Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Federal scene for Wednesday, January 31, 2018.
Greetings From Ottawa! Mayor Lee Brain and City Manager Robert Long are in the nation's capital this week taking part in discussions with Federal officials and members of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (photo from Mayor Brain's Facebook portal)
A quick note to the Mayor's Facebook page today has provided an update on his latest travel agenda, with the destination for this week Ottawa and some discussions with Federal officials in a number of departments.
Joining the Mayor in the nations capital is City Manager Robert Long, as part of the update from the Mayor, he makes note of a recently signed infrastructure agreement with the province of British Columbia, which will see funding delivered to municipal governments in a number of areas.
Among some of the discussions noted to take place will be visits with the departments of Infrastructure and Communities, Transportation, International Trade, Natural Resources and Indigenous Services.
He and the City Manager are also meeting with representatives of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities which also offers up funding opportunities for municipal government.
The Mayor observes through his notes on the trip that it is important for the community to ensure that the city receives necessary supports for social and physical infrastructure from higher levels of government.
His update does not provide for a timetable for the discussions in Ottawa or the length of the trip back east.
With two council sessions now out of the way from a schedule of but seventeen for the year, members of Prince Rupert Council have yet to take advantage of their public forum to offer up an explanation as to why they have decided to reduce the public council session calendar for the year.
As well, Mr. Golden as part of his line of questions for Council also inquired about the city's frequent use of Closed Meetings and whether they had any plans to reduce the reliance on them.
With Mayor Brain absent on the night, Councillor Barry Cunningham was serving as Acting Mayor on the night, and while he challenged Mr. Golden on a number of his other comments from the public access portion of the night, he offered up no response to the inquiries related to council scheduling or the use of the closed council session process.
The Acting Mayor was not the only one to disregard the question, as the meeting came to an end, the remaining four council members in attendance (Councillor Mirau was also absent on the night) did not take up the topic of the Council schedule for the year, or the closed sessions as part of their own period of the meeting that is set aside for commentary or questions.
That despite a Monday evening session which lasted but forty seven minutes on the night, which should have offered up a good opportunity for commentary and discussion on the topic from the elected officials.
By choosing not to respond to the inquiry, they for the most part have left the very legitimate question from a city resident about the most basic element of municipal government to go unanswered.
You can review the exchange between Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Golden from the City's Video Archive starting at the fifteen minute mark, the City Councillor's time for comments and observations comes at the thirty one minute point.
We first made note of the City Council decision to reduce the workload for 2018 back in December with this item from the blog.
City Council held a quick review of the response to last weeks tsunami alert on the west coast, with a good portion of the discussion taking us back into the time machine and a look at 1964's major event before we returned to the theme of the most recent alert of January 23rd.
Councillor Thorkelson took advantage of the final portion of the evening to challenge some of the comments from the Committee of the Whole session, suggesting that Mr. Golden, who had provided for his own anecdotal review of that event did not quite have the right information related to the 1964 earthquake and tsunami event of Good Friday of that year.
She observed from her notes that her research had determined that there was little in the way of damage that took place in Prince Rupert during that large scale earthquake event of over half a century ago.
From her overview, she offered up the observation that there is a report available for review for those that wish to examine the official data from the 1964 tsunami along the coast.
Those with an interest in the report that Ms. Thorkelson highlighted can review it here.
While we all head down to the Prince Rupert Library to determine which of the night's tsunami tutorials offered the best overview of the events of 1964, the more current tsunami alert incident was also up for review on the night.
Ms. Thorkelson opened her comments related to the January 23rd incident by coming to the defence of MLA Jennifer Rice, taking note of some of the commentary from the local newspaper that she had issues with when it came to their review of last weeks event.
She observed that Prince Rupert has not had any emergency sirens in place since the late seventies and the discontinuation of their use had nothing to do with the work of Ms Rice both during her time at Council and since moving to provincial politics.
When it comes to that topic of the week over the last seven days of the need for the return of an air raid type siren to alert the public, Ms. Thorkelson was of the opinion that following that path may not be the best course of action for the City.
Ms. Thorkelson cautioned council members as to whether the City would want to put such an alert program as using sirens into place, as it may lead to a large volume of residents heading towards the hospital and creating problems for those who need access to that facility.
