The Friendship House EVAW Van, the Prince Rupert organization has just been awarded new funding for the program for 2022 (photo from Prince Rupert Friendship House website)
The Shuttle Bus program operated by Friendship House on the North Coast has secured 200,000 dollars in funding today, with the local transportation initiative one of 18 groups or communities to gain financial help from the province through the Northern Development Initiative Trust.
In total, the Province has allocated 2.8 million dollars towards the program which North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice notes provides for reliable transportation for many communities.
“This funding will ensure people in rural and remote communities in B.C.’s North continue to have access to affordable public transportation. The long distances between small, isolated communities in the North underscore importance of maintaining safe, reliable bus services in this part of the province.” -- ”Jennifer Rice, MLA for North Coast, on behalf of Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
The grants were awarded earlier this month by NDIT as part of the Federal/Provincial Safe Restart Funding program, the Northern Community Shuttle program will will replace the existing community transportation grant program effective Friday, April 1, 2022.
“The Northern Community Shuttle Program builds upon the success of the previous Highway 16 Transportation Action Plan and connects even more communities and people together. The introduction of new, on-demand and scheduled services will benefit numerous communities, including reaching Dease Lake in the northwest and offering multiple stops along Highway 20 between Williams Lake and Anahim Lake.” -- Joel McKay, CEO, Northern Development Initiative Trust.
The Province has funded community buses since 2017 as part of the Highway 16 Transportation Action Plan. In 2018, after Greyhound discontinued service in the region, the Province also launched the long-haul intercity BC Bus North service.
The Friendship House Service operates every Tuesday and Thursday, it leaves the Friendship House on Fraser Street at 10 AM and makes the return trip to Prince Rupert from Terrace at 2:30 PM. Passengers are advised to arrive 15 minutes prior to departure.
The Fare is five dollars one way, ten dollars for the round trip.
If you like to count the cash, particularly cash from taxpayers, Prince Rupert City Hall has the Job for you!
That with a new posting to the City's Help Wanted listings seeking the services of a Permanent Collector for the Finance team.
The synopsis of the job posting provides the scope of the job and what's expected of applicants:
This key position is responsible for all property tax, utilities and accounts receivable and requires a sound understanding of their processes, procedures, internal controls, along with accounting principles.
The position entails a large amount of customer service, responding to emails and phone calls from our residents regarding their property tax and utility accounts and bills, and making adjustments to accounts if necessary.
The Collector receives direction from their supervisor, who reviews performance regularly to ensure accuracy and conformance with established procedures. This position and department require a high level of confidentiality at all times.
As part of the application process, an interview with skill assessment will be required, as is adherence to the city's COVID 19 policies on vaccination.
The Collector position has a probationary salary of $34.14, it increases to $36.71 following that period.
Applications with cover letter and resumes are to be forwarded to Tristan Higginson, Assistant Finance Minster at City Hall, the deadline to apply for the post is April 8th
Prince Rupert City Council gave the green light Monday for a zoning change for this property on Portage Avenue
Members of Prince Rupert City Council hosted a Public Hearing on Monday related to a rezoning request for a property on Portage Avenue, the 6 PM session one which apparently provided for some feedback from the community.
Though to what extent that commentary may have been provided to the Council membership is not part of the record as of yet, with no video provided to the City's Video Archive for review of the hearing to provide for more clarity on what engagement was provided as part of the Public Hearing process.
The Subject property from Monday's Public Hearing (from City of PR agenda package)
From what we learned from their Regular session discussion, as the Council members reviewed the request to provide third reading for the bylaw to allow for a change in property designation from Residential to Light Industrial use for a property on Portage Avenue, they often made reference to the Public hearing from previous in the evening.
As for the comment provided to Council as part of the hearing, Councillor Adey noted of the feedback given to Council from two perspectives of the request.
"Just to acknowledge that we did get some public feedback in both directions, during the public hearing stage and I acknowledge the points of view expressed there.
I guess from my point of view though, I see this zoning bringing that particular portion of that block into alignment with the rest of that block.
I'm not sure that I can see any additional adverse effects from it, it seems to make sense to me so I'm in support of it"
If further discussion Councillor Cunningham also noted of the comments from the Public Hearing and offered his support to the rezoning, noting how he wasn't too concerned over any potential noise issues.
