Local advocacy group for public water infrastructure ownership makes plans for January forum

Fresh from a presentation to Prince Rupert City Council one week ago, the local organization that has concerns over the city's plans for water infrastructure is making its own plans to host a community forum on the issue. 

People for Public Infrastructure have set the date of January 21st for their next public engagement to the topic, though they have yet to decide on a venue for the proposed community forum.

As we recounted last week, both the local advocacy group and the City's Operations Director Richard Pucci provided for presentations at the Monday City Council session. 

The local group raising some alarm bells over the perceived direction they believe that the city may be taking towards its water infrastructure issues.

For its part, the City's Operations Director, City Manager and Mayor Herb Pond all stressed in there followup conversation that  no decisions have been made and how the topic is very much one in the very early stages of discussion.

As part of their commentary on the evening,  both Rob Buchan, City Manager and Operations Director, Richard Pucci did note of the many challenges facing the city towards development of a water treatment plant for the community.

The key areas of note that of they took note of include the need to finance the construction of the facility and to staff it. 

Those two issues it would seem that have given the Administration and Council pause to consider a private sector involvement in the still off in the distance water treatment plans.

As part of the discussion a number of councillors also observed how those discussions were still only in the preliminary stages, with no decisions yet reached.

A number of questions were posed of the proposal by Tom Kertes from People for Public Infrastructure, though they were not answered at Monday's session, those replies are to come to council at some point in the future.

Should Council move forward towards the plan for a private partnership, the City would create a municipal controlled corporation to administer the newly created infrastructure company.

You can review our account of both sides of that discussion from our notes of November 23rd.

As the local advocacy group works out its plans for the Community Forum, you can follow their progress here.

Some background on the proposed change to the current public ownership model can be reviewed below:

November 21 -- Community group presentation/report from Operations Director to put city's water treatment infrastructure plans into the spotlight  
November 15 -- Newly created Civic Action Group to seek presentation time with Prince Rupert City Council on public infrastructure concerns 
November 7 -- Newly formed Community group set to keep concerns over potential privatization of civic assets in public view
October 19 -- Concerns over city's water partnership plans spur on community organizing meeting in Prince Rupert 
October 18 -- City of Prince Rupert exploring prospects for partnership on Water Treatment Plant

A look at some of the ongoing infrastructure themes for the City of Prince Rupert can be explored through our archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.