"I think that people need to know what they are doing, but I think that putting a panic button on, so that everybody goes up to Roosevelt and we can't even get an ambulance through because its so packed because the air raid siren went off ... we should be careful what we wish for." -- Councillor Joy Thorkelson on the calls for an air raid siren type alert for future emergencies in the community
She also noted that after reviewing the reports from the last week in her opinion, the city handled the recent incident very well, highlighting how emergency services personnel were prepared to alert those that may have been in any danger had the need to arise.
One recommendation that she made was that the city should provide more information for the public as to the Tsunami warning signs in the community and where those routes lead towards.
She also suggested that as part of the city's upcoming study on Tsunami planning, that the City should ensure that part of the study be used to make sure that the City is doing a good job in communication when it comes to such events.
"I think part of that study should actually try to make sure that people feel assured that the city is going to do a good job in communication, so we should have a communication plan that is well debated, so people feel that they have confidence in the city's plan"-- Councillor Joy Thorkelson on what she would like to see included as part of the city's upcoming Tsunami study project
The councillor wrapped up her presentation by recounting some of experiences from Vancouver, as she had been in the Lower mainland during the recent warnings.
As a follow up to the discussion on the recent seismic event, Councillor Randhawa also added his thoughts and appreciation on what he called the great work of the city in responding to the situation.
He did inquire of staff if they have any plans to provide for to educate the public for future events.
The City's Financial Officer handled the request, first thanking Councillor Thorkelson and Randhawa for making note of the work of the emergency services last week, providing a short overview of some of the work that night.
The City's CFO Corinne Bomben provided a short review of the City's response to the January 23 tsunami alert
She also added that the City's Emergency staff had determined that the response on the night was appropriate to the risks that had been presented to the community.
Looking to the future, Ms. Bomben advised that the City is looking at implementing an automated alert system for text and landlines, that will enable the City to provide local information to residents as it becomes available. She also added that the City is looking at developing an application for mobile phones, the range of measures being planned will allow the city to provide better clarity on conditions for local residents. From their learnings related to last weeks seismic event, the City will also begin a campaign to re-educate residents as to what to do in the event of a tsunami event, that project will be launched shortly.
The full review of tsunami alerts past and present can be found on the City's Video Archive starting at the thirty one minute mark.
Rheannon Brooks provided City Council with a snapshot look at the workings of the city's Go Map program available to residents through the City of Prince Rupert website
Monday's City Council session began with a handy tutorial for residents who may have an interest in the City of Prince Rupert's Go Map program which available for use from the City's website.
Providing the guided tour of the website feature was Rheannon Brooks, who is the City's GIS coordinator.
Ms. Brooks outlined how the public can make use of the Go Map program and what elements are available for residents from the mapping system.
Among some of the basic elements available for users is an ability to review property information in the community, with such details as property ID, Lot Numbers and legal descriptions. Those seeking information can also review zoning notes related to the property in question.
Other areas that you can access from the mapping system is information from BC Assessment, as well users can add aerial overviews to provide for a comparison of the city from years previous and more current images, as well as to add other features.
The most recent overview that the City has added to the inventory provides the overhead look of the city as of 2017.
A snap shot of one of the many options available for users of the City of Prince Rupert's Go Map program
Other elements available for review include BC Transit routes and shelters in the city which can provide additional information on Transit service.
The garbage collection map also includes a link to the city's pick up schedule for all areas of the city. The program also features a cemetery map, which breaks down the available information by section and then lot, with additional information added as part of the information flow and leading to the city's cemetery data base.
The Official Community Plan information is also part of the Go Map system, with users able to discover more about that planning element for the City.
Following her overview, Councillors Randhawa and Thorkelson inquired about some of the elements available as part of the program. With Councillor Thorkelson asking about access to information about public utilities, undeveloped lots and underground streams that criss-cross the city.
Ms. Brooks noted that the city could add more layers to the overlap program, but for now such information is available from city staff at City Hall.
Residents with any questions about the program are asked to contact staff at the main office at City Hall at 250-627-1781 for more details.
You can view the short fifteen minute tutorial from the City's Video Archive page for the January 29th session, the presentation starts at the beginning of the Monday council session.
