Thursday, November 14, 2013

City Council Timeline, Tuesday, November 12, 2013




It was another fairly short workload for City Council on Tuesday, a public session of municipal governance that took up just a bit over sixty minutes of their evening.

The November 12th gathering offered up a short listing of items as found on the weekly agenda.

In addition to the public forum on the night, November 12th featured another "closed session" of Council, just another in what is becoming a lengthy listing of closed door sessions for this Council.

The timeline of all of the council the proceedings can be found in red below, tied in with the City Council video and audio feeds archived below.

Further information such as minutes and permanent placement in the  audio and video archives can be found below as they are posted to the city Website.

In Attendance November 12, 2013

Mayor Jack Mussallem-- Present  
Councillor Anna Ashley-- Present 
Councillor Judy Carlick-Pearson-- Absent
Councillor Gina Garon-- Present
Councillor Nelson Kinney-- Present
Councillor Joy Thorkelson-- Present 

Councillor Jennifer Rice-- Resigned her position on June 10th.

Video Archive for November 12, 2013
Audio Archive for November 12, 2013 (not available yet)

(0:00--8:00) Council moved on to it's regular agenda for the night. The Mayor beginning the session by outlining the usual procedural aspects of the adoption of the agenda and past minutes from October 28th, before carrying on with the agenda items for the evening.

Prior to that bit of housekeeping, the Mayor made a brief introduction of Mr. Rory Mandryk, the City's new Corporate Administrator, with that hiring acknowledged for the record Council moved into Reports and Recommendations.

Reports and Recommendations

(8:00--17:00Report from the City Planner regarding the Boundary Extension-- Mr. Krekic outlined the status of his work on the City's proposal to extend the municipal boundaries. A process which has provided for much commentary within Prince Rupert and from neighbouring communities.

Mr. Krekic advised that an incremental approach would be the best method for the City to proceed with. At Tuesday's session, Council moved to extend the civic boundary to the area of (Lot 444) land which is owned by the city, but is outside of the boundary and an area that consists of the City's watershed.

With the  passage of the motion it will be removed from Regional District and form part of the expanded boundary region. Councillors Thorkelson and Ashley both spoke in favour of the motion to expand the boundary to that area.  Any further expansion will require further dialogue with neighbouring communities. Councillor Thorkelson also suggested making further contact with neighbouring communities regarding zoning planning and other issues of concern.


(17:00--30:00Report from the General Manager of Public Works -- Examining the city's plan for snow removal for this winter, responding to a request from Council to explain why the city doesn't plow the snow into the middle of the road.

Bill Horne, the General Manager of Public Works  outlined the nature of plowing the snow in the community for Council with budget constraints playing a major part of the problems in recent years in moving the snow in a timely fashion. The recommendation was to continue on with the current snow removal plan at this time.

Councillor Kinney asked about the plowing of drainage areas on the streets and the problems that it has caused in the past.  Councillor Ashley asked if there were any policies that Council could put in place to assist the City in their snow removal work. Mr. Horne pointed out that with a number of downtown store fronts currently empty, some of those store front sidewalks do not get cleared quickly when snow falls. Councillor Thorkelson offered up her observation on the nature of plowing the snow onto sidewalks and if there is a way to reduce that problem. Councillor Garon observed of the shortage of equipment that the city has to dedicate to snow removal and the expense it has provided to the city's budget in recent years. The report was received for information purposes.

(30:00--33:00 )  Report from the General Manager of Engineering Public Works -- A review of the stability of  three retaining walls on the West side of the city. Responding to a request from Council of the last session, Mr. Horne outlined the findings of a recent City inspection of the three walls in question, outlining that while not failing at the moment, they are in varying stages of deterioration,  and projects which could be a fairly costly for the city.

Councillor Garon asked as to how many retaining walls were in disrepair and what kind of priority list he had identified. He outlined that there were quite a few walls that need attention sooner rather than later by the City. Councillor Ashley inquired where the retaining walls would be on the infrastructure priorities list, he advised that they would be in the top twenty. He then reviewed some of the other concerns on the topic. The report was received for information purposes.

(33:30--37:00) Report from the Chief Financial Officer-- Details on the Stuff the Bus Food Bank Drive, the City's Financial Officer provided a review of the proposal which would see residents of the city be able to access free transit on November 30th, if they make a donation to the Salvation Army's Food Bank. The motion was adopted. Councillor Ashley inquired as to where residents could make donations if they did not plan to ride the bus, the location for donations is Safeway.