"I'm in support of it for several reasons, one we've got lots of residential property right now that's coming up for sale and for development, but we have little or none M1.
You know, as far as a comment earlier about high school kids walking by an M1, they're walking by it already.
I think this particular piece of property has been well kept over the years and everything and the fact that we were told that no one ever enquired about it as residential property just as M1 light industrial speaks for itself.
Im not too worried about noise coming from it, I think we've got pretty good noise bylaw and that and that would be taken care of.
As far as irresponsibility, you know we can look at development permits down the road and change anything we want that way, if something wants to go in there that we don't think will fit the neighbourhood .
But yeah I'm 100 percent in favour of this"
Councillor Randhawa also concurred that there would be no negative impact on the neighbourhood.
Councillor Niesh observed on the original planning of the area and how Council's in the past had addressed the nature of what is in the area at the moment.
" I mean, I'll go really far back and think that you know the original planning on this area was probably a terrible idea, putting a Light Industrial area in you know more of a residential zone.
But that being said, you know we can't change the decisions of the past, that basically put churches, and a hotel and light industry all in one area.
And you know we've had to deal with it, such as the Neptune where we you know kept the zoning to allow it to be a motel still and here this is a similar situation, where you have industrialbuildings already built on the property and to me, that's, you know it's more fitting, it's already there, I don't see residential going there."
"I do feel that you know that the property that was spoken about earlier, Mr. Stunder spoke to his property and I feel that there is a buffer there of trees already and I don't feel that it's heavy industry, which is going to be impactful for noise and you know I've never heard any complaints of you know noise coming from a light industrial area that has been very impactful to residents in the area.
So I am in support of rezoning this "
Councillor Skelton Morven echoed many of the same themes and noted it would now be put on the tax rolls as it shifts from its previous use to an industrial rate.
Councillor Mirau also noting of some discussion from the Public Hearing, spoke to the process and confirmed with Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller that all elements had been completed appropriately.
"The one point I would like to raise just on process, because there was in the letter from Mr. Stunder a couple of references to process. One of which was maybe a miscommunication, or a difference from M2 Zoning versus M1 and then a second piece around just the zoning bylaw amendment versus a zoning and an OCP amendment.
So I just want to clarify with our corporate administrator, that in terms of process, I feel like according to all of my notes both were done appropriately?"
Ms. Miller did confirm that the process was done correctly, but noted that there would be a requirement of two separate motions for the OCP and Zoning bylaw.
Council then approved the request with the process to now move forward to the Ministry of Transportation for review and approval.
Mayor Carol Leclerc led a delegation from Terrace to Victoria to raise community concerns on crime and social issues (from MLA Ross FB page)
Skeena MLA Ellis Ross provided some formal introductions for a delegation from Terrace on Wednesday in the BC Legislature, speaking at the start of the Wednesday session to introduce Terrace Mayor Carol Leclerc and Councillor Sean Bujtas to the Assembly.
The MLA making note of their time in the provincial capital to seek the help of the Provincial Government on a pair of issues of concern for the Northwest's largest community.
The municipal delegation has been in Victoria this week to speak to the concerns and seek the assistance of the NDP government towards social issues and an increasingly worrisome crime situation in the Skeena Valley City.
Those two topics made for a Legislature presentation from the MLA Ross later in the afternoon on Wednesday as he outlined the concerns of his constituents for Attorney General David Eby.
"Talking about the law being enforced, it's quite timely, quite relevant, because the people of Terrace are worried — so much so that the mayor and council have flown down here to be with us today to meet with government over the level of violence in town that's not only affecting Terrace but the constituents of Skeena, because Terrace is a hub of our region.
Council has also dropped their resolution that reads: "In Terrace, as well as other communities across the province, individuals are often arrested for crimes like theft and property damage, but the Crown does not lay charges, citing it is not in the public interest to prosecute. Offenders of these crimes repeat their actions, and businesses, workers and the public are victimized as a result."
The council, the Terrace community, the residents of Skeena, the residents of B.C., everyone wants to know why it's not in the public interest to charge these repeat offenders.
So, the question is simple. To the minister, why not?"
