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| BC CDC Community Covid Case data for week of September 18-24 |
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| COVID review for September 28 British Columbia results |
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| COVID review for September 28 Northern Health results |
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| Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach had the responsibility to cast the first vote for his Right to Vote at 16 Act on Wednesday (From ParlVU feed) |
Yesterday was vote day for a project that Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach had put some significant time and effort towards, with his Vote at 16 private members bill up for consideration of the House of Commons.
And as we noted in a follow up to our preview of yesterday, the day would end in a bit of disappointment for the enthusiastic supporter for lowering the voting age to 16, as the proposal was defeated in Second Reading by a vote of 77 Yeas, but a larger count on the Nay side of 246
The party had the strongest support from the NDP, Bloc and Green Parties as well as a smattering of Liberals.
However the numbers of that support did not come close to the contrarian views of the majority of Liberals and Conservatives.
The MP offered a short statement on the outcome yesterday through his social media feed, praising the work of those that joined him in the quest and noting of his disappointment with the governing Liberals.
The archive pager for Bill C-210 can be reviewed here.
More notes from the House of Commons can be reviewed from our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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| The MV Island Bay sank in Carpenter Cove, Moresby island earlier this month, the incident is now an investigation file with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada |
A team of investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will be arriving in Prince Rupert in the days to come, that as a staging area for their investigation into the sinking of the Passenger Vessel Island Bay earlier this month off of Carpenter Bay on Haida Gwaii.
As we outlined on September 13th, the vessel which was a tour boat operating along Moresby Island sank sparking an environmental response from the Canadian Coast Guard, West Coast Marine Response Corporation and the Council of the Haida Nation.
In their statement from Wednesday, the TSB of Canada doesn't expand much on what their investigation will include, other than to say that they will be gathering information and assessing the occurrence.
No timeline towards when they anticipate delivering their findings was provided as part of their statement.
More notes on the work of Emergency Responders in the Northwest can be reviewed here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
The #ScraptheTaxCap petition program which launched September 9th, is closing in on the conclusion of its third week of social media messaging.
One of the more recent of the dispatches outlining the plans in motion to launch a one day blitz of the community on Sunday, that to generate more signatures for the original call for tax fairness for the municipality from the province and Port.
However, for Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain, who has become the official social media relay station for the project, the travels around the city will be much more than just a collection of names, but a chance for the community to rally to his call to Save the City.
The use of the phrase that has become one of the ongoing narratives to his Mayoralty in recent years was included in his Social Media post of Wednesday.
Which is where he outlines how those wanting to help Save Rupert should consider signing up for a petition door knocking shift for Sunday.
As part of the lead up to the city wide petition door knocking campaign, both the Scrap the Tax Cap petition proponents and the Mayor have continued with their daily updates to their work.
The rolling archive of messaging highlighting a range of the themes from their initiative that have stoked the conversation and served to consume a significant portion of the discussion time from Monday's Election forum.
You can review how the candidates for mayor and Council spoke the issue from our Election Forum pieces below:
Mayoralty candidate commentaries
Council candidate commentaries
Considering that all twelve of those seeking office on October 15th have signed on to the campaign, you may have an opportunity to ask some of them to expand on the topic with you.
So should they knock on your door as part of the army of volunteers summoned by the Mayor for Sunday, take the opportunity for a discussion of all the details and facts to the issue.
As well as to raise any questions you may have on the initiative before you sign or decline.
We've been following the #ScraptheTaxCap themes through our City Taxation and Fees archive page which features a number to stories to the theme of the last three weeks.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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| A zoning map of one of the past proposed housing developments for the city from 2015 |
Housing, it's one of the largest issues facing the community, holding back the recruitment of workers and professionals, while also the beacon of warning over a growing concern over homelessness in the city.
The scope of the issue was a key element of the mayor's June State of the City presentation, the problem one which also made for one of the more energetic portions of Monday's Election Forum,
That as both the mayoralty and council candidates spoke to the topic, though with just thirty seconds to craft a reply on what appears to be a complicated tropic, the snippets of their talking points had little in the way of details to share.
