, up to 75% of a project and up to $200,000.
- We are a hauler, not a mill. Does that fit?
- Yes. Fleets, yards and distribution are on the list.
- How long before we see anything?
- Working pieces every week. There is no reveal at the end.