Mayor Brain hopeful of AMHS return, but awaiting further guidance from Federal Government

The topic of some positive reports from Alaska last week on the potential return of the Alaska Ferry to Prince Rupert made for some short conversation at Monday's Council session, with Councillor Barry Cunningham raising the topic, noting of rumours he's heard around the community on the prospect of the resumption of service.

The potential of that return was something we made note of last week, when we recounted the rather positive commentary on the theme from State Representative Dan Ortiz, who suggested at a Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce meeting that all the themes of concern were going in the right direction.

Mayor Lee Brain on the prospect of a return of the 
Alaska Ferry service to Prince Rupert in 2022

Monday night, Mayor Lee Brain spoke to the topic for the first time in many months, noting that he too had heard of the enthusiasm coming from Alaska but observing that he has not received any information from Canadian Federal officials that suggest a solution has been settled just yet.

"Well we actually haven't heard yet from the Federal Government on the status, I'm hearing from the Alaska side of things that it's on the schedule. But I can't confidently say for certain that it's going to be resuming.

I'm trusting that it will be and I'm hoping it will be ... We haven't been notified yet officially by the federal agencies who are involved with this, cause it's a Federal and Alaska issue to see if it's going to fully resume.

But the way their talking about it in Alaska as if it is going ahead, is encouraging. But until I hear it strictly from our side of things and from our Federal government I'd like to know for sure that the border issues have been resolved and the pre clearance issue has been resolved. And it sounds like the Alaska government wants to fund this and continue on which is what we were fighting for"

The Mayor also noted of some of the city's working the past, observing of the efforts back in 2019 on the issue, where the city came up with a plan, though he made no note of what that plan consisted of on Monday evening.

"Actually Ms. Bomben and I hosted a delegation from Alaska in Rupert at late 2019, they toured the facility and we actually came up with a bit of plan. So hopefully, we'll get some more information and it's looking great. And I'm hoping we did save that service because it's been a long haul and it's something that should continue into the future" 

You can review the discussion on the hopeful themes for an AMHS return from the City's Video archive starting at the thirteen minute mark.

More notes on Monday's Council session can be explored from our Council Timeline Feature.

A wider overview of past Council discussion themes is available here.

For further background from the Alaska side of the A/B line see our AMHS Archive page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review