One thing that stood out from Monday's Budget Presentation from the City's Chief Financial Officer, City Manager and subsequent comment from the council membership was a significantly less strident tone towards the region's largest employer.
With the Prince Rupert Port Authority hardly making for an imprint on the document for 2024, or in the conversation on the night towards it.
A sea change of civic overview to the theme that was quite different than just a few years ago and the approach that the previous Mayor, City Council and staff had taken.
One year ago all but one of the current members of council were returned to office following an election campaign that didn't spend much time on their record of governance of the previous four years, but rather the Social Media campaign against the Port Tax Cap.
The rhetoric that was amped up from that campaign certainly tested the relationship between Civic administration and Port Administration; all while serving as the clarion call for the campaign for many of those seeking a return for another term of office.
While the city's relationship with the Port had made for an undercurrent of testy discussion for much of the last decade, the accelerated and heated tone of more recent focus came through a 2022 State of the City presentation from now former Mayor Lee Brain,
A review of events that brought some rare public push back from Port Officials.
Even this Spring, during the 2023 Budget process, the concerns over a more equitable fiscal return from the Port factored into the preamble to the Budget from City Manager Rob Buchan which was delivered on March 23.
"Some of our principle revenue issues include the Port Tax Cap, the reduction of PILT payments by the Prince Rupert Port Authority. Both the Port Tax Cap and PILT payment reduction, place the burden of city operations and capital expenditures on residences and businesses and are not shard sufficiently by Port industries or the Port Authority. -- City Manager Rob Buchan in March of 2023
However, by the time that Council had adopted that financial document on April 25th, there appeared to be the first signs that a less strident approach towards the region's largest employer may have been evolving, with Mayor Pond wrapping up the Budget discussion with a note towards a desire for reduced finger pointing.
"Yes, we have a revenue shortfall. I've gotta to tell you that. Coming back you know the work we did around attracting and retooling our economy has been wildly successful on the jobs front.
It has not as yet produced for us the revenues that we require to rebuild the community.
And I'm not pointing fingers at anybody I'm thankful for every single one of those industries ... this is not about who's good or who's bad, it's about the math and where we're at and what we need to do" -- Mayor Herb Pond April 2023
And that seems to be the new North Star moving forward for the city's relationship with the Port.
Monday's Budget Presentation had few of the angry words, or political positioning directed at the Port than the Budget times of the past. The lack of mention of the Port through the course of the hour and a half plus meeting something quite remarkable, considering the years previous where City Council members lined up to express their indignation.
That perhaps a situation eased by the provincial government's largesse on infrastructure funding of earlier this year. And maybe even a realization that some of the port issues may require complex negotiations with the province and the Port to resolve the outstanding issues, marking a change from the days of populist Hash tag hectoring.
Indications from the Monday Budget review seem to suggest that is what is taking place now is a more business like approach between city and Port.
As we noted earlier this week, the City Manager observed that the Port and the City are involved in some extensive discussions towards the Prince Rupert Fire Department and a new facility and an expansion of services.
Other than the update on the discussions over the PRFD, Mr. Buchan made no further mention of the Port, nor did CFO Bomben who kept the focus for the night on the financial plans for the year ahead.
Even Councillor Barry Cunningham, normally one of the loudest voices in frustration with the Port, observed how the Port was working well with the city on a number of initiatives, though he did take the opportunity to push for them to take on on more financial responsibility for the Fire Service in the city.
Notably considering past years, of the five councillors in attendance for the Budget Presentation, Mr. Cunningham was the only council member to speak of the port on the night.
For his part Mayor Pond provided for what appears to be a rather different view of how the city and Port are engaged on the issues today, at least compared to the period before he was elected to office in November 2022.
The Mayor observing on the quiet work ongoing towards things such as the Port Tax Cap, PILT's and the city's focus towards the ongoing quest for the Resource Benefits Alliance program,
"In the meantime we're working on things that may come to fruition.
Again, I don't want to hold out false hope, but we continue to work on the Payment in lieu of tax that's outstanding that could make a difference in the revenues next year.
Continue to work on with the province and with the PRPA at our side on the cap is there a way of addressing that cap that makes us whole and still achieves other people's objectives." -- Mayor Herb Pond at the November 6 Budget presentation
Whether any of those solutions come forward with urgency is really in the hands of the Province and Federal governments, the BC Government one which has already shown some strong interest in helping the city in a range of areas including roads, water infrastructure and housing .
Something that should offer up some optimism that the quiet, get to work approach, currently underway is generating results for the community.
More on the Budget presentation can be reviewed from our archive page.
Cross posted from the North Coast Review.
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