The Friday report also notes of the new travel measures, which will in effect keep British Columbians in regional bubbles until the May Long weekend, todays notes were posted to the BC government website late Friday afternoon.
“Today, we are reporting 740 new cases, for a total of 129,482 cases in British Columbia.Earlier in the day, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth expanded on the background to the regulations that will be in effect until after the May long weekend period.
The full COVID statement for Friday can be reviewed here.
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| BC CDC data for British Columbia for April 30, 2021 |
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| BC CDC data for Northern Health Region for April 30, 2021 |
Federal Government site
British Columbia Government site
The World Health Organization website also offers up the latest advisories on the global situation.
More from Northern Health can be reviewed here
You can review our archive of past statements and local information here.
Local governments and organizations have also provided for increased awareness of COVID-19 issues, those past advisories can be reviewed here.
For notes from across Canada and British Columbia we have been archiving the latest items through our political portal Darcy McGee
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| Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach had questions on the lack of infrastructure progress by the Liberal Government |
A report just released by the Parliamentary Budget Office offers up some themes that the Federal government's use of the Federal Infrastructure Bank is showing little in the way of results to date.
With few success stories for the Federal Liberal government to share with the public.
The report, which you can review here, notes:
Four years into its mandate, funding is being disbursed by CIB much slower than planned. As of April 22, 2021, CIB has publicly announced $5.1 billion in investments for seventeen projects. However, finalizing contracts and the actual disbursement of money has lagged the CIB’s own projections. By December 31, 2020, CIB disbursed $1.2 billion, which falls $2.0 to $4.1 billion short of prior plans (62 to 77 percent).
The MP raised his concerns as part of Thursday's Question Period in the House of Commons, calling on the Liberal government to scrap what he called a privatization project that is failing Canadians; noting how it is not getting the job done of building projects that Canadians need.
"The bank is actually a barrier to getting projects done, but this government keeps pouring more money into it, doubling down on helping private investors profit through the bank'-- Taylor Bachrach in the House of Commons Thursday
Catherine McKenna the Minister for Infrastructure and Communities didn't take the bait on that suggestion; instead reciting a list of some of the initiatives that she says the Infrastructure Bank is taking on.
For more notes on the work of the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP at the House of Commons see our archive page here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice hailed the recent announcement towards improving cellular service along the highway 16 corridor between Prince Rupert and Prince George, providing the members of the Legislature with some personal remembrances of the dangers of the travel along the road also known as the Highway of Tears.
Ms. Rice was speaking to this announcement from earlier this month, which announced close to 12 million dollars in funding for improvements from the Smithers to Prince Rupert stretch of the highway.
The MLA's presentation to the Legislature came as part of the Thursday morning session.
Driving to Terrace from Prince Rupert in the summer of 2014, I pulled over on the side of the road and took my dog out for a pee. I also accidently locked my keys in my truck. There I was, at this pullout on the Highway of Tears, locked out of my vehicle and alone in the woods along the river with nothing but trees, rocks and river. I was really frightened. My cell phone didn't work.
The state of appearance of the downtown area and what the City is doing about it made for a good portion of the discussion at the end of the Monday Prince Rupert City Council session, with Councillor Barry Cunningham making note of the feedback he has received from members of the community who were out in the recent sunny weather and made comment on the city's appearance.
Towards a wider response to the issue, he asked for an update from Mayor Lee Brain on the progress of the city's efforts towards a downtown clean up, something which has been on the active engagement list for the city since the start of the year.
The Mayor took advantage of the invitation to take those tuning into the Zoom Session through the process of how the city sends notice and enforces its measures related to unsightly premises.
"Back in January we announced that we were going to be moving forward with a major enforcement campaign and ultimately what that looks like is a lot of staff time and energy to have to follow through on each property that is not abiding by the property maintenance bylaw, there's a whole process that needs to go and be involved" -- Mayor Lee Brain
The city's approach does seem to give owners of properties in question with ample opportunity to comply with the bylaws.
With an initial correspondence serving seemingly as a gentle nudge to clean up the property, if after a certain amount of time if there is no compliance that can be followed by a more stern 30 day missive to take action.
