As we all celebrate this BC Day weekend, we will be taking opportunity to take a break for this Summer of post COVID rules travel.
As we head out, we take leave of our blogging themes for the next little while, with a return target of somewhere along the lines of mid August or so.
As we take to our travels, we trust everyone will hold off on those Mayoralty, City Council and School District announcements of candidacy, at least until we return ... wouldn't want to miss anything!!
While we take a break from the delivery of new and original content, feel free to browse our archive pages found as part of our right hand column and catch up on some of the themes you may have missed in recent weeks.
If all goes well and the roads remain clear, we'll be back before the first layer of Blacktop makes its way to McBride Street.
Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Provincial scene for Thursday-Friday, July 28-29, 2022
Our compilation of some of the stories of note from the day, reviewing the political developments from the Federal scene for Thursday-Friday, July 28 & 29, 2022
City of Prince Rupert staff members and Councillor Skelton Morven had opportunity to meet with Federal Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen this week during a a short visit by the Minister to the North Coast
Local industry and civic officials had a chance to show Federal Liberal Minister Ahmed Hussen around Prince Rupert, with the Liberal Minister of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion in the city for a whirlwind visit earlier this week.
The tour included stops with the Prince Rupert Port Authority where Mr. Hussen explored some of the activity on the Prince Rupert waterfront and some of the issues related to the growth ahead for Port and its partner facilities and the community.
The Minister also had opportunity to tour the Harbour and explore the recently completed Seal Cove Salt Marsh.
Minister Hussen also had opportunity to meet with some representatives from Prince Rupert City Hall, including City manager Rob Buchan, other civic officials and Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven.
The revelation from Monday's City Council session that parking tickets apparently received no urgency when it comes to collecting revenue, should probably be a bit of a red flag over how City Council has approached its financial themes over its last few mandates.
The topic made for much discussion coming out of two presentations Monday, the proposedInterim Parking Management Strategy and the decision to move towards an adjudication system for bylaw notices, which is where we received the eye opening note that 75 percent of those issued traffic tickets chose not to pay and seemingly there was nothing for City Council to do as it was a 'voluntary donation'.
As the City Manager correctly explained to Council, with voluntary payments the guiding principle for the city's traffic ticket policy ... why would anyone pay a ticket?
It's not an issue of staffing problems, or administrative management, it really does go back to Council and their oversight on a key element of their work, revenue generation in the community.
Especially when one considers the volume of conversation that they have put into parking themes over the last eight years in what has become a long running discussion topic that only now may finally be finding a way to resolution.
The real question for Council that wasn't asked, or surrendered up for information on the night is why did this council and who knows how many others before it, allow the practice to carry on?
Comments to our story of Thursday quite rightly noted that what was the logic of printing up and sending out bylaw officers to deliver the tickets if there was no real plan to actually make anyone pay.
The parking situation does give one cause to consider just where else the city has been less than proactive in revenue generation opportunities and if there are more unusual discoveries to be found beyond parking, say in the area of maintenance bylaw issues, or other civic instruments.
Considering the various areas where they lease out land, whether at Watson Island or elsewhere in any number of structures they may own, or making arrangements for tenancy for new or recent commercial space concepts and such. Having some idea of the volume of revenue that is generated, or should be generated, would be worth providing some background on.
Perhaps before the incumbents on Council that are considering a run in October hit the campaign trail, they may want to ask the Financial office for a financial check up to share and for residents to look over as part of the information flow of the election run up.
Beyond the parking boondoggle, having the city offer up a glimpse towards how much may have been spent on civic project overages, contracts, any past legal settlements, as well as any number of other council initiatives that haven't really been explained fully towards costing over the years, would give some idea as to where the incoming council may be on the profit and losses once the election campaigning is over.
During the final stages of the Bylaw Notice discussion on Monday, Councillor Adey somewhat jokingly observed that the next Council won't know what is about to hit them.
He may be on the mark more than even he may have intended.
If the current council doesn't ask for a snapshot for the campaigns ahead, the incoming Mayor and Council should.
Maybe a helpful and easy to understand financial tip sheet could at least give the soon to be elected council (and the city's residents) a heads up when it comes to how the revenues and expenses flow at City Hall.
