The Mayor adds Canadian National to his invitation list

The waning moments of last Monday's city council meeting once again featured the Mayor's report to council, a session where Mayor Jack Mussallem offers up an account of some of his recent activities on the city's behalf and shares some of his observations on topics of note to council.

The last few months of these sessions have at times turned into an opportunity to vent over recent developments and seek out further clarification of some outstanding issues from such community partners as the Port of Prince Rupert and Northwest Community College.

On that to do list Council crossed off the Port Corporation last week, with the hour long presentation and question and answer period over the Pinnacle Pellet Project. A discussion that clearly showcased some of Council's frustration over Industrial developments that for the most part seem pretty well beyond their control.

The request of an appearance from Northwest Community College hasn't to our research provided for any public question and answer session to this point.  At the time of the Mayor's request, Council had expressed a concern over the relocation of the electrical program at the Prince Rupert campus to Terrace.

Unless we missed a public council presentation over the last few months, it would appear that college officials have yet to have made the trip to Rupert to reassure the Mayor and Council as to the larger issues of post secondary education in the community.

So while they await the College to respond to the RSVP, the Mayor is turning his attention to the issue of Canadian National Railways and their recent and rather contentious moves on the railyard portion of the waterfront.

At Monday's meeting he advised city staff to seek clarification on the waterfront access issues and extend an invitation to CN to clarify out standing concerns or as the Mayor put it "about being a corporate member of the community".

You can review Council's thoughts on the issue from the city's video archive of the October 23rd session, the CN discussion starts at the 2 hour, thirty six minute mark.

One imagines that considering the reaction of the public over the recent developments on the waterfront west of Kwinitsa, that a Q and A session with CN might be rather interesting to tune into.