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| Port Edward Mayor Knut Bjorndal and former Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain at the Lester Centre last June |
The District of Port Edward is ready to put pen to paper when it comes to what is described as a Shared Prosperity Agreement with the City of Prince Rupert.
The District announcing the step forward at their Tuesday Council session through their social media stream earlier this week.
The work towards the agreement began to ramp up last year and the first signs of progress came as part of the State of the City presentation at the Lester Centre in June of 2022, hosted by then Mayor Lee Brain.
At that session, both Mayor Brain and Mayor Knut Bjrondal from the District offered up a glimpse as to what is ahead, sharing some notes on the work that had been done.
"We haven't crossed the t's and dotted the i's and that's coming We wanted to make sure that the community knew that we have solved what I believe is a forty year issue between Port Ed and Prince Rupert.
If you remember at the Hays 2.0 presentation we did beat up on Port Ed little bit about the revenue challenges and things like that on the Ridley Island Tax Sharing agreement.
But what we wanted to announce tonight that we've come up with a framework to move forward together"-- Former Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain in June 2022
"It's a credit to your leadership that's brought this all forward, it's also the credit to the staff at Port Edward and Prince Rupert they worked an enormous amount of time putting these things together,
You and I don't get into that kind of fine detail at the end of the day we put the big picture together and let the rest of the people fill in the blanks, because if the blanks at the end of the day, if they aren't right it kills you.
I look at Prince Rupert and Port Edward, I grew up in Prince Rupert I still have a great love for Prince Rupert ... you know if we keep having squabbles we can't move forward to move forward and Lee is 100 percent right you have to take a conciliatory approach ... you gotta look for the common good and I think that's what Lee has done
With the presentation that you made today about Prince Rupert, I can say that my forefathers came here about the same time yours did a hundred years ago, but we have to move forward from the original vision and to move forward you have to have a living document vision that gets you somewhere and that people buy into it, I bought into this when you first made this presentation I thought was pretty unique." -- Port Edward Mayor Knut Bjorndal speaking at the Lester Centre in June 2022
Included among their notes at the time:
The Agreement on Ridley Island Tax Sharing
An agreement on mutual aid for fire protection, water agreements
And a Joint development plan for areas such as Diana Lake and new recreation opportunities in the District for a range of oportuntieis that had been hampered by past issues between the communities
With the agreement, it would seem that things are thankfully back on track between the two communities with hopes for even better engagement into the future.
While the Port Edward mayor was announcing that the the two Mayors will be signing the Share Prosperity Agreement in the near future, the topic hasn't been quite as prominent for Prince Rupert City Hall.
As of yet the City of Prince Rupert has not spoken to the topic or provided on any updates or details related to it, through either the civic website or the city's Social Media stream.
As well, as of yet there is no documentation for the public to review related to the agreement.
More notes fron the District can be reviewed here.
Past themes of interest from the City of Prince Rupert can be explored from our Council Discussion archive.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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