For more background on the program visit this link to the City website to begin your tour of the city. The access point to the program can be found in the right hand corner of the home page for the City of Prince Rupert website.
Ms. Brooks noted during her presentation that residents should take note of the opening page disclaimer and read the 9 points provided prior to making use of the service, adding that it should not be used for a replacement for a legal survey or any legal requirements for a property in question.
Further items related to Monday's City Council session can be found from our City Council Timeline.
Those Council members in attendance for the second Public meeting for 2018, doubled the amount of time that was taken to review civic matters, but still managed to keep the work load under the one hour mark on Monday.
With Mayor Brain and Councillor Mirau absent on the night, the duty of Acting Mayor and host for the Public Council session on the night fell to Councillor Cunningham, who steered the council members and those in the gallery through the 47 minutes that also included the Committee of the Whole and it's public comment opportunity.
As Monday was a Committee of the Whole Night, Council heard comments from a member of the public on parking issues, earthquake preparedness and access to recreation facilities for those with limited income.
They also received a tutorial from a city staff member on the topic of the city's Go-Map information system available to the public through the City of Prince Rupert website.
For the Regular Council session, they received a report that explored an Aquatic Centre grant opportunity from the Northern Development Initiative Trust, as well as to review and vote on some past bylaw changes.
The evening came to an end by returning to the theme of last weeks Tsunami alert in the city, with Councillor Thorkelson providing for some thoughts on the nature of the city's response, while the City's Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben outlined some of the options the city is considering to improve the flow of information in the future.
Some background on the items of note on the evening and the various Agenda elements for the January 29th Council session can be reviewed here.
Further information from our overview and placement in the video archive can be found below, with the permanent record of the minutes added as they are posted to the city website.
In attendance January 29, 2018
Mayor Lee Brain-- Absent
Councillor Barry Cunningham-- Present (Serving as Acting Mayor)
Councillor Blair Mirau -- Absent
Councillor Wade Niesh -- Present
Councillor Nelson Kinney -- Present
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa-- Present
Councillor Joy Thorkelson -- Present
Video Archive for January 29, 2018
(0:00 -- 1:00) City Council Committee of the Whole Session -- Acting Mayor Cunningham reviewed the list of minutes and agenda items to be noted by Council members, with Council then approving the Agenda while the past minutes of previous council meetings were adopted.
(1:00 - 15:00 ) Following that business they moved on to the Committee of the Whole, starting with a presentation from Rheannon Brooks , the City's GIS Coordinator, who provided some background on the City's Go Map Online system.
Ms. Brooks outlined how the public can make use of the Go Map program and what elements are available for residents from the mapping system.
Among some of the basic elements is an ability to review property information in the community, with such details as property ID, Lot Numbers and legal descriptions. Users can also review zoning information related to the property in question.
Other areas that you can access from the mapping system is information from BC Assessment, as well users can add aerial overviews to provide for a comparison of the city from years previous and more current images, as well as to add other features.
Other elements available for review include BC Transit routes and shelters in the city which can provide additional information on Transit service.
The garbage collection map also includes a link to the city's pick up schedule for all areas of the city. The program also features a cemetery map, which breaks down the available information by section and then lot, with additional information added as part of the information flow and leading to the city's cemetery data base.
The Official Community Plan information is also part of the Go Map system, with users able to discover more about that planning element as part of the information that is provided by the City.
Councillors Randhawa and Thorkelson inquired about some of the elements available as part of the program.
Residents with any questions about the program are asked to contact City Hall.
( 15:00 24:00 ) During the public comment portion of the Committee of the Whole Session, only one resident took advantage of the opportunity to make inquiries of the council member, with Larry Golden, a familiar face at City Council sessions offering up a few questions and comments.
Among his themes were some notes on Child Poverty in the city and his concerns over what he believes are reduced access opportunities for recreation facilities for those with limited means, suggesting that the Recreation Centre has become somewhat elitist, with benefits for staff coming at the expense of youth in the community.
He also had comments related to the recent Tsunami warning and recounted some of his thoughts on what he described as a damaging tsunami wave from 1964, which he believed caused damage to the waterfront area.
