Province provides Electoral primer for would be candidates in fall municipal election

As talk starts to heat up in Prince Rupert about this falls Municipal Election campaign, a timely bit of research material was released by the Province of British Columbia on Tuesday.

A tweet to the province's twitter feed outlined a one stop home page for items of interest for the 2014 Local elections.

A location where a wide range of material on the workings of municipal government and the path to seek elected office can be found.

Included in the package is a General Information Voters Guide on the process as well as a number of links that provide an opportunity to research such items of interest as the Community Charter, Local Government Act, Financial Disclosure Act, Local Elections Campaign Financing Act among the offerings.

Of particular interest for would be candidates are a number of links to information files on the following:

Local Elections in B. C.: What every Candidate Needs to Know
Candidate's Guide to Local Government Elections in B. C.
Elector Organization Guide to Local Government Elections in B. C.
Guide to Supporting a Candidate for Local Government Elections in B. C.

To refresh your memory on the last time we went to the Municipal polls for a full Council election, the Province has provided some archival information on the results from 2011.

As for the 2014 campaign, to date in Prince Rupert, there are only two candidates declared for the fall election.

Mayor Jack Mussallem announced his intention to seek re-election in early May and Mayoralty challenger Lee Brain outlined his quest in June, seeking to add his voice to municipal politics with his campaign for the Mayor's chair.

Our archive of items on the fall campaign can be found here, to be updated as required through summer.

 Cross posted from the North Coast Review

Petronas makes plans to take on more minority partners on proposed LNG project in Prince Rupert

The development of LNG terminal projects on the North Coast is becoming more and more of a global effort, as Petronas, the Malaysian energy giant with plans for an LNG export terminal on Lelu Island continues to look to Asia for more partners.

As we outlined on the blog on February 13th, Petronas has been discussing potential investment options with Indian Oil, with the potential that the Indian energy player may take on a 10 per cent interest in the project.

In today's Globe and Mail, the expanding nature of those discussions is reviewed, with Petronas also investigating the possibility of a Chinese investor, which could take a fifteen percent share in the project.

As the Globe outlines in their story, that could bring a total of four partners on board with Petronas by March, making for an investment to a total of 38 per cent of the proposed development.

You can review the full Globe article here.

And while Petronas continues to build industrial alliances for its project, the Globe outlines that the Malaysian company still intends to hold majority interest in the project.

However, there may still be room for other investors to claim the remaining 11.9 percent of the minority interest in the development plans.

Next up on the agenda for Pacific Northwest LNG, was the filing of environmental impact statements with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and with the B. C. Environmental Assessment Office.

That procedural effort took place today, with Pacific Northwest outlining the path forward with a media release.

The next stage of the project, which will see more Open Houses held in both Prince Rupert and Port Edward as part of the consultation process.

On Monday night, Mayor Jack Mussallem provided a thumbnail sketch for City Council, on the latest news from Pacific Northwest LNG. Outlining the projected employment numbers that the project could bring to the region, once the final decision to go ahead with the development is made.

With a timeline of construction of 48 to 52 months, the number of construction jobs generated by the Pacific Northwest project would be some 4,000 people from start to finish.

Upon completion of the project , the Mayor quoted numbers that suggest there will be direct employment for 330 people from the export terminal, while the number of indirect jobs related to the development is projected to be around 300.

You can review more of our items of note on the LNG industry in the Northwest from our LNG Archive page.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review

With survey in hand, Prince Rupert Mayor heads off to the BC Ferries Committee

As part of his closing thoughts at Monday's marathon council session, the Mayor outlined the latest developments in the city's quest to address the upcoming service cuts that BC Ferries is preparing to put in place in April.

The Mayor is to meet with representatives of the Ferry Advisory Committee for the North and Central Coast, as well as with representatives of BC Ferries over the next week, looking to impress on both groups, the concerns of the City of Prince Rupert regarding the planned service cuts.

During his "Mayor's comments" of Monday night, Mayor Mussallem outlined the process ahead and touched briefly on a survey that the city conducted, designed to gauge the impact that those cuts may have on not only the North Coast and Haida Gwaii, but across northern British Columbia.

One interesting note from that survey can be found not from the council minutes or agenda for the night, but from the Information to Council package provided to Council on February 19th, where the actual survey is outlined.  ( Item 10  )

As well as the background on the nature of the survey questions, in a bit of a surprise note, we learn that it was not a member of city staff that conducted the survey for the city.

Instead, those duties were apparently tasked to Bruce Wishart, the one time head of Tourism Prince Rupert, who departed from that post last year, when Tourism Prince Rupert decided to reconfigure its operations.

For his efforts on behalf of the City of Prince Rupert and through letterhead of Northern BC Tourism, he provided an outline of the City's request for assistance in learning more on the impact of service cuts by the Ferry Corporation.