It's somewhat ironic that in a month of highlighting the financial challenges they face and their frustrations with the Port and Province over Port Property Tax Caps (still an issue for the MLA to show some action towards by the way); thecity council members knew of a long running issue of their own curious financial management of the Parking files, leaving cash inaccessible from what should have been a steady revenue stream.
Something which may explain why the Province hasn't really been too keen to give them more cash to use, that while Council tries to figure out how to access money that they would seem to have there for the taking.
Had residents known previous as to the less than attentive nature to revenue generation over the years, they could have perhaps suggested a long time ago that such things as City Council pay raises and Vision planning funding be taken from parking revenues ... that probably would have cleared up the issue quite quickly.
The issue of parking, particularly in the downtown core has become a keen topic for much discussion of late, a focus item from the Mayor's recent State of the City presentation of June and on Monday night a lengthy forty minute plus review from Council members.
The Mayor's introduction to the topic from the Lester Centre, one that followed up on many previous council sessions over the last few years and a topic that city staff has offered up a few options towards.
Monday night, the theme returned as part of Council's review of an Interim Parking program, something that will in effect get things started when it comes to addressing the parking issues of the downtown.
That while Council explores the larger transportation issues through their Master Transportation Plan currently hosting a public engagement process.
Management Action 1: Removing minimum parking requirements from a parking specified area (PSA) downtown.
Management Action 2: Encourage Shared Parking Agreements between private businesses, or private businesses and the City to optimize existing parking.
Management Action 3: Seek opportunities to develop public parking lots in the City Core as needed to serve longer term users through land acquisition or conversion of municipally-owned lots.
Management Action 4: Maximize parking on 2nd and 7th Street to serve longer term users and free up street parking along 2nd and 3rd Ave.
Management Action 5: Reconfiguring 2nd and 3rd Avenues W to increase on-street parking.
Management Action 7: Implement an Interim Parking Wayfinding Strategy
Management Action 8: Work to Implement Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
City Planner Myfawnny Pope stayed close the script of the report in her presentation which explored a number of the themes from the expansive document.
Among some of the highlights was a look at the status of the current management system and a fund that is in place towards downtown parking. With the pay in lieu one time payment program for public off street parking, which as Ms. Pope noted has some challenges:
"Until recently the fee for pay in lieu has been far below the cost for equivalent stalls in a public parking lot."
Also noted from the report was the rather poor results when it comes to the payment of parking fines, with only twenty five percent of those ticketed paying their fines.
Two of the eight recommendations however seemed to dominate the councillors attention through the evening, a focus on the removal of minimum parking requirements for property owners in the downtown area and the reconfiguration of Second and Third Avenues to create more parking availability.
The areas where the current minimum parking requirements would be lifted as part of the new Interim Parking Strategy
The changes to the minimum parking requirements for the areas highlighted in red on the map above generated the largest volume of conversation.
"The first action removing minimum parking requirements downtown, you pointed out in the report that there's a history of how we've managed these things in the past and one of the places in that history that we've heard quite a bit about was the parking in lieu requirements and the changing of fees ... there are people way back in the dawn of time paid what I think would have seemed like a significant fee and some of those people still run their business in those place.
So I can only imagine that if I was one of those people and I saw that all of a sudden now it was going to be free, I might have an opinion about that. So I think that we need to ensure that we recognize that there's going to be some people who look at that and say it's not fair, why did I have to pay when somebody new establishing a new business is not going to have to.
So I would like to think that there is some thought being put into how to present that in a way that maybe puts people's minds at ease, or helps them move towards a place where they might think that they're at least their being acknowledged in the spirit of fairness "-- Councillor Nick Adey
City Manager Rob Buchan addressed that theme of fairness and equity for Council.
"Anytime we change our regulations, we change the rules and somebody can always ask that question. Council actually made a whole bunch of changes to the zoning bylaw parking regs a little over a year ago and in some cases the standards were lowered significantly. So they could have asked the same questions at that time.
And historically there have been a number of variance applications that have been granted to folks that have had applications because they couldn't or didn't want to provide all of the parking.