If no action is taken after that period, the city sends out a third notice, providing a two week warning that if no clean up is taken on by the property owner, the city will take action and bill the owner accordingly.
"The clean up can range in a number of ways, it can be on health and safety issues with the property for example. If there is something deemed that's a safety hazard for the community, the city can remove something that needs to be removed, or clean up whatever needs to be cleaned up.
So currently the corporate administrator has been working with businesses in the downtown and has been looking at some of the more high profile areas of the community. And those areas have been getting these letters and we're trying to you know encourage business owners to do the right thing and if they don't then we're going start moving forward in a big way to start cleaning up these properties.
Over time we will move through different properties in the downtown and then eventually we will move into the residential areas, until we start to clean up the whole community, or at least create a culture of people wanting to clean up the properties. -- Mayor Lee Brain
The Mayor also offered up some thoughts on how the current appearance of the community came to be, with the downturn of the economy of the post pulp mill years and a loss of pride in the community his main focus.
"Obviously after a period of economic decline, when a community falls you know apart basically after they lose a mill and lose the population and lose their pride. You know when a community is left to sit for a while without that type of pride, people over time get complacent and then they don't take care of their properties" -- Mayor Lee Brain on the issues that led to the decline in appearance of the city
Making note as to how the community is now in a period of renewal, Mr. Brain outlined the recent initiative towards the downtown area to encourage property remediation through tax incentives, noting how the city is focusing on their approach to the issue.
"I think we've given a carrot and now we have a stick as well here and you know we're letting the community know that we're not letting this be complacent anymore. It's time for people to take pride, if you own a building in the downtown in particular, it's your responsibility to keep your property up to the property maintenance bylaw standards And now we will be ensuring that those properties will be maintained and that this community has a beautiful downtown core that we can all be proud of" -- Mayor Lee Brain
They Mayors snapshot of the situation generated a fair bit of discussion around towards the end of the Monday session.
The start of the commentary began with Councillor Wade Niesh, who observed that the city requires the help of the community to have action take place, calling for residents to send an e mail or make a call to bylaw to report something.
The Mayor followed up by noting how complaints of Facebook aren't enough and doesn't help the city enforce anything, observing as to how the city's information gathering process is confidential and how the city encourages feedback from the residents of the city to help initiate any enforcement.
He also noted that the city has already seen some results to 200 or so letters mailed out as part of the program with some property owners in the downtown area already taking action towards their properties.
The City Manager Robert Long joined in the discussion at that point, noting how the city requires a written and signed complaint and how phone calls are not enough.
"We need a written complaint, not a telephone call ... we can't accept phone calls as complaints, they have to be written and signed by the individuals who are making the complaints and then we can act"
"You download the app on your phone, you can take a photo of whatever the infraction in question is and you can send it directly to the city. It's got a simple little submission form it protects your anonymity for the complainant and then you can take a photo and send it in directly" -- Councillor Blair Mirau on the use of the Prince Rupert App for Bylaw issues
"Yeah, building owners have to be responsible, but somebody else is the one that's dropping the bag in the empty lot and I think there's a role for education here, in terms of just kind of poking away at that awareness piece. That you know there are ways to deal with garbage and there are ways not to.
And when it's misused, I know I was just out at Wantage Road and someway there, there is an area where a bunch of people, I'm not sure if its still there after this weekend, they've just decided that the landfill is too far, or putting it in a garbage can is not good enough and so that's where it ends up and that's an education piece to me.
"Yes we need enforcement, Yes we need to revamp sanitation services, which we are doing with the recycling program. But there's that other element that I think we really need to be on top of in terms of community messaging around that." -- Councillor Nick Adey
The councillor's reference to changes in the sanitation program are a nod towards the new collection plans set for the summer.
Some past notes on the ongoing themes of cleaning up the downtown can be found in our notes from a February 5th blog item.
You can review the full conversation on the state of the downtown from the video archive starting at the 31 minute mark.
For more notes on Monday's Prince Rupert City Council session see our Timeline feature here.
A wider overview of past Council discussion themes is available here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