The three questions for respondents to answer being:

1. Will the projected cuts threaten your ability continue your business, or impact your lifestyle as a northern resident?

2. What impact do you feel these cuts will have on your community as a whole?

3. Do you have any further comments?

And while Mr. Wishart no doubt did a fine job of compiling information for the Mayor. There is some background on the survey that should be explained a bit more fully from Council.

Since it does not appear to have been an in house, city staff project.  The Mayor or someone on Council, should probably have been a bit more transparent about some of the background on the study and brought the theme up for discussion in public session.

Mainly so as to provide information as to what, if any, the cost of conducting the survey may have been to the City and whether the City had put the project out to tender. Allowing for a number of proposals from interested local applicants to be considered.

That kind of background information and process, is fairly common in other locations. As is the opportunity for council members to discuss the cost, the process involved in completing the job and what they hope to gain from the exercise

None of those basic principles however, appear to have received that much of a work out from Council on this particular item.

Perhaps those are the kind of details that City Council explores in one of the many closed sessions that the city seems to hold. Though one imagines that providing background on an item such as this, is something that should be delivered in the public forum of the regular council session.

As for the Mayor's overview of the City's planned response to the Province's Ferry cutback plans, it can be reviewed from the City's Video Archive. 

The Mayor's talking points on the subject start up at the 3 hour 6 minute mark and carry him through to the end of the night's session.

As the Mayor prepares to take the findings of his survey to the BC Ferries Committee meetings, perhaps when he returns and delivers his next report to Council on how those meetings turned out, he could offer up a bit more of a back story when it comes to his survey as well.

You can find more background on the Ferry Cuts issue from our Transportation archive page, we have more on items from City Council on our Council Discussion Points Archive page


Cross Posted from the North Coast Review

A BG Delay on a final decision on LNG for Prince Rupert?

As we're quickly learning on the North Coast, the landscape of the still incubating LNG industry on the North Coast can change fairly quickly.

Less than a year ago we were looking at the prospect of two potential projects for the North Coast, now we have four projects in different stages of evolution, with varying estimates of time lines for any kind of decision making.

And now, for one of the more prominent of North Coast proposals, some messages it seem are being sent that there may be a delay on making a final decision on a go ahead.

It's been but four days that have passed since the representatives of the BG Group provided Prince Rupert city council with a bit of an international primer on the LNG industry, with the BG representatives outlining that an investment decision on the North Coast project could be made by 2016.

However, in the fast paced world of the LNG industry, things change fast and that may already be an out of date timeline.

As the Financial Post reported Wednesday, the British energy giant may be considering a delay of at least a year before they make a final decision on whether they will go ahead with their 16 billion dollar Prince Rupert export terminal decision.

The Financial Post suggests that instead of 2016 for a decision date, that  the new target date for a final go ahead could be 2017, with the first shipments of LNG then shifting to the year 2022 at the earliest.

The article also highlights a number of factors that could have an impact on any decision to move forward,  high among them concerns of LNG companies regarding British Columbia's proposed LNG tax.

The province has apparently heard that message pretty clear, with plans to work out a compromise still in development out of Victoria.

Also in the mix of issues that could weigh over any decision, are lower commodity volumes. lower prices and the ability to line up contracts with Asian buyers.

The cautionary note that should give North Coast residents cause to not get too caught up in the LNG euphoria just yet, comes from oil industry observer Robert Desbarats of Calgary. Who provides a bit of balance to the current anticipations of boom times for the region.

“The fact that they’re spending money out there today, which they are, and it’s big money, doesn’t guarantee that they’re going to make an investment decision to go forward with the project.”

Some wise counsel we imagine to keep handy over the next few years, as plans in progress and final decisions come to move forward... or not.

You can review our complete collection of items on the LNG industry on the North Coast from our Archive pages.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review

Two for the road?

With the prospect of some Caribbean travel on the agenda for Council members, two city councillors were quick to outline that they were interested in taking up the offer of the BG Group for a visit to their LNG facility in Trinidad and Tobago.

The topic was introduced to council on Monday night by City Manager Robert Long, who advised Council that the BG Group had issued an invitation for one Council member to make the trek to the Caribbean.

A journey to the Caribbean Islands that would be paid by the BG Group and as the Mayor put it, not  cost the city any money.

Councillor Garon was the first to advise that she had responded positively to that request, an announcement that appeared to come as a surprise to Councillor Carlick-Pearson, who inquired as to how the process of selection had taken place.

That made for a rather uncomfortable silence in the Council chamber, the first true moment silence of the three hours to that point. Leaving viewers of the council session to hear nothing but the hum of the air circulation unit, all be it for a few seconds, before Councillor Garon tentatively outlined her timeline of interest regarding the proposed trip.

The Mayor then weighed in with a potential solution to the Trinidad standoff, wondering if perhaps two councillors could be dispatched to visit the BG site, going so far as to suggest  to City Staff that they investigate that possibility further.

