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| Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain from his appearance on Rainmakers Now on Thursday (from the CHSS Rainmakers Now FB feed) |
The local politician who has used his Social Media feed the most during the COVID-19 situation, sometimes for good and sometimes in a fashion that has not been helpful ... had a few thoughts on the theme as part of a Thursday night chat session with the team of Rainmakers Now.
The Charles Hays Secondary School students hosted information program celebrated its 50th episode on May 7th, with host Andy Chugh introducing Mayor Lee Brain as the guest for the milestone broadcast.
The Mayor took advantage of the near thirty minutes of free political time to explore a range of areas related to the city's COVID response and other narratives on a civic response in many areas.
The feature presentation of episode number 50 was heavy on praise for the Mayor and his efforts, as well as a little light on the follow up questions to many of Mr. Brain's statements which went for the most part unchallenged.
It did allow the Mayor to provide a bit of a rewrite on the last six weeks of Prince Rupert current events and even a smidgeon of a victory lap as to how he and the City Council and staff have handled the crisis as it was evolving.
Though conspicuous by its absence, there were few, if any mentions of any measures or guidance from the local MLA Jennifer Rice during the period, or indeed that of the ongoing work of the provincial government during the pandemic.
At times, much of the allotted time for the segment revisited the days of Mr. Brain's One Man Show of the Hays 2.0 presentation and its offspring last year of the Redesign Rupert showcase at the Lester Centre.
One of the many areas explored was the Mayor's view of how Social Media played a role over the last six weeks, the Mayor expressing some significant pride in the reaction and attention that his Facebook feed received during the course of the early stages of the COVID situation, which at that point was actually the only method the Mayor and City Council seemed inclined to use.
"At that time my social media basically blew up and was getting more views than I've ever, ever had on anything and I think a lot of that communication was coming from us and was actually help benefitting not just Prince Rupert but the entire Northern Region as a whole.
I think that Rupertites took us seriously and there's a lot of research done that in times of crisis people trust local government more than most levels of government and we needed to send a signal ..."
The Mayor also offered up some of his views on the use of social media, particularly when it comes to commentary that the forum provides for.
"There's always going to be Social media, but Social Media just brings the worst out of anybody really, anybody talking on Social Media you know, you're complaining about something it doesn't really make anyone look good. But when you talk to people face to face, and talk to people having conversations verbally people don't really talk like that "
While the Mayor notes that he has no regrets on anything over the process of the last few months, he doesn't explore how his own themes may have amplified the debate locally.
A review of some his very early social media posts of the pandemic period and even a few in more recent times. might outline how some of those contributions to the community narrative did not add to any measure of calm, or towards a measured response for the community.
And in more than a few instances, some it seems have served to create tension and have had more of a divisive impact on the community than one of unity.
Among the review from his COVID commentary, the Mayor used his time to recount the City's early steps of declaring a State of Local Emergency, speaking to the regional approach that they took working with those on Haida Gwaii and other areas of the North Coast.
The Mayor suggesting that it was designed to raise the profile of the North Coast at the time and how something was needed to "snap people into attention that this was serious business".
Speaking to the Province's move to suspend the city's orders, the Mayor observed as to how he continues to have concerns over non-essential travel, with Mr. Brain adding the situation in Alert Bay to his latest points for worry, and how the city wanted control over the local situation.
Somehow the Mayor neglected to note that in the wake of the province subsequently suspending the Local orders, the City Council for the most part rolled down the shutters at City Hall and announced that it would be directing the public to the local MLA's office when it came to a large number of important local issues.
Unfortunately any community issues moving forward regarding housing, childcare, homelessness, etc are to be sent to Jennifer Rice's office as her and her team are now in control. You can forward your concerns to Jennifer Rice by calling 250-624-7734 or e-mailing jennifer.rice.mla@leg.bc.ca. -- Mayor Lee Brain on March 26, 2020 following the suspension of the Local State of Emergency
On the ongoing theme of out of town travel into the community, the Mayor who last week relayed the latest themes from Council of Haida Nation and the prospect of a roadblock on Highway 16 to reinforce those concerns, seems to have taken back from the rhetoric of the collective he belongs to.
Mr. Brain first observing that as the city understands it, the City's bylaw officer doesn't have the power to enforce measures other than those relayed by the local Health office.
"Well, it's been made clear to us that our bylaw officer can't actually enforce orders out of their own will, they have to be directed from the regional health officer to do that, they can write reports and make things aware to the Provincial Health officers office, or the regional health officers through Northern Health. But at the end of the day the bylaw officer doesn't have the power to enforce."
On the concern of non-essential travel to the region, the Mayor continues to express his disappointment at not being able to enforce the local measures that they had planned to put in motion back in March.
"The other thing is how do you measure what is essential, what is not essential travel and things like that, I think the biggest risk of the region and the one thing that we've all coordinated on as a regional leadership is that there needs to be some sort of measure around enforcement of non-essential travel right, and visitors are coming and yeah they are being put on Social media and its not to single people out or not, it just to make the highlight that Rupert is a destination ..."
When it comes to the Non-COVID areas of review, the Mayor took the opportunity to replay some of his greatest hits and the recent plans as delivered at the Redesign Rupert Review last year, as well as to reprise the City Council talking points on the recent budget, particularly the use of Watson Island revenues.
Though Mr. Brain provided few details as to the background on the use of the industrial site or that of the Legacy funding on recent budget issues.
As to the future, the Mayor clearly aware of the target audience on the night, observed to the many visions that he and the Council have for the community, and as to how he hopes to see the downtown area developed,
"I think you're going to start seeing some changes in the downtown in the next couple of years, especially as we're able to expand the landfill, so that we can start taking in more buildings. There's a lot of building in the downtown that want to start coming down.
We're going to really be able to start building over the next decade a town that is going to look cool and funky and have a lot of things for people to do, a lot of things for young people to do, a lot of water access, things like that which the community has been desperately crying out for"
The chance to chat with the Mayor was a feather in the cap for the Rainmakers Now group at Charles Hays, with the student led broadcast gaining far more time with Mr. Brain than some of the local and provincial media have been able to get in recent months.
As we noted a few weeks ago (here and here), when it comes to responding to questions, or providing larger background on his many declarations and statements, the Mayor seems rather selective when it comes to conversation, with some in the media perhaps only wishing hoping to be granted such access as Thursday evening.
In closing, Mr. Chugh noted that the Mayor's contribution on the night marked the longest segment for Rainmakers Now yet, a mark he hopes will never be broken.
He can probably rest easy on that thought, as it is likely that the conversation with Mr. Brain will be a record amount of time allocation that will stand the test of time for the Rainmakers Now project!
You can review the Charles Hays Showcase event from Thursday below:
Since the debut for the program, the Rainmakers Now team have hosted a range of members of the community, exploring a variety of topics, providing for a positive contribution to the current times.
To catch up on what the hard working crew at Rainmakers Now have been up to over the last six weeks or so, see their archive page here.
More items of note related to City Council issues can be found from our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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