In Council's deliberations, it doesn't always mean that everybody is going to be subject to the same rules, rules can change if Council believes that it's in the public interest to do that.
So this is proposing a rule change with respect to recommendation number one on changing the parking requirements. There will be a public process for that, to do this, this has to be a change in the zoning bylaw, so people will have an opportunity to express their concerns if any to Council. -- City Manager Dr. Robert Buchan
The City Manager also outlined that scope of the issue facing the city is one that requires that there is sufficient parking and how to achieve that.
"There's a trade off here, in terms of providing private parking or making sure the city has sufficient parking. And part of the way that sufficient parking is achieved is by public investment.
In reconfigurating roads, in acquiring additional lands for public lots.
So, this represents a change in approach, a significant change in approach from the Council, saying you know, where we think it's in the public interest to, for us to be providing the parking in these areas through these different mechanisms.
Does that mean that you go back to everybody that built parking lots, or parking in the past and say well you overbuilt for our new standard, we're going to make up that for you, no that would be really unviable to do.
And by extension cash in lieu is, that again is unviable there's no mechanism for returning money, you can't do assistance to business. It's a change in approach, a change to the rules going forward and we go through a due process for that.
The equity thing is difficult when there's changes in rules the question is, is it in the public interest to do it" -- City Manager Buchan
Councillor Cunningham also had some thoughts on the changes to the minimum requirements, noting of his opposition during the Official Community Plan process.
"Less than a year ago we did the OCP and I strongly voted against it because of the Parking in lieu of 12 thousand and five and less than a year from now we're sitting here saying we're going to do away with it and I know of one project that was shelved simply because of that 12 thousand five hundred parking place"-- Councillor Barry Cunningham
The City Manager spoke to the councillors commentary related to the Parking in lieu issue.
"This is a challenging problem, and I recall Council during the revision of the zoning bylaw and doing the Official Community Plan talking about, expressing concerns, about well some or our, a lot of our properties in the downtown, they're completely build on, we can't put parking on.
So are we going to enforce parking requirements on those buildings for a change in use, if they want to add onto the building or change the use which would result in a higher parking standard, that was identified as a problem by council ...
Council will recall that we discussed this solution at that time, which was greeted with some interest I would say generally by council as a way of solving that Parking standard problem.
Now it's not just removing the parking standards, it's saying for these properties we're going to remove and the city is going to invest in alternative parking locations. Through street reconfiguration and through acquiring property so that the city can provide on street parking that's an approach that has been done successfully in a lot of communities ... -- City Manager Dr. Robert Buchan
One of the recommendations on parking is to reconfigure both Second (above) and Third Avenue for more parking
The other elements that generated some expansive discussion was the concept of shared parking which was suggested by Councillor Cunningham as not a workable option, as well as the road reconfiguration plans.
The road plan changes which would reduce the travel lanes to allow for the angle parking, brought out a few observations, one from Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa who noted of some safety issues, particularly for emergency responders travelling on Second Avenue in particular.
Councillor Wade Niesh offers up his own suggestions towards improving on the Parking options for Second and Third Avenues.
Councillor Cunningham also noted of some design flaws as he sees the proposal, offering up a view as towards an option to consider.
The conversation was brought to a close with a reminder from Councillor Skelton-Morven that the term Interim was key for council to consider towards the motion.
The City Manager had noted that theme previously, observing as to how the Interim Parking plan feeds into the Transportation Master Plan which offers up the opportunity for fine tuning and vetting and process towards the larger approach towards Transpiration issues in the community.
With that Council voted to move forward with the Interim Parking Strategy.
The full presentation and Councillor overview of the plan can be explored through the City's Video Archive page, starting at the 46 minute mark.
A larger overview of the Talking points for the Parking program from Monday night can be reviewed through our Council Timeline Feature.
The city has provided for an information sheet on the themes of the Interim plan which you can review here.
Parks and Recreation spaces could be the next area up for consultation with the public as the City staff prepare to move forward on their review plans
One of the many elements for review noted this year by City Council has been plans to explore the current parks and recreation options in the community and look towards the future.