(37:00--40:30) Report from the Corporate Administrator -- Regarding a Prince Rupert Airport Grant Application, with the City asked to provided a recommendation offering its support for the application to the Northern Development Trust for a 250,000 grant. Mr. Mandryk then outlined the background of the Grant and what the Airport could make use of it for. The 250,000 grant would be put towards the 7 million dollar loan that the Airport is seeking for required repairs to the Airport. Council offered up its recommendation to offer support. Councillor Ashley then asked if applying for this grant would it have any impact on applying for other grants next year with Northern Development Trust. The City can apply for other grants in years to come. The motion was adopted.

Bylaws

(40:30--41:30 ) Mayor and Council Indemnity Bylaw 3316-2013 -- A recommendation to adopt the Bylaw. The amendment was adopted.

(41:30--42:00Report from the City Manager -- Mr. Long  advised that he would deliver his report for the next Council meeting of November 25th.

Following the report, the Mayor asked if there were any questions for the City Manager from his report.

Reports, Questions and Inquiries

(42:00--47:00) Councillor Ashley had a number of items for Council starting off with a request that the City organize a meeting with CN to discuss waterfront issues, asking that staff write to CN to arrange a meeting on waterfront development. Her particular concern was regarding the nature of the area around the Pinnacle Pellet plant and what kind of access residents may be able to have to portions of the waterfront area. Councillor Thorkelson added to the discussion her concerns over noise issues on the waterfront and how CN could provide for noise abatement in the area.

(47:00--48:30) The second issue of concern from Councillor Ashley was regarding the ability of the City to promote the use of the Civic Centre more, suggesting that with Christmas approaching  that tthe city have a sale on recreation passes. The proposal may require changes to a bylaw provision.

(48:30--50:00 ) Her final item of note was in regard to past resolutions that have fallen by the wayside, she asked if staff could provide a report on the status of many of the items of past sessions. The Mayor concurred that there were a number that need to be reviewed, he observed that the City Manager had been busy with a number of high profile issues in recent months, but that developing a review on the past resolutions was a worthwhile project.

(50:00--51:30) Councillor Kinney reviewed a number of items from the Seniors City and urged local Seniors in the community to become more involved in the offerings there. The Mayor reminded those watching Council's proceedings of the monthly pancake breakfast, which they use for fundraising.

(51:30-- 1:00:30) Just before the Mayor commenced with his Mayor's report, the Mayor asked Councillor Thorkelson to provide a recap of a Salmon Fishing Industry meeting of last week. She provided a brief review of the proceedings, some of the topics of interest were the cost of monitoring of the commercial fleet, of particular concern is the requirement of the cost of the monitoring to be put upon the commercial fishermen.

She advised that she would soon be bringing a resolution from the group for Council to consider, which would seek to change the requirements that DFO have put in place for monitoring. She also outlined some of the background on a second recommendation that she will be bringing forward, seeking funding for a feasibility study to create a community based monitoring service.

Other issues she reviewed from the gathering were concerns over privatization of the salmon resource, something she says DFO is considering in the future. She outlined that in her opinion most communities are against that concept, preferring that the resource be kept in public hands.

She advised that at a value 4000 million in wild fish, the resource is something that she believes should be protected for our communities.

(1:00:30--1:09:30The Mayor's Report

With Councillor Thorkelson's report delivered the Mayor continued on with his Mayor's report.

He touched on the upcoming presentation of the BG Group, who will be outlining some of the aspects of their proposed LNG plant for Ridley Island. The Mayor reviewed some of the items that BG would like to bring to that meeting, he again asked for questions from city residents, advising that they should provide council members with their questions or concerns for discussion at the BG Group meeting.

He reviewed his attendance at the November Seniors Pancake Breakfast.

He participated in the Western Transportation Advisory Council meeting, where discussion on port safety and inter-provincial transportation in Canada was discussed.

He took part in the Annual Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Court House Cenotaph.

He outlined the details of a letter from the Ministry of Community Sport and Cultural Development, which highlights some of what the City of Prince Rupert is involved with when the City attends conventions. He read out the contents of the letter regarding the City's recent attendance at UBCM. He advised residents that more information regarding the letter can be found in the Information to Council package.

The final point of his presentation was the summary of funding that the City has accessed through its dealings with the provincial government.

He then spoke to the topic of the Digby Island Airport Ferry and the requirements regarding its refit status and a recent change to the city's exemption status on refit timelines. One that would see the city having to send the vessel in for refit on a shorter timeframe. Outlining that council consider giving some thought to sending a letter to the minister responsible for Canadian Steamship inspection involved inquiring as to why this change was put in place.  Councillor Ashley added to the motion that the Authority be asked to reconsider their ruling.

And with that final bit of discussion the Council session was brought to an end, with Council then adjourned to other items of discussion, which would be held in an in-camera session.

You can access the City Council Review page for November 12th here, where a number of items regarding the council session, including media coverage of it can be found.

As always, consult with the official minutes from the City, when posted to the website for further review.

Minutes Regular Council Session from November 12, 2013 

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