With City Council choosing to make use of the Alternative Approval Process for two significant Loan Authorization requests, the City of Prince Rupert Communications office has posted two videos for residents to view to learn more about how the process works.
Monday night the City's Chief Financial Officer Corinne Bomben outlined the recommendation to Council to use the sometimes controversial method of seeking approval, to move forward on Loans for the Woodworth Dam project, as well as the next development of a cell for the Ridley Island landfill site.
With the two projects having had the required 3 readings from Council and approval from the Inspector of Municipalities , the next step was to seek elector assent through the Alternative Approval Process.The CFO provided a short overview of the two projects and the way that the authorization process works, noting that the deadline for such approval would be July 24th at 4:30 PM.
Should more than 10 percent of the city's voters (the magic number being 1,077) express opposition to the process, Council would then have two options, the first not to move forward with the Loan process in its present form or take the issue to a larger referendum vote, much like the vote for an election day.
As part of her overview for Council, Ms. Bomben directed the public to the City Financials section of the City website for further background on the projects and the process of approval.
If electors disagree with the borrowing of the funds they would be required to make that opposition known to the city by way of the forms provided for the AAP process.
On Monday night, Ms. Bomben observed that neither project is anticipated to result in an increase to the water or solid waste fees that the city charges.
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| Councillor Wade Niesh was strongly in favour of moving forward with the two loan requests |
Councillor Wade Niesh led off the discussion, speaking in favour of the adoption of the AAP form of approval, observing how the two big loans will not affect taxpayers and will be coming from money earned through Watson Island. He also made mention as to how the City's work towards development of Watson Island has proven fruitful for the city.
"The one thing that I really want people to understand in this is that is obviously it's two big loans, but the good thing about this is that these loans are basically, the payments on these loans will not be affecting taxpayers and I think that that's a big, key part to this all ... The money will not be coming directly from the taxpayers, it will be coming from money we are earning through Watson Island and not having to raise fees to do our solid waste, to do the dam that is an important piece" -- Councillor Wade Niesh on the Loan Authorizations for the Woodworth Dam and Landfill expansion
Councillor Mirau echoed many of the comments from Mr. Niesh, and also put some of the focus on the discussion towards the work of staff on Watson Island that has provided the opportunity to take on that level of debt, compared to 5 or 7 years ago.
Councillor Mirau also enquired about whether the province has adjusted any of the provisions for engagement on such issues as the AAP or the Official Community plan, he was advised by the Chief Financial Officer that at this point there has been no guidance from the province.
Following up on that theme and with the COVID situation having resulted in measures that have reduced access to City Hall, Ms. Bomben also outlined the range of options available to the public to participate in the AAP engagement if they wished to express their opposition to the city taking out the loans.
Also speaking in favour of the Alternative Approval Process was Councillor Cunningham who offered his full support towards the two loan initiatives and observed how it will serve to resolve some of the city's issues related to water supply, he also noted how the need for an expansion at the landfill site is required and how both loans will be a win-win for the city.
Councillor Adey noted that the City doesn't really have a choice as both elements for infrastructure are required, he took the approach that what was up for discussion was how the city would get the assent of the public.
Towards the feedback required he noted that with the current circumstances there are people who have had difficulties in accessing the city for various purposes and stressed that he would not want this process to be one that was viewed as difficult, expressing his belief that it should be one that is easy to become engaged in, something he stated he was sure that city staff were putting some energy towards making it glitch free for the public.
To highlight the importance of both Loan requests, Councillor Mirau noted that both investments are once in a generation types of investments and that the onus on Council to make sure that these projects are long lasting ones.
"Both of these investments from my perspective are once in a generation, or at least once every 30, 50, 75 year investments and so the onus is on us to make sure that we're doing this work correctly. That we're not just building another landfill cell, but we're making the investments that we need to, that this is going to be the last landfill cell that we ever need to build. And by the same token, our first water system lasted us a hundred years, we need to making sure that we're building our next water system to last us another hundreds years. Because if we don't have a choice anyway, we may as well build it right the first time" -- Councillor Blair Mirau speaking to Monday's Loan Authorization discussion
Over the last six years, the City Council has made the AAP option its preferred method of seeking assent of the public having used it mostly related to land issues.
July 2016 -- City to make use of Alternate Approval Process for Graham Avenue Land Sale
January 2014 -- City to launch Alternative Approval Process for Boundary Expansion plan
November 2013 -- Airport Approval Process is ready for take off
Previous councils in years past did express some concerns when it came to the process, with former Councillor Joy Thorkelson one of the more outspoken members who at times questioned the reliance on the process.
As for the two Loan requests up for review this time around, the two videos from the City can be reviewed below:
On Monday we provided a look ahead to the AAP discussion, with our notes including a link to the Report for Council that set the stage for the vote on the night to make use of the process.
The City also has further information related to the Alternative Approval Process posted to the City Webstie you can access that information here.
You can review Ms. Bomben's presentation to Council and the discussion that followed from the City's Video Archive, those themes are explored at the 15 minute mark.
Further notes on the city's large scale infrastructure programs can be reviewed here.
For more background on Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline Feature, a wider overview of Council Discussion themes see our Council Discussion archive.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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