The project was one of many studies that have been taken on by the city in recent months, though as was noted by Councillor Nick Adey on Monday evening, the progress for the Parks and Recreation version has yet to be fully introduced.
"Reflecting on the fact that the City is currently seeking input from the public on Transportation planning and I recall that there was a second area in which the city was going to look for input and that was Parks and Recreation.
And I know that there are at least two groups that are awaiting that opportunity and will have some input, so Im just wondering where we are with the timing of that"
City planner Myfannwy Pope assured the Councillor that the plan for review is still in motion, noting of the arrival of consultants from Urban Systems and that residents may see some introductions to participate coming up in the next few weeks.
"We do have a consultant. We're working with Urban Systems and that allows us to coordinate with the transportation and asset management plan that we're currently working on.
The process started a bit later that the Transportation, so right now, the consultants are coming up for a day of learning and taking a tour of our parks this week.
And then after that, within the next couple of weeks, I believe we'll be putting out some social media posts and starting engagement at that time" -- City Planner Myfannwy Pope
Promote access to nature and viewpoints for people of all abilities (including those in wheelchairs, strollers and walkers)
Plan parks and open spaces to serve a variety of users and increase interconnections between different areas of the community
Recognize and celebrate local First Nations' territories and Peoples
Ensure an active or passive park is located within a ten-minute walk of all residences
Support climate change mitigation and biodiversity through providing park infrastructure with a smaller ecological footprint and maintaining "free" ecological services such as carbon sequestration and wetland filtration
Establish a "flagship park" in Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert's recreational facilities are well maintained and attractive
Coordinate parks and recreation planning with the City's Active Transportation Plan currently being developed.
The Bid document was previously introduced in March, it had outlined some of the other elements that the city is considering, elements such as a new waterfront park, public wharf and expanded trail system to name a few.
The April version added a few amendments to the scope of the project.
As they have in the past, it's likely much of the community engagement on the theme will come through the Rupert Talks portal, which you can review here, which has provided for past commentary on civic themes.
You can follow the city's Social media stream here for updates on the project as it continues to evolve.
The short discussion on Recreation themes can be reviewed through the City's Video Archive at the Two hour six minute mark.
Prince Rupert's City Council members received a presentation from the City's corporate administrator Rosa Miller on Monday night, that offered up a potential ability to collect more revenue from bylaw infractions.
Ms. Miller outlined how the system would have the city work with the Ministry of Attorney General to appoint an adjudicator; a project which could deliver an increase in the payment of fines of over 40 percent.
Though the full details towards how that would work, or who would adjudicate, wasn't fully explored from the presentation or in the follow up discussion by the Council members.
The need for a new approach to collections on bylaw fines, was explored by way of a report from city staff as part of their Interim Parking Strategy, which has identified that only 25 parent of those who are ticketed have paid their fines.
The other 75 percent of those receiving tickets clearly having read the entire information provided on the tickets which notes that payment is a voluntary thing and have chosen not to volunteer.
Notes on parking ticket payment from the City's Interim Parking Management Strategy document (click to enlarge)
In comments on the initiative, Councillor Niesh led off the conversation and asked how the city can tell if a vehicle is insured, Ms. Miller assured him that the bylaw officers have the ability to look up such status.
Mr. Niesh also asked about the potential use of a boot system to increase the collection of fees.
"Could we not implement something for you know repeat offenders, where we're having problems collecting, we have talked about this before, could we not have like a boot. Where Bylaw boots the vehicles and you know if they want to get their vehicle unbooted then they pay their fines. It's been discussed in the past and I though we were going to go that route"-- Councillor Wade Niesh
The Corporate Administrator confirmed for Council that they do have the Boot mechanism and that it's up to a decision of council to implement that program.
"We actually do have boots, and really if Council wishes we can certainly look at amending bylaw and it is completely within your control what we do in forms of enforcement of the bylaws and how those bylaws are written and amended."-- Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller
The Councillor noted how the bylaw tickets specify that the payment is a voluntary ticket and how they don't feel the need to pay it and there is no enforcement towards payment of them. He asked why they aren't being booted, or towed which would provide improved results when it comes to payment of the tickets.
