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| Prince Rupert Mayor Pond was the subject of a feature Open Connection session on CFTK TV 7 recently (image from Open Connection video) |
The session hosted by Robert Pictou, appears to have been culled from comments from the Mayor shortly after his election in the fall of 2022, that by way of references to the supportive housing complex Crane's Crossing as still under construction
The facility (opened in late January of this year) a reference, along with a few other themes noted in passing mostly through the city's quest for additional funding for infrastructure suggest of the time period that has passed from interview to posting to the You Tube archive.
Still, the twenty minutes or so of the Mayor's observations provide for a thumbnail view of how he is looking at the challenges ahead for the community.
Mr. Pond recounted the challenging times of his first administration over a decade ago and how the challenges of them differ to what is ahead for the community.
He observed on the development and success of the Container terminal and other stakeholders and how the community is still trying to catch up to that success noting of the mismatch between the Port and the community to keep up on infrastructure and housing.
"We are a small community that is being expected to host this international port complex, we're thankful for that, this is not by any means a complaint.
But there is a mismatch between the ability between of what a local tax base is able to do in supporting that and that's precisely what the next four years, with what the last eight years and beyond has been about, but also what the next four years and beyond are about.
Is attracting, building the kind of coalitions that can attract the funding that allows us to be that host community that the port needs"
"We need to grow our community, we've been pretty stagnant at 12,000 people, if we're gonna help the small businesses which have been really impacted by the carving out of, hollowing out of their workforce as people are attracted to those high end, high paying jobs we need to grow the community, if we're going to grow the community we need more housing"
The Mayor spoke of the need for partnerships with Local First Nations and various levels of government towards the many areas of shared interests for all in the region.
He also explored themes of employment in the community noting of worker shortages in the community, noting of the challenges found at Prince Rupert Regional hospital
That's costing the hospital a lot more I'm sure, but it's also not something that then helps us build a strong community.
We're thankful for the nurses that are coming, don't get me wrong, but what we'd rather get to is a place where we have the population that supports a) the services but also provides the workers into those services.
And what we've said about the hospital is equally true about the Car Dealerships, the School District and so many other industries"
The issues of labour shortages made for some review of how the lack of local workers is having an impact on moving forward on housing, the Mayor observing how he his pro immigration, an area that he would like to see Prince Rupert attract workers from.
"In Prince Rupert, we would love to attract some of those workers into our community, we see the need in all of our businesses, and our service suppliers even our government services for attracting those immigrants into Rupert, so we'll do everything we can to make sure we receive our fair share of the immigration"
A timely passage for this Budget period had the mayor noting the burden on taxpayers in the community and what has become the frequent refrain from the City of the need for more assistance from the provincial and federal governments.
A passage of conversation that clearly came well before the recent 65 million dollars in funding from the Provincial overmen for waterline infrastructure help.
"There is no possible way that the local taxpayers can pull off the success that Canada's Port requires to be successful. We can do a lot, and we have a great little community we love our community.
But there are major issues that need to be dealt with and people often refer to First World Port, second world, third world community.
We're definitely not a Second, Third world community but we're not all that the port needs us to be. And so if that port is going to be successful, if that port is important to British Columbia and to Canada ... we've been receiving good feedback from Senior levels of government hopefully that breaks through to some real funding opportunities, that's going to be the focus for the next four years, without a doubt.
Of this council, of the Mayor's office, of our staff, is securing the kind of investments that are required to make sure that the community isn't found wanting when it comes to delivering on the promises that are required for the Port to be successful"
Mr Pond reviewed some of the current initiatives such as the RCMP detachment build, a project that he had deferred on back in his first term of over a decade ago, he also observed of the need for a new fire hall for the community.
He also observed on the challenges for community groups who hare having problems attracting volunteers for their initiatives and how events are put on in the city.
"It just means that you have to rethink things, be a little creative. Those community festivals are vital to the sense of community and who we are, so we'll always have to find ways to put them on"
"No news on the airport, it's an important asset for the City of Prince Rupert, I think it will play an even more role moving forward, the opportunity to move more cargo, particularly as the Port thinks about expanding into more Logistics parks and those kinds of things, the airport will play an important role.
We have a great airport, good landing opportunities out there, reliable airport, the challenge we have of course is getting people and goods back and forth to that airport.
We've got some thoughts as to how we can make some improvements there, but the ultimate solution that you mention of some sort of hard road access is many many years down the road"
The Mayor recounted of his past work with an LNG proponent in Prince Rupert noting of the massive capital investment that those projects could have provided and how they could have contributed to be a catalyst for the Prince Rupert airport, much like the Terrace-Kitimat airport has seen.
"As our industries are growing, they're not as capital intensive as an LNG terminal is and so the amounts of dollars that we're dealing with aren't quite the same level. But certainly for every expansion we see in the industries here in Prince Rupert it brings us closer to an opportunity to solve some of the issues we have in accessing the airport"
One final area of into from the interview was homelessness and social issues in the community. The interview noting at the time then, of the still to be completed Cranes' Crossing and the strong partnerships that the city has community groups.
"A large part of it is being able to house the people who currently live here in a manner that they can actually afford to have a life, that isn't the whole problem of homelessness there are of course all kinds of issues around homelessness. Every city in Canada is dealing with in some shape or form, nobody has found the silver bullet that solves it but there are things we can do.
I'm grateful as a leader in a small community is that we have some really effective partners in Prince Rupert, I look at the North Coast Transitions Society that they have done already ... "
He observes on the current state of the downtown area as well and the events that are shaping that situation.
"We need to be constantly thinking as to how we help those folks and at the same time still have a livable community for the rest of us.
I mean one of the challenges are you know when homelessness explodes and people are on the streets, and if the drug trade is part of that, alcoholism whatever, is people feel less safe on the streets, and citizens feel less proud of the community if there's litter and garbage and whatever from all of those things.
It's a multifaceted problem, we're not going to solve it overnight, but I think we've got some great resources that we can work with."
"Unfortunately part of that is going to be, there's got to be an element of policing that is attached to that as well. This has to be a place where everybody feels safe, it's got to be a place where that business owner can successfully operate a business and not worry about somebody sleeping in their doorway, or damage to their windows, or whatever that may be scaring off customers.
But it also needs to be a safe place for the person that finds themselves in that homeless situation, sometimes we get that balance really well and right and sometimes it falls a little bit away.
Often times its linked to one or two individuals that sort of tip the scale one way or the other, so often from a policing point of view it's been effective to focus on one or two individuals, who are the real problem makers and deal with them. It's something we're very cognizant of, something we will be working very closely with all those agencies to make sure we do the best we can"
As we've noted, the majority of the interview appears to be from the fall, so residents can check through the list to see how much progress has been found to date on the issues noted by the Mayor and what steps City Council may have taken so far to address them.
The full interview can be reviewed below:
More of the CFTK Archive is available here.
Further notes on Civic themes in Prince Rupert can be explored through our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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