Mayor suggests other issues beyond local policing at heart of AMHS closure

The signs are still up at Park Avenue, but there is no traffic heading the
way of the AMHS terminal after sailings came to an end in September

Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain has provided a short update on the fate of the discussions of September towards the Alaska Marine Highway System service to the city.

Taking to Social media on Monday  to provide his take on the events of mid-September.

Rather than a public update through the City Council session, where perhaps Council members might ask questions; the Mayor has once again turned to his social media stream of his Facebook page to deliver his notes.

That following some commentary on one of the city's livelier Facebook forums, where some residents expressed their thoughts over the Mayors handling of the issue and the fate of Terminal.

The commentary on the Mayor's work in Alaska came as part of a pictorial of the final day of the Terminals operations on September 30th, with the back and forth of the discussion offering some indication as to the impact that the decision to end the service has had in the community.

The Locked Gates of the AMHS Terminal at Fairview

Mr. Brain seems to answer one of the questions raised from that forum, that on the status of the lack of RCMP officers for the Terminal as part of the cause for the service coming to an end.

A  rebuttal from the Mayors social media feed that notes how if the answer to the problem was as simple as just needing RCMP officers, the issue would have already been resolved.

He also observes that the issue now at hand is related to American legislation, something not in the City's jurisdiction and a topic that the Alaska State Government is addressing.

He doesn't go too much further into explaining what those other issues are, but he does include a copy of a recent letter to the editor to the Ketchikan Daily News from Representative Dan Ortiz, who was recently in Prince Rupert.

The Alaska Representative for the Ketchikan region offers an outline of the steps that Alaska officials are taking to try to reverse the decision to end the service to Prince Rupert.

So far, other than the short note to his Facebook page, Mayor Brain has not offered up much background to his travels in Alaska.

Though if the major roadblock to the resumption of sailings is as the Mayor states the American regulations, it's not clear what role he would have had to play in that aspect of any discussions towards that issue.

Nor do we know much more as to what issues the Mayor was addressing, as he presented his  list of short and long term solutions in person in September.

Themes perhaps, that he may wish to expand on, maybe even during a Public Council session where the city's elected officials might want to share their thoughts too.

The Malaspina made her final journey out of Prince Rupert on the evening of September 30th.

You can trace some of the background to the decision to eliminate the AMHS service from our archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.