Council heads due south for UBCM gathering

The annual political gathering known as UBCM is underway in Victoria, bringing together municipal politicians and city staff members with provincial politicians and bureaucrats, a week long convention that offers for the exchange of ideas, numerous motions and a whole lot of meet and greets.

The theme of this year's UBCM is "In Conversation", as the introduction to the theme goes elected officials know the value of communication, except of course when they seek to go into closed session, but we digress.

The contingent from the North Coast will be a rather strong one, all of City council's elected officials as well as those from the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District are in attendance, bringing with them all of their senior staff.

At last weeks city council meeting, Councillor Rice asked that someone explain for the viewing public at home what exactly UBCM is and what council and staff do when attending. Nelson Kinney serving as Chair for the session tasked the City's Financial Services Manager Dan Rodin to the task, Councillor Ashley also offered some input as to what the elected officials do for us while in attendance at UBCM.

You can view it all from the City's video archive at the 1:51.30 minute mark.

The City of Prince Rupert brings a few resolutions to the floor this year.

Calling on the provincial and federal government to loosen the requirements on grant funding for infrastructure projects.

Extend liability for marine accidents involving dangerous cargo to both the carrier and seller of the cargo.

Recommend that local governments tenders be exempted from the CETA free trade treaty with the European Union.

They would also like to have the Joint Preparedness Emergency Plan and its funding kept in place past 2013.

Port Edward is seeking that the national repeat sexual offenders registry be made public and that federal infrastructure project funding not be limited to only public/private partnerships.

The folks at SQCRD simply want the coastal ferries recognized as part of the province's highway system.

The North Coast of course is not alone when it comes to the motions list, some other interesting thoughts come from Prince George and Terrace where Mayor Dave Pernarowski holds an executive position with the UBCM.

You can follow along as though you too are in Victoria, the UBCM program keeping you up to date on each days discussions tours and seminars..

The opening sessions kicked off at 8:30 with a few tours and seminars, though Monday is generally registration day, the real meat of the sessions gets underway on Tuesday, with a number of Cabinet Minister panels scheduled for Wednesday. All of it leading up to Friday's closing session with speeches from James Moore from the Federal Government and the keynote wrap to the event a speech from Premier Christy Clark in the afternoon.

In between Tuesday and Friday a lot of talk, a few panels, a lot of handshakes and a little socializing all in the spirit of better governance we trust.

The Northern View provided this preview of the North coast delegations trek south.

The weeks developments can be followed on Twitter at #UBCM2012, where updates on site and shared experiences will apparently be posted.

We'll update the happenings as they percolate over the next five days, items of note can be found at the link below as they occur.

UBCM discusion points 2012