Prince Rupert's Taj Mah Woof opens for use on city's west side

Prince Rupert Mayor Lee Brain
welcomes one of the first guests to the
Off Leash Dog Park on McKay St.
(photo from City of PR)

Prince Rupert's pooches will be living large from now on, with Thursday's declaration of the official opening for the Off Leash Dog Park at McKay and Kootenay.

An information release from the City yesterday outlined some of the details behind the massive pasture for the town's canine residents, a wide open prairie complete with an obstacle course of sorts to ensure that boredom does not settle in.

“We are happy to be able to provide a new area for dog-owners to come with their pets,” “We’ve seen park transform over the last year. Where there used to just be fenced in alder trees, there’s now a new playground and dog park. It’s a much safer and more welcoming space for the community to enjoy, which we know was a concern for residents in this area.” -- Mayor Lee Brain speaking to the opening of the Off Leash Park at McKay Street

It is an impressive looking thing this new domain of the doggies, with a quick glance at the scope of its size, suggesting that one could place inside that fenced off dog area, three, four, maybe five or more, of the Kid's playground located right next door and you might still have room to roam.

The Off Leash Dog Park makes for a large tract of the land in the McKay
Street/Kootenay Avenue area, the park opened to the public on Thursday
(photo from City of PR)

Thursday's update also makes note of the work of City public works crews on the project and some of the features that were included as part of the park design.

The dog park features a number of amenities, namely, a small fenced enclosure at the entrance to the park that will enable safe leashing and unleashing of pets. In addition, City staff can be credited with reducing costs by making creative use of de-commissioned items from the Public Works yard, upcycling materials to make the area more interactive. These items include industrially sized tires, a decommissioned fire hydrant, and a ramp to encourage play and exercise.

Details related to the rules and regulations for the use of the park can be examined here. The city's bylaw officer is to be dispatched on a regular basis to monitor use of the park and that the rules are behind adhered to.

Something else might catch the eye of the city's residents as well in relation to the opening of the dog park, with a short note provided as to how the funding for the project came about.

To reduce impact to taxpayers, costs associated with the dog park area development were funded in whole by Prince Rupert Legacy Inc. The City would also like to thank Empire Tree Services for their in-kind work to cut down the alder trees in the area before it was redeveloped.

The use of money from Prince Rupert Legacy Inc.  for the dog park would appear to be something new to the project development and not a source of funding that had been discussed in a public session of Council, in fact the McKay Street Dog Park project didn't get much of a public review by the council members once the Doug Kerr field at the Civic Centre had been closed to dog users in March.

When the city announced the eviction of the dogs and their owners, the original theme of the new dog park was that there would be volunteer fundraising taking place to put towards the cost of creating the park.

The use of public money (even that of City Council's closely guarded Legacy monies)  for the scale of development of the Dog park for the McKay Street area was also not something that Transition Prince Rupert made note of in May of 2017 as they announced their planning for the new elements for the McKay Street area, a time when local fundraising was the selling point of the program.

Thursday's information announcement however, offered up no background as to whether those fundraising efforts had achieved any measure of success. Nor,  did the city's announcement disclose how much money from Prince Rupert Legacy Inc., was utilized by City Council to provide the money to fully fund the Dog Park development.

The use of the Legacy money without any public discussion in council chambers is something that should raise a few eyebrows for community residents, with the City Council members seemingly picking and choosing which projects should benefit from the city's Legacy reserves, without providing for much discussion other than that which takes place behind closed doors.

Whatever one may think of the decision by Council to spend the Legacy money on the dog park, or as some online commentators have noted if it's in the right location, it is a topic that should have been presented and discussed at a City Council meeting.

With Council members explaining the thinking behind the contribution, along with a recorded vote of council members to indicate if all are in unison in the funding plan.

Instead, as more and more often seems to be the case these days with City decisions and the details of the city's in camera efforts, the information in the end becomes an added on line at the bottom of the media announcement, in this case, declaring the dog park open.

The use of the Legacy money for the dog park, is  a stark contrast to how the two children's parks at Mariner's and McKay Street were developed, those twin efforts moved forward mainly thanks to local fundraising from residents and community organizations, a one shot bit of luck in the BCAA competition, and some volunteer labour.

That change in philosophy would seem to make for a strange sense of priorities for spending for the Prince Rupert Legacy Inc money, with the dogs benefiting from the city's funding in a pretty short period of time, while the youngsters of Prince Rupert had to wait for the fundraising work to bear fruit.

Councillor Cunningham recently made note of the work on some of the parks in the city and indicated that he would like to see some additional money put towards other children's parks around the city.

Though with an opportunity available to make note of the Legacy money that has now brought the dog park to life, he chose not to share that particular detail as part of his narrative of September, making for another opportunity missed to make Prince Rupert Legacy Inc., part of the open public council session discussion.

The use of the Legacy money without a public discussion, would also seem to tarnish some of the lustre off of Mr. Cunningham's attempts to have City Council provide more information to the public in the regular council sessions, a theme that Councillor Mirau has also been advocate of while on Council.

Mayor Brain celebrated the opening of the Dog Park through his Social Media page on Thursday, offering a few more notes on how the plan came to fruition, and noting that the next element he hopes to work on is for a covered basketball pavilion for the park.

Thursday's advisory from the City of Prince Rupert made note as to how the expanse of the new dog park will help to encourage play and exercise for the city's dogs.

Over at the Kid's park, located about five dog leash lengths to the south of the new Fun Zone for Fido,  the kids of the McKay street area while thankful for the community effort that brought them their park, might be just a little bit envious of those differences in scale, particularly when it comes to opportunities for exercise that are found in their neighbourhood.

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