His final comments related to concerns over parking bylaw enforcement and a belief that the enforcement isn't being handled equally. He also outlined concerns over the reduced council schedule that has been put in place for this year and also called for a reduction in the number of closed council sessions that Council hold during the course of the year.
Councillor Cunningham took issue with a number of his themes, observing that he doesn't believe that the Recreation Centre is an elitist place, noting a number of programs that the city is involved in to help defray the cost of use for the Civic Centre, he also invited Mr. Golden to attend a Recreation Council meeting.
He also challenged the belief that the parking bylaws are not being applied as they should be.
The acting Mayor chastised Mr. Golden for making statements that he suggested just creates a sensationalist attitude towards city staff who work very hard, noting that the bylaw officer's job is a very tough one, with a number of responsibilities to take care of.
Mr. Cunningham did not provide any thoughts on the topic of the reduced level of council sessions for 2018 and the frequent use of closed council meetings.
With no other participants approaching the microphone, the Committee of the Whole Session was brought to an end, with Council returning to their Regular agenda.
( 24: 00 -- 25:00 ) Regular City Council Session -- Acting Mayor Cunningham reviewed the list of minutes and agenda items to be noted by Council members, with Council then approving the Agenda while the past minutes of previous council meetings were adopted.
( 25:00 -- 26:30 ) Report from David Geronazzo, the Director of Recreation and Community Services -- The City's Recreation Director and Community Services provided a short overview of a grant opportunity that the City would like to pursue, to seek a fifteen thousand dollar grant from the Northern Development Initiative Trust, to be put towards the City's Aquatic Centre renovation project.
Councillor Randhawa inquired about some of the elements to the renovation plans.
Council then voted to approve the request to pursue the grant opportunity.
( 26:30 -- 28:30 ) Verbal Report from the Manager of Transportation and Economic Development related to the Cow Bay Marina Fees and Charges Bylaw --
Corinne Bomben, the City's Financial Officer, provided the review of the report and clarified some of the language from the previous document.
Council then voted to approve the Fees and Charges Bylaw.
( 28:30 -- 31:00 ) Verbal Report from the Director of Recreation Fees and Community Services on the topic of the Recreation Fees and Charges bylaw -- David Geronazzo the City's Recreation Director and Community Services provided a request for the final approval for the Fees and Charges. Councillor Thorkelson asked for an explanation of the changes.
The Recreation Director outlined the nature of the changes which had been part of his presentation to Council from January 15th.
Following the overview, Council voted to pass the motion.
( 31:00 to 18:00 ) Reports, Questions and Inquires from Council
Councillor Thorkelson took advantage of the final portion of the evening to challenge some of the comments from the Committee of the Whole session, suggesting that Mr. Golden did not quite have the right information related to the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, noting that there was little in the way of damage that took place in Prince Rupert during that large scale earthquake event of over half a century ago.
From her overview, she offered up the observation that there is a report available for review for those that wish to examine the official data from the 1964 tsunami along the coast.
That did however give her cause to provide some comments related to the recent tsunami alert of last week, with the Councillor coming to the defence of MLA Jennifer Rice, making note of some of the commentary from the local newspaper that she had issues with when it came to their review of last weeks event.
She observed that Prince Rupert has not had any emergency sirens in place since the late seventies and had nothing to do with the work of Ms Rice both during her time at Council and later at the Legislature as MLA.
Ms. Thorkelson also cautioned as to whether they want to put such a siren program into place, as it may lead to a large volume of residents heading towards the hospital and creating problems for those who need access to that facility. Adding that we should be careful what we wish for.
She also noted that after reviewing the reports from the last week in her opinion, the city handled the recent incident quite well, highlighting how emergency services personnel were prepared to alert those that may have been in any danger had the need to arise.
One recommendation that she made was that the city should provide more information for the public as to the Tsunami warning signs in the community and where those routes lead towards.
She also suggested that with the city about to conduct a study on Tsunami risk planning, that the City should ensure that part of the study be used to make sure that the City is doing a good job in communication when it comes to such events.
She also recounted some of experiences from Vancouver, as she had been in the Lower mainland during the recent warnings.
As a follow up to the discussion on the recent seismic event, Councillor Randhawa also added his thoughts and appreciation on what he called the great work of the city in responding to the situation.