The work of the current Council saw a flurry of civic legislation in the last year, a new OCP, revision of bylaws, Public hearings some at times controversial ones and much in the way of the vision for housing in the future.
However, in the here and now, and what came before over the last eight years, there's really little on the ground to show for what has been the dominant concern for a number of years.
If we turn back the clock a bit, not too many years ago, there were at least three significant areas of the city where we were seemingly on the cusp of some exciting development of new housing.
There is the Old Kanata School site off of Crestview, to the west side of the city off of Park leading up to Graham and on Drake Crescent off of Prince Rupert Boulevard.
Over the years, developers had come with proposals, land seemed ready to be developed or close to it and the drawings and plans looked like the start of some solutions.
Today, those three sites look pretty well much the same as they did when the proposals were first outlined, in some cases the developers long gone, or the plans in some deep hibernation.
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| The old Kanata School lands |
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| The area for proposed housing off Park |
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| Drake Crescent site that has been designated for housing |
Of the three, the one perhaps that was the greatest lost opportunity was the housing proposed for Kanata which was estimated to be between 100 to 200 units.
The proposal was not going to be particularly high end housing, but rather designed to address the lost housing of recent years for those not quite ready to become buyers, but still in need of some livable rental accommodation.
It was noted at that time, that the development was LNG development dependant, though the need for housing today seems even worse than it was back during those heady days of LNG GO Plans.
The council of the day, however was not one that seemed to embrace many of the proposed LNG plans of the day, which one by one all faded from our view and wth that, so too did the prospect of some new housing stock arriving.
Still, those areas of land remain ready for development and would appear to fit the need in our current narrative of the need for housing to address a growing Port.
The only thing missing, is someone to develop them.
When the housing proposals pass through Council we hear a lot about what they will bring to the community; but when they don't work out, we rarely hear what happened and if there is a way to resolve whatever it was that sent the developers packing.
The same could be said for council initiatives like their plans for subdivisions and downtown residential construction, both of which gained a spotlight in the last year or so, but with little in the way of updates as to how it all may be coming along.
Monday night delivered a number of themes on the current situation, Muskeg seemingly the topic of note for the night as the largest impediment for building in Prince Rupert. Though it makes you wonder how the town ever was developed in the past to host a population of near 20,000 if muskeg has been the largest concern through time.
Some candidates observed that financing has become a problem, others noted of the city putting land up for sale in hopes of attracting development and how they would sell more.
A few solutions to the issue were offered, but with a thirty second speed reading process, the voters really have no idea how any of their proposals would work.
One of them, is how the muskeg disposal program would work and how much it would cost.
Along with one theme that seemed popular for a few candidates on Monday. that of the City somehow becoming involved in some aspect of the financing of homes, an interesting observation for a community that keeps hearing of the financial challenges being faced by the civic government.
Candidates Fitzpatrick, Pond and Thompson all noted on partnerships and financial challenges and the three should deliver much more on their solutions towards housing for the voters to consider.
While Jason Hoang spoke of the need for Council to share more information with the public and on that point he was spot on, the lack of frequent updates and public discussion in the council chamber can lead to a sense that nothing seems to be getting done.
And while there have been some disappointing setbacks on the housing theme, there has been some success seen from the housing files as well.
Most of that generated by the province with its recent social and supportive builds on Park Avenue those on land provided by the City, along with the current work at Five Corners and the still be developed remake of the McKay Street area.
The latter a project that seems to have become stalled for a significant period of time now and something that might be in need of a bit of a push from council towards the province.
As well the City has provided land for a much anticipated Lax Kw'alaams housing project off of 11th Avenue East, though there has been little in the way of land clearing to date since it was approved following a contentious public hearing process.
The current council as noted at the Election Forum on Monday, is to be commended for setting up the pathway for housing for the future, that through the range of paper measures put in place to improve the housing approval process and create a more welcoming atmosphere for housing.
The problem at the moment is, people can't live in houses on paper; sometimes folks just want to see some shovels go into the ground.
You can review some of the many themes on Housing over the last few years from our archive page here.
More notes on the election campaign can be reviewed here.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.