City receives approval of Province for Boundary Expansion

Announcements from any government on a Friday afternoon (particularly a Friday afternoon of a long weekend), usually indicate items that government officials hope to have buried deep into the news cycle over the weekend.

So it's a rather different to see two items from the BC Liberal government delivered on Friday afternoon, that provided two announcements welcomed by officials in Prince Rupert.

Beyond handing out grant money for a number of Northwest Communities on Friday,  Cabinet Minister Coralee Oakes also provided some good news for the City of Prince Rupert.

As the Minister for Community, Sport and Cultural Development outlined that the Province of British Columbia had granted a boundary expansion for the City of Prince Rupert.

“The Government of British Columbia is pleased to work with local governments in the Northwest to prepare for industrial development and the economic opportunity it will bring to communities.”

The request to Victoria was made earlier this year as the City of Prince Rupert approved the move to incorporate District Lot 444 into the municipal boundaries.

It was a proposal designed to bring the city's source of drinking water to within the municipal boundary.

The Lot 444 proposal was one of a number of boundary expansion ideas that the City was researching, the drinking water issue perhaps making it the easiest of the proposals to work towards at the moment.

Since the boundary expansion plans were first outlined in March of 2013, the remainder of the City's ambitious reach hasn't made for much in the way of discussion at Council chambers.

Something which those communities that bordered on the city's proposed boundary sketches, have most likely been keeping a keen eye on.

As part of the application process for the Lot 444 proposal, Council took the issue to the public by way of their Alternate Approval Process, which delivered the required result for the City, though not without a bit of discussion on the approach that the city had taken.

The final step was to submit the proposal to the Provincial Government, which provided for Friday's approval notification.

Some of our past items on the boundary extension can be found below:

Boundary Expansion plan gains City Council Approval
Boundary Expansion process comes to an end on Monday
First Open House on City's Expansion plans set for tonight
An Expanding Prince Rupert?

As for the announcement from the Provincial Government from Friday, it was welcome news for Mayor Jack Mussallem:

“The City of Prince Rupert appreciates the provincial government’s support through the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development for the inclusion of District Lot 444 into the municipal boundaries. This inclusion protects the city's source of drinking (potable), water and will lead to sustainable growth and other opportunities.”

As part of Friday's approval notification, both the Mayor and the Minister outlined how the boundary extension would set the stage for further industrial development, growth and opportunities.

You can review the full announcement from the BC Government website.

For more items of note on developments from Prince Rupert City Council see our archive page.