The City looks for a little help on the big industrial issues

City Council it seems is getting a little overwhelmed at the various development prospects for the North Coast and what it believes is required to provide proper oversight and review of them on the local level.

That at least seems to be the theme of Councillor Anna Ashley's comments towards the end of Monday's City council session.

"We have so many projects not just LNG but developments being put forward, it really challenges the capacity of our staff, and just like the whole area to try and deal with the overwhelming amount of information that is going on "  Councillor Anna Ashley outlining her concerns over the work load required to watch over development in the region

The councillor offered up her thoughts on the nature of the work load that the city is taking on for both council and staff when it comes to the theme of development in the region, pointing to the LNG rush of late as one area where the City is feeling a little stressed when it comes to offering comment and review on the dynamics of those projects.

Towards a solution, Councillor Ashley put forward a motion for Council to write a letter to provincial and/or Federal officials seeking financial and/or other assistance towards hiring on staff to oversee the city's agenda, when it comes to industrial development concerns in the region.

Councillor Ashley explained how Council and even the community may be feeling some overload on the nature of the presentations, open houses and such on the nature of the information flow related to them. And that the increase in prospects is providing challenges to city staff to try and deal with the information in order to understand the issues better.

And while not her idea, she was forwarding the concept of seeking help with the environmental concerns, as the City looks to explore what kind of help could be provided, whether the development of an office or provision of a staff member.

Councillor Garon, expanded on that theme, suggesting that it was more than just the environmental issue and also spoke towards seeking funding whether provincial or federal to inject some kind of money to hire an engineering firm or geo tech firm, or some kind of consultant to lend assistance to the city on these issues.

You can review the motion and discussion on it through the City's video archive from 25 minutes to 28 minutes.