Mayor Pond offers up RBA notes from session with Premier and other officials at UBCM 2023

Northwest officials and those from the province met at UBCM
this week to discuss the Resource Benefits Alliance program
(image from Mayor Herb Pond FB)

One of the first dispatches of what Prince Rupert's Mayor and Council have been up to at the 2023 UBCM Convention has been relayed this morning, with Mayor Herb Pond sharing some photos from a gathering of Northwest Officials and Premier Eby along with cabinet members and regional MLA's.

Through his Social Media stream this morning, Mr. Pond observed of some discussions related to the Resource Benefits Alliance program, the short review noting of the work that the collective is taking on to address the imbalance in financial resources for the Northwest.

While the update was big on applause for the response by the province to their concerns and for North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice's efforts for the region; there were no actual details released this morning towards the RBA program or what municipal government's may be hoping to see come from their discussions this week.

In May, Mr, Pond had relayed some hopeful notes towards having the concerns of the Alliance addressed by the province.

So far the RBA website has offered up few hints as to what that progress may have delivered. 

Should an update come forward, we'll update our notes on the RBA program, which you can explore further through our archive.

The Mayor's shout out this morning includes an array of photos from the days conversation which you can review here

Update:  In an afternoon information release North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice, added some background the discussion, along with a link to a recently completed report on the RBA. 

That document is for the most part a review of the progress to date since the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2022, as for what may be ahead, that appears to be a chapter still to come.

The Working Group report can be reviewed here.

The UBCM convention wraps up tomorrow morning with a keynote address from Premier Eby at 11 AM.

You can follow some of the items of note from UBCM 2023 through our archive page here.  

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.