Towards a reply, Attorney General Eby, noted that he had asked Regional Crown Counsel For Stevens to meet with the mayor to review the statitsics and offer reassurance to the community. He also outlined some of the statistics from the Terrace Crown Counsel office when it comes to situation in the region.
"I'm happy to read into the record some of this. But suffice it to say that the vast majority of charge assessments are completed within 30 days. On reports to Crown counsel received by Crown counsel over the last two years, 1,716 were received from police; 1,257 were approved to court.
Only 339 of those were no-charge decisions. The rest were either alternative measures, returned to police for more investigation or are currently in progress."
The reply was not one that eased the concerns for the Skeena MLA who observed how the problem seems to be one of a provincial government that doesn't see a problem.
"That answer that was just given by the Attorney General doesn't give any comfort to the people in Terrace or in our communities across B.C. who are facing this violence, every day, who are being attacked.
I have a letter from the chief councillor at Kitsumkalum saying that he is concerned about his community becoming a lawless land and that it's unsafe to go downtown at night, especially for women.
The Terrace Downtown Improvement Area Society is also concerned. "Why are there no consequences of substance for people who attack businesses? The answer is that the Crown counsel will not support the RCMP with charges."
Our communities are doing their part to assist those who are struggling with mental health, addiction and homelessness. But my constituents, and dare I say the people of British Columbia, need to know that the government is going to do their part too."
The Attorney General responded by way of noting that some of the issues could be related to Federal crimes and Supreme Court Decisions of the past, as well he observed as to the need to address homelessness in the community which he admitted still required some work.
I'm not saying there's not an issue, potentially, with violence in the streets of Terrace. I'm not saying that at all.
What I'm saying that when those charges…. When those investigations are completed by police, they're brought to Crown counsel, they're being approved, and they're going to court. There may be issues with the criminal law being applied by the court.
As I say, that's federal jurisdiction. That's an important issue. Let's talk about that with the federal government. But to blame Crown counsel for the state of the federal law and Supreme Court of Canada decisions — that's a different story.
We're also working on mental health and addiction issues that are often conflated with these problems. With our complex care housing, with supportive housing, in fact, I'm happy to say we've actually reduced the number of people who are street homeless in Terrace.
The last count was 96; the current count was 74. So we're seeing progress on these kinds of issues in the community. We've got more work to do. I'm happy to work with the member and the mayor on that.
Data from BC CDC indicates COVID declines for most NW communities this week
Declines in COVID cases marked much of the map for the Northwest this past week with only Terrace and Nechako holding in the double digits.
This week's data for the period of March 20-26 indicated that most communities in the Northwest had continued to see lower case counts from previous levels.
The results for Prince Rupert provided for a drop of 8 cases from the week prior.
A number of communities reported no cases or had no data to share.
The northwest count is significantly lower than that of Northern British Columbia's largest community, with Prince George recording a case count of 71 in the period.
The full review across the region for the week of March 20-26 from the BC CDC looks as follows:
Terrace -- 13 cases Nechako --12 cases
Smithers -- 9 cases
Kitimat -- 6 cases
Prince Rupert --3 cases
Snow Country-Stikine-Telegraph Creek -- 2 cases
Haida Gwaii -- 2 cases
Central Coast -- 1 case
Nisga'a Region -- 1 case
Burns Lake -- 0 cases
Upper Skeena -- 0 cases
Bella Coola Valley -- 0 cases
Wednesday's provincial report lists 19 new cases of COVID for the Northern Health region, that makes for a decline of 24 cases from a week ago.
For the Northern Health Region in total as of Wednesday, 23 patients are listed as in hospital which is an increase of 2 from last week, with 3 noted as in Critical Care, which is a decrease of five from a week ago.
The breakdown of hospitalizations by community in the Northern Health region is not included in the data release information.
Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Provincial scene for Tuesday-Wednesday March 29-30, 2022
Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Federal scene for Saturday-Monday, March 26-28, 2022
Mayor Lee Brain an Operations Director Richard Pucci outside what will soon be the city's new Public Works facility (photo from City of PR)
How the decision was reached to take on a lease, with potential purchase for the MacCarthy GM structure on Portage Road made for some review on Monday evening
With Councillor Cunningham making note of what he called a little buzz around town about it and seemingly some interruption to his community shopping experiences.
