City of Prince Rupert explores more property options as part of Budget proposals

The city made a bit of news on Monday announcing plans to take over the
space that once was home to the GM dealership in town, with the new use
to be that of a facility for the city's public works department

The City of Prince Rupert has announced another surprise proposal towards property use, with Monday's Budget presentation confirming a much repeated rumour of the city's interest in the old MacCarthy GM dealership on Portage Avenue.

The car dealership which closed its doors in January of 2021 has sat empty since, seemingly tweaking the interest of the City's Operations Department, which now has plans to use the facility for the city's public works crews.

The introduction of that proposal was made as part of Monday's Council session, with the City's Chief Financial Officer Corrine Bomben making mention of the city's need for leasehold upgrades to the MacCarthy dealership, the required work on the structure to be funded through a dividend from  Legacy Inc.

In follow up documentation from the city's social media stream, it was noted that the current facilities on Wantage Road are leaking and/or have been determined to be unsafe.

The announcement of the plans on Monday made for the first public mention of the concept, with the topic not raised previous in an public session of Council.

The 2022 Budget proposal will include the need for
150,000 dollars in roof improvements for the city's interests
in the Canfisco Warehouse in the Rushbrook Floats area

The evolution of the MacCarthy building announcement, mirrors a previous arrangement that the city entered into with Canadian Fish back in 2020, when the City eventually announced that they were leasing out space in the Canfisco Warehouse.

As it is for the apparent use for the MacCarthy facility, there were no previous discussion at a Public Council session in  2019/2020 by Council towards the new path that had in mind for their Canfisco plans.

In somewhat ironic timing, the Canfisco project also made some news as part of Mondays Budget planning reveal, with Ms. Bomben noting that Roof improvements for the property will require an estimated 150,000 dollar, once again to be funded through the city's favoured instrument of Legacy Inc.

Hopefully Council members will find their voices during the Budget consultation to share some thoughts on the plan towards the MacCarthy facility,  that in order to provide additional background on the initiative and how that option may have bene preferable to repairs to the Wantage Road structures.

Council may also want to provide for an expansive overview as to just how they have been using the Legacy Inc. monies over the last few years, a topic that rarely brings few updates from Council.  

An update that perhaps could outline just how much of that pool of money may be left from that 18 million dollar windfall that had come out of the final year of the Jack Mussallem era on Council.

More notes on Monday's Council Session can be reviewed from our Council Timeline Feature.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.