During the course of her review as to how she came to be the selected councillor for the trip, Councillor Garon mentioned the trip which the Mayor made to the same facility last fall.

A reference to the surprise announcement from the Mayor, who reported back to Council on his trip which was also paid for by the BG Group, offering observations which we reviewed for the blog back in October here and here.

Interestingly enough, as the conversation between Councillors Garon and Carlick-Pearson continued on the over theme of the proposed trip, courtesy of the BG group, none of the other Councillors around the council chamber offered up any thoughts on what Council might hope to learn from another trip.

Particularly from a journey that would take place so soon after the Mayor provided his background report from his visit to Trinidad and Tobago.

It was a lack of discussion, which could leave casual observers to wonder if another such trip is even required at this time at all.

It is worth noting that the subject of communities in British Columbia accepting these travel opportunities has become something of a bit of controversy in recent months.

With more than a few observers suggesting that it places council members into areas of perception problems and according to some academics, into a potential conflict of interest situation.

The best review of that theme coming from Gordon Hoekstra of the Vancouver Sun, who in December outlined some of those perception problems that come from these trips, using the trips of the fall of Mayor Mussallem and Port Edward officials as part of his theme.

We offered up our some background on his piece for the Sun here.

You can review the short discussion on the theme of Council travel from the City's Video Archive, the conversation starts at the 2 hour 57 minute mark and lasts but two minutes.

We have background on more items up for discussion on Monday night from our Archive of the February 24th session.

As well more items of note on municipal issues can be found on our Discussion Points from Council archive.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review

BG Group provides LNG primer for Prince Rupert City Council

Representatives of the BG Group provided an LNG primer for Prince Rupert City Council on Monday night, a thirty six minute overview, that offered up a wide range of background on the LNG industry in the world view and BG's place in that global industry.

Dr. Andrew Walker and Miss Madeline Whittaker joined BG's local representative Herb Pond at the council table to provide the snapshot look at what the LNG industry looks like at the moment and where the company sees the industry over the next ten to fifteen years.

There was a fair amount of review on the nature of supply and demand and where Canada may find itself in that global supply situation over the next decade and beyond.

Following that LNG review, Council members were offered the opportunity to ask questions of their guests, seeking to find more insight into the industry and BG's plans for development of it's Ridley Island terminal location.

Councillor Kinney was the first to ask a question of the guests, inquiring what they would expect from the City of Prince Rupert. Dr. Walker outlined that projects such as these require a push to get them into existence, getting stakeholder alignment is key and that the project has to work for both BG and the community.

He suggested that the community should take the lead towards that alignment. He observed that over the years he had seen many of these supply chain projects fail owing to lack of alignment with the community that they are looking at.

Councillor Cunningham asked how many LNG projects that BG believes may be sustained in the area.  Speaking as to the buyer behaviour aspect of the question, Dr. Walker observed that the likely outcome would be that the province would see three LNG projects in the region by 2025, but not on the same timeline as the province has outlined.

City Manager Long offered up his thanks for the guests attendance to City Council and for the scope of the answers that were provided.

Councillor Cunningham followed up with a question on the progress of BG's Environmental Assessment. Miss Whitaker provided the timeline moving forward with a filing anticipated towards the summer.  To his question as to when a start up may be, Miss Whitaker outlined that depending on the process ahead, a final investment decision could be made by 2016 with a potential start up of operations by 2021.

Councillor Thorkelson had questions on employment regarding the proposed development, asking if BG had any plans to bring in any temporary workers from out of country. Miss Whitaker took to the microphone again, advising that the first preference of BG was to hire local workers as possible, and that the company was working with the Premier's working group on labour to maximize the benefits for the local region first.

Councillor Thorkelson followed up with a question as to when that employment plan would be outlined allowing the city to make plans for housing and other services that may be required.

Miss Whitaker advised, that the modelling on employment requirements work is still underway, BG anticipates coming back to the community later in the summer to outline some of their findings on the theme of a workforce for the project.

The Mayor advised the BG group that their information on employment requirements would be appreciated and that the city has already tasked staff with the prospect of making plans for future growth and service requirement that may come from the development of LNG facilities in the community.

Mr. Krekic, the city planner asked a question of Dr. Walker, inquiring as to the market dynamics in place and how BG would gauge the LNG industry compared to the oil industry.

Dr. Walkers' answer provided a bit of a comparison between the two industries and the variety of factors that could impact on price points and supplies, with gas being more of a diversified market.

Following that exchange, the Mayor thanked the BG guests for their contribution to the evening.

You can review the LNG lesson for yourself through the February 24th edition of the City of Prince Rupert Video Archive.

The session starts up at the three minute mark and continues on until about the 39 minute mark.

We have more on LNG development proposals for the North Coast on our LNG archive page.

Cross Posted from the North Coast Review