The Corporate Administrator noted that as the ticket are worded as voluntary that would pose a challenge towards using the mechanism.
"As you've noted, the tickets at present are voluntary, so it would be pretty difficult to boot a voluntary ticket. However, with the implementation of the adjudication system once you don't pay your ticket after a certain number of days it does go to collections. And then there is no option to not pay your ticket, you will go for an adjudicator and providing the evidence that is presented you will be required to pay your ticket.-- Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller
Councillor Cunningham spoke of out of town vehicles and how they may not be inclined to pay if they reside out of province.
City Manager Rob Buchan noted he wasn't sure of the process, but anecdotally he relayed that it was his understanding it is hard to collect out of province.
Towards the current system and the proposed new Notification system, Dr. Buchan spoke to the nature of the voluntary fine and how it has impacted on payment.
"This was educational for me, it's one piece of our regulatory framework that I wasn't fully aware of.
Our voluntary system, a voluntary fine is not a fine, it's an invitation to make a contribution. Which people can properly and understandably ignore, if there's no requirement to make a payment.
So this would change that profoundly I think, so I would strongly recommend that we go in this direction"-- City Manager Dr. Rob Buchan
Councillor Cunningham expanded the discussion towards other Bylaw ticketing efforts for property maintenance and how he would like to see the focus shift from complaint driven to bylaw officer generated.
"When, How do we amend this Bylaw by Neighbour, complaint driven system, so the Bylaw officers can just go and ticket people, especially with the property management things ...
I've talked to the Bylaw officers in Terrace who do the same thing. They don't go by complaint driven, they just see and infraction they ticket the people. They've come down here to visit and they just can't believe the condition of some our properties and that.
They're obviously in violation of our maintenance property bylaw and I see no reason whey we have to wait for a neighbour to complain about somebody's property"-- Councillor Barry Cunningham
To that topic, the City Manager addressed how there was a need to create a civic policy and what would be required towards bylaw enforcement and how one approach could be developing a policy as part of the Strategic plan for next year.
Dr. Buchan also pointed to the staffing situation with the Bylaw enforcement office and how next year's Council may wish to address the issue, which could mean an increase in staff to achieve their wishes.
"The short answer, the short answer to how do you go about changing the policy is.
You could do it right now with a resolution, it would be a Council resolution to adopt the policy, now we would have to put some words around the policy but it wouldn't take much to make a policy.
We currently have practice we do not have council policy on bylaw enforcement we have practice. So that is one of the things that we would be proposing to address in next year's Strategic plan, I think it's probably a good idea to have policy"
What that would mean in the nature of change for the bylaw office was also of note for the City Manager.
"The other thing to be really cognizant of is, we have just recently doubled our bylaw enforcement capacity, we were up to two.
There's a limited amount that you can do with two bylaw enforcement officers. So in the process of developing policy around enforcement, a really important discussion is resources for actually carrying out the policy.
While I was saying this could be done just with resolution, it could be, it's not a good idea just to quickly make a resolution on this.
This is something that has to be thought about in terms of, the implications of additional staff and resources and what council's philosophy is around bylaw enforcement.
I think that this is a really good discussion, and important one that we will be suggesting to next year's council that we get into. -- City Manager Dr. Rob Buchan
The daunting task towards change on bylaw enforcement gave Councillor Nick Adey cause to observe that next year's council won't know what hit them.
Towards the bylaw notification process under discussion, he provided his own endorsement for the proposed shift in focus.
"I think this is a good idea, I think it expands the repertoire of how we deal with things. I think if it makes a dent in the 25 percent return, for people who are you know committing albeit minor violations, that most people understand and know that they are doing it. So I don't have any problems with it, so I'm going to support it"
Council then voted to move forward toward the new Bylaw Notification process.
That serves to put the seventy five percent of those currently choosing not to pay their fines to start saving up for the future.
As for those who didn't read the document all the way through and ponied up the required cash, they may want to seek out some recognition for their good citizenship.
The full discussion on the new proposal for Bylaw Notice can be reviewed through the City's Video Archive starting at the one hour, thirty two minute mark.