He did inquire of staff if they have any plans to provide for to educate the public for future events.
The City's Financial Officer handled the request, first thanking Councillors Thorkelson and Randhawa for making note of the work of the emergency services last week, providing a short overview of some of the work that night.
She also added that the City's Emergency staff had determined that the response on the night was appropriate to the risks that had been presented to the community.
Looking to the future, Ms. Bomben advised that the City is looking at implementing an automated alert system for text and landlines, that will enable the City to provide local information to residents as it becomes available.
She also added that the City is looking at developing an application for mobile phones, the range of measures being planned will allow the city to provide better clarity on conditions for local residents.
From their learnings related to last weeks seismic event, the City will also begin a campaign to re-educate residents as to what to do in the event of a tsunami event, that project will be launched shortly.
With no other comments offered up for the final portion of the evening, Council then voting to adjourn the meeting.
You can access the City Council Review for January 29th here, where a number of items regarding the council session, including links to local media coverage, if any, can be found.
As always, our Council Timeline is only a reflection of our observations from the Council session of the night. Be sure to consult with the official minutes from the City, when posted to their website for further review. Official Minutes of the Regular Council Session from January 29, 2018 (not available yet)
In addition to the city's official minutes, the City's Video archive provides a helpful record of the events from each public council session.
Monday's Council Session was the first of the seventeen Regular Council sessions for 2018, Council members next meet on Monday, February13th.
Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Federal scene for Tuesday, January 30, 2018.
Work is nearing completion on the west side of the city as a new four unit development takes shape on Van Arsdol Stret
The four single family units, located in two complexes currently nearing completion on Van Arsdol Street on the city's west side, will bring a combined listing price of over two million dollars to the west side inventory, as the four homes go up for sale on local real estate listings.
The Van Arsdol Street homes which were constructed by Pacific Aurora Homes Limited, began to take shape in the late summer of 2017, it saw steady progress through fall and now has become one of the featured properties for the Realty Executives Prince Rupert office in town, with the four units now among their available listings.
The two units facing the Fairview Bay side of the property have the highest price point at $619,000 and $569,000, while the remaining two that adjoin Atlin Avenue are slightly less in cost at $559,000 and $549,000.
You can explore the features for the four properties from the links below
The Van Arsdol homes are one of a couple of developments currently underway in the city, with another project on First Avenue West now framed up and ready for interior work.
However, since the heady days of rapid approvals by City Council for some of the larger projects that had been proposed for the city in 2015 and 2016, many of the high profile concepts have still to break ground or show much further progress to this point.
The Drake Street project, to be known as Drake Heights, may see some progress in the Spring, it was proposed by Kevin Stunder, who is the builder of the Van Arsdol project and with those two duplex projects nearing completion, he may be able to turn his attention towards the east side concept.
In addition to those proposed developments, the state of the large tract of land that once was the Kanata School location remains in some kind of limbo, with little heard of late when it comes to any development for an area that had attracted some attention but a few years ago.
You can review some of the background to those and other still to be put in motion housing proposals from our Housing archives of the last few years found here.
The new transit operator for communities around the Northwest has started with its hiring call as it prepares to take over Public Transit service in Prince Rupert and a number of other communities.
Pacific Western Transit which is preparing to take over Transit service in the Northwest recently began posting Job Opportunities in order to staff positions ahead of the April changeover from First Canada the current operator in the city.
The company features 10 Career category opportunities ranging from Heavy Duty Mechanic and Drivers, to cleaner and Wash Bay attendants for their Prince Rupert operations, as well as for two Full Time Service managers for the local office.
Ten positions are currently listed as available with the new transit provider for Prince Rupert, with PW Transit posting the jobs to their website over the weekend (image from PW Transit website (click to enlarge) )
Those in other communities in the Northwest can review what is being offered for operations in their local transit service from the PW Transit job search page here.
Pacific Western Transit is the giant Alberta based transportation group which provides industrial transportation and public transit in many communities in Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia.
The changeover in service from current contract holder First Canada is to be in place by April 1st.
The change in operators also arrives as BC Transit continues to expand on its Highway 16 shuttle program, having recently introduced the service between Hazelton and Terrace.
More notes on that successful contact award can be found below:
