Council Timeline: Monday, June 24, 2019

Prince Rupert's recently famous and now departed Moby Dick Goats made for the dominant theme for Monday's City Council Session.

With the topic first introduced through a presentation to Council from Teresa Lee the owner of the Second Avenue West hotel during the Committee of the Whole process, as Ms. Lee  made her case for the goats that she had introduced to her property prior to Seafest.

In addition to her observations, Council later addressed the issue as part of the Regular Council session, where they discussed the merits of calling for report from staff on the topic of small livestock in the community.

The Committee of the Whole presentations also included a review of the latest developments with the city's Racquet Centre, as well as an overview of an initiative to allow permanent residents of Canada to have the right to vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections.

Council also offered the opportunity for the public to comment on the City's Annual Report for 2018 or to bring any other concerns that residents may have o the attention of the Council members

In the regular Council session, the membership adopted the Annual report, announced the names of those that will receive Civic Recognition Awards on Canada  Day at Mariner's park and reviewed the details of a new Property Tax Exemptions Policy for the City.

Some background on the work of Council on the evening and the various Regular Meeting and Committee of the Whole Agenda elements for the June 24th Council session can be explored here.

Council also met in a closed session earlier in the evening, hosting a 5 PM meeting

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 Monday, June 24, 2019

Mayor Lee Brain -- Present 
Councillor Nick Adey --  Present 
Councillor Barry Cunningham --  Absent
Councillor Blair Mirau -- Present 
Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven --  Present 
Councillor Wade Niesh -- Present
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa--  Present 


Video Archive for Monday, June 24, 2019



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Committee of the Whole

( 0:00 -- 3:30 )  Adoption of Agenda -- Mayor Brain called the Committee of the Whole meeting to order, outlining the elements of the Committee session.

( 3:30 -- 15:00 ) Presentation from Rodrigo Samayoa -- Speaking as a resident about the province wide Fresh Voices campaign to seek out a voice for permanent residents of Canada -- Mr. Samayoa first outlined for Council how he was not a member of the Fresh Voices organization and not representing them,  but was looking to share  information about their Lost Voices initiative, which is designed to create more awareness of the lack of opportunity that permanent residents of Canada have to participate in the political vote process in the country.

He observed for Council members how the current political arrangements work, a status where permanent residents do not have the right to vote in any level of political life in Canada and how the lengthy process towards citizenship means that some Residents of the community could go without the opportunity to participate in elections for years.

He further noted for the Council membership of a large list of countries that allow permanent residents the right to vote, adding that many cities in Canada are looking to move the forward initiative but that it is in the hands of the province.

Towards that, Mr. Samayoa asked for the help of the City of Prince Rupert to pass a resolution of support for the right to vote for permanent residents and advocate for the program with the province at UBCM this September.

Councillor Adey offered up some commentary to theme, noting of his career long work of encouraging young people to become involved in politics and to become voters, in reply to the night's presentation he applauded the initiative to remove the barriers to participate in democracy as a positive initiative.

Councillor Skelton-Morven had similar comments of support for the project, as did Councillor Mirau, with Mr. Mirau asking as to what the resolution would look like.

Mayor Brain outlined that the process will see the resolution brought back to Council as part of the July Council session.

( 9:00 -- 29:00  ) Update from the Prince Rupert Racquet Association --A group which included Richard Haley, Bill Nicholls and Tamar O'Rear  provided a short history of the Prince Rupert Racquet Centre as well as a review of the accomplishments of the last year.

Included in the review was a look a some of the diverse group of users that make use of the facility beyond the squash events that take place. They outlined the seven phase plan that have in mind for the Centre, starting with recent renovations and what they envision for the future.

Among the concepts a change to clear walls to allow for public viewing with the Association seeking funding from the Port Authority, NDIT and the City to move forward by the Spring of 2020.

Longer term they look to open up some internal space at the facility to move the K2 cycle and yoga users to different areas of the facility, freeing up space in a repurposed racquetball court for a potential relocation of the Rock Wall Climbing move to the Racquet Centre, a move which would help create space in the Civic Centre Gymnasium.

The also have plans to introduce pickleball to the facility as a future plan, looking to attract users from upper age populations and providing for additional use for the Racquet Centre.

They also hope to make additional use of the liquor licence that is held by the Centre and have received inquiries on potential social uses as well.

Mayor Brain praised the group for their presentation and expressed enthusiasm for their vision, while Councillors Niesh  and Skelton Morven paid tribute to their creativity in keeping the facility functioning in the challenging times the community has seen in recent years.

Councillor Randhawa inquired about any plans that they may have to recruit new membership, Councillor Adey picked up on part of the presentation and how if the facility did not exist then some people may seek other places to live and stay.


( 29:00 -- 29:30 )  Public Comment Period for the 2018 Annual Report -- The Mayor noted that the report was presented to Council at their last council session and then asked for comment from the public.

No members of the public offered up any comments or questions.

Public comment period of Committee of Whole 

( 29:30 :00 -- 36:00) One member of the public, Shelly Starr, spoke to a number of themes related to the McKay Street park and the recent damage suffered to the fence at that location.  She also asked about more lighting and a bus shelter for the immediate area of the park. As well, she offered up some observations related to the recent Seafest weekend and traffic related incidents in the downtown part of the city.

( 36:00 -- 45:30 )   Ms. Teresa Lee the owner of the Moby Dick Inn also spoke to council recounting her recent use of goats on her property, explaining why she chose to use the goats from Hazelton and how she had not given any thought that it would become a bylaw issue. She observed as to how popular they had become in the city during the short period of time that they were here.

She also noted how the city had stated some interest in reviewing the bylaw, asking what kind of timeline the city may have towards reconsidering the current bylaw and if there is a possibility of a change that would allow for livestock in the community.

In a review of the popularity of the goats prior to Seafest, she also noted that many in the community had suggested that they could Crowd Fund to help her pay any fines that the City may have assessed had she kept them, though she noted stressed she follows rules and bylaws.

Mayor Brain took advantage of the questions to explain the process that the city could take towards the topic, noting that they were scheduled to discuss what path to take later in the evening as part of the Regular Council Session.

He explained how the first stage would be a staff report which would explore all the issues that led to the original bylaw in the first place and what areas of concern that the City should make note of should they wish to revise the livestock bylaws, with the Mayor noting that the over riding item of note is what is best for the animal.

Thanking her for coming forward to discuss the issue with council, the Mayor observed that it was hard to determine a timeline for her at the moment and that while her original use of the goats was well intentioned, the city can't make for special arrangements.  He did offer to keep her advised as to the process ahead for the review.

( 45:30 -- 47:00 ) Larry Golden came forward to speak about concerns about pit bull dogs in the community, recounting a recent incident about letter carriers and interactions with dogs on the Seventh Avenue West area.  He recounted some of the bylaw provisions for dog and outlined some suggestions for council to consider when it comes to updating the bylaws.

( 47:00-47:30 )  Adjournment to reconvene as Regular Council Session

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Regular Council Session

( 47:30 -- 48:00 )   Regular City Council Session for Monday, June 24, 2019  --  Adoption of Agenda,  Acting Mayor Gurvinder Randhawa called the Regular Council Session to order, with Council adopting the agenda and past minutes of previous minutes.

Petitions and Delegations

Reports and Recommendations

( 48:00  -- 49:00 ) Report from the City Manager  -- Adoption of the 2018 Annual Report  -- With Council not hearing of any more management notes on the report and having asked for public comments on the Annual report and  receiving no feedback from that call for comments, the Mayor declared that all is well and moved that Council accept the report. Mr. Brain also praised staff for their work on the report noting the amount of effort that had been required in putting it together.

(49:00 -- 52:00  ) Report from the Chief Financial Officer on Permissive Property Tax Exemption Policy -- Corinne Bomben, the City's Financial Officer outlined the nature of the process involved for the new Property Tax Exemption Policies as well as some of the changes that have been incorporated into the new policy.

She noted that for this year only, the deadline for applications for property tax exemptions should be extended until August 15th, as Council is still considering the bylaw provisions.

Councillor Adey offered his commendation to staff in their work in generating the document under review by Council. Councillor Randhawa had a question related to the application process seeking clarification on the criteria that people need to be aware of.

Ms. Bomben noted that the new cycle is that of a four year duration (tied into the new council service provisions) and that current and previous recipients of the tax exemptions will be contacted by the city and asked to reapply as the current bylaw will be coming to an end.

Council then voted to accept the new Exemption Policy

( 52:00-- 52:30 ) Resolution from Closed meeting -- The Deputy Corporate Administration Antonio Vera announced the names of recipients for Civic honours to be awarded at the Canada Day Celebration in Mariner's Park.

Mr. Vera outlined how at the closed meeting of June 10th Council had announced that Phuong Nguyen and Ian Lihou would be honoured for their work in the community with awards at the Canada Day ceremony.

Mr. Nugyen will be recognized with the Civic Appreciation Award; while Mr. Lihou will be presented with the Civic Merit Award

Mayor Brain called attention to the media at the Council session of the Civic Ceremony that is part of the Canada celebrations.

( 52:30 -- ) Reports and Comments from Council members 

Mayor Brain made note of two previous notice of motions, the first to provide a letter of advocacy for CBC Radio in Prince Rupert, with the mayor observing that the council should collaborate with the local group in the community that presented that request for a letter of support.

The second notice of motion from the Mayor was to address the city's bylaw provisions for livestock in the community, seeking a report from staff to explore the feasibility of changes to the current bylaws.

In the follow up discussion, Councillor Adey offered his support to the motion, making note of his past interest in the topic and the need to get expert advice on what is best for the animals, exploring such areas as climate, what factors were considered for the original bylaw and what kind of veterinarian support is available in the community.

Councillor Randhawa asked for some elaboration as to what forms of livestock the mayor might be looking to incorporate into any changes.  Mayor Brain recounted the work of the 2030 Sustainable City policies and the area of small scale livestock such as goats, pigs and those types of animals, noting how some livestock won't work in the city environs.

Mr. Brain also explored the range of the spectrum of factors for council to follow up on, with the main element that of what is best for the animals and what capabilities the city has to protect them.

Councillor Mirau observed of the public support for the goats in question and the frequent calls for backyard chickens in the community, he also offered up the unique urban design that makes for Prince Rupert properties and how it may impact on any ability to host small livestock.

Councillor Niesh noted that if the current themes of social media were to be taken account of all would be in favour of goats, he then reviewed many of the issues that Council needs to take a look at and get more information on before making any changes to the current bylaws.

Councillor Skelton-Morven echoed many of the comments that were made by the previous council members.

Council then voted to recommend to direct that staff develop the report on the options related to the concept of livestock in the City of Prince Rupert.

Mr. Brain also made note of the presentation from earlier in the evening on the Lost Voices initiative and moved a notice of motion forward for further consideration at the next council session in July.

Councillor Morven took a moment at the end of the session to pay tribute to the work of the organizers of the National Indigenous People's Day at the Rotary Waterfront Park, making note of the crowd that was in attendance for the event and the success of the day.

With no other comments on the evening, the Mayor brought the evening to a close.

You can access the City Council Review for June 24th here,  where a number of items regarding the council session, including links to local media coverage, can also 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 June 24, 2019 (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.

Council members next meet on Monday, July 22, 2019. 

Cross posted from the North Coast Review