Towards the city's plan for its public works department, he called on the Operations Director Richard Pucci to take Council through the elements considered for the lease announced earlier this month.
At the tail end of Monday's Council session, Mr Pucci provided a thumbnail sketch of the conditions for the Wantage Road facility and how the opportunity that the currently vacant MacCarthy building offered to the city was one they wanted to jump on.
"So we've ... a couple of years back, we realized that our public works facility was in some pretty big dire straits, we looked at a new building and you know at the time it was in the order of five plus million dollars, plus we needed to find land in order to build it.
And the timelines associated with building it, this opportunity came forward so we spoke to the owners and so we thought it would be a good opportunity for us to jump on.
There was a significant renovation in the last few years and the square footage would allow us for our whole complement to be all in one place and also have the yard as we call it, for larger fleet vehicles and excavators and material storage associated with Public Works, but still have the complement of employees at this site."
Mr. Pucci also spoke towards the current costing of 750,000 dollars and the significant upgrades required as part of a larger budget item directed to the facility.
"At this point right now we are leasing it for five years, we do have the exclusive option to purchase at the end of that five years if we see fit. We are looking at doing some significant upgrades, the number that is in the budget is 750,000 dollars.
We put that as a larger budget item, though we don't think it will be that much, but we've seen with COVID some significant creep associated with costs and numbers, so we anticipate that may happen.
So we put a larger budget, if we don't need the money, we will definitely not be using the money"
When it comes to charting the path ahead should the city wish to purchase the building, the Operations Director provided a snapshot as to how they may proceed five years down the road.
"Associated with the purchase after, there will be appraisals completed at that time and an active negotiation talking about the money that we've put in, versus the cost and that.
So that will be a negotiation that happens at the time of purchase if we choose to move that way with it at that time"
You can review the Operations Directors commentary from the City's Video Archive starting at the fifty three minute mark.
A visual concept for a home proposed for the Atlin area, the variance request to accommodate the build, was rejected Monday by City Council (From City of PR Agenda package for March 28)
With surrounding residents in strong opposition, the tide shifted for the proponents of a large home proposed for the Atlin Avenue area, with the project now sidelined after the city's planning department amended their view of the proposed development to recommend rejection by Council.
It was the second look for council at the proposed housing plans, the first coming two weeks ago as part of their March 14th session which sent the process forward to public notification.
However once to that process, the main push towards rejection for the required variance came from what was a large response from those in the surrounding neighbourhood, who by the time the issue came back to council had submitted four letters in opposition and a petition signed by 12 area residents speaking against the house build as proposed.
"Therefore given these identifying negative impacts we are amending our recommendation to not supporting the variance"-- Myfannwy Pope, on the city planning staff recommendation for a property on Atlin
Councillor Nick Adey was the first to comment, he applauded the public notification process that delivered the input from the community and noted of the role it played in the decision making in this instance.
."A tip of the hat to the public notification process and why it matters, we often find ourselves kind of scrolling through these things and there's a sort of a routine around it.
And I'm never one to particularly opposed sending something as far as a public notification.
But I think t's important to recognize that, that part of the process can make a difference, as based on your changing the recommendation, this one clearly has"
Councillor Niesh also spoke to the issue, noting of the slippery slope that the variance request had presented to the City
"As I had stated at the last meeting, it's a slippery slope to go down when you start accepting height variances of this sort of nature ... this particular one if you look at it ... it's so high and it's already above street grade and you start putting almost a forty foot tall building above street grade, it becomes very impactful for a lot of people.
I definitely think in the future ... I really disagree with these completely, I mean, I just think that it can really affect a lot of people by doing this ...
I don't like to see things that are just such monsters in neighbourhoods that are so impactful to everyone around them and so not fitting to the neighbourhood that you know we just really have to watch that in the future.
And I'm really glad to see that people in the neighbourhood really spoke up to say what they wanted to say and I'm glad to see that the planning department has changed their recommendation "
Councillor Randhawa also noted that there should be no impact on the quality of life of those in the area.
Council then voted to reject the Variance request for the property on Atlin.
However that was one consultation with the public that did not deliver the same result for them, as was provided for the Atlin area residents on Monday.
Council's review of the file can be viewed fro the City's Video Archive, starting at the 34 minute mark.
