Mayor outlines UBCM talking points at Council meeting

Mayor Brain and members of City Council and staff
attended the UBCM convention in September
(photo fro City of PR Facebook page)

While they had no snapshots to share from their trip to Vancouver Island, Mayor Brain did provide an update on some the discussions that he and those members of City Council that attended the recent UBCM meeting had with a number of provincial government officials.

Making use of the late stages of Tuesday's Council Session, Mayor Brain provided a bit of a Mayor's report of sorts on some of his recent activities, including his attendance, along with some members of Council and city staff at the recent  five days of UBCM convention events in Victoria.

The Mayor offered up some notes on sessions that the Prince Rupert delegates had with members of the provincial Government during their consultation opportunity.

Among the list of government departments and representatives that the city delegation met with in Victoria were: The Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Aboriginal Relations,  Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, the Ministry of Natural Gas and Housing and Premier Clark.

Airport Access and
connection to First Nation
communities was on theme
that Council members discussed
with Gov't officials at UBCM

From their time with the government officials, Mayor Brain noted that the City brought three topics of concern to review.

According to the Mayor, the City found good traction on its PRACA plan to develop the Airport road network that would link Metlakatla, Lax Kw'alaams and the City to the Digby Island airport.

He highlighted some of the work that is involved in moving that concept forward, calling the PRACA plan a big project and one of those Dream Big and see where we land concepts.

Another area the City addressed at UBCM was affordable housing in the community, with the City discussing its recent application with BC Housing towards some of the 830 million dollar fund that is available for affordable housing.

He also outlined that the City provided background for provincial officials when it comes to the issues that the community faces on  housing, including ongoing concerns over rent increases in the local market and the speculation market the city is in at the moment, stressing to the province that the city needs some housing infrastructure help.

The final theme for the discussions with Ministry representatives was related to the logistics related to LNG with the topic of transportation issues making for the bulk of that conversation.

Attending the UBCM convention with Mayor Brain were Councillors Mirau, Niesh and Randhawa along with members of City staff.

The Mayor  noted on Tuesday that owing to scheduling conflicts, Councillors Cunningham, Thorkelson and Kinney could not attend this years event.

You can review the UBCM talking points from the City's Video archive of Tuesday's Council session.

The review of the meetings begins at the 32 minute mark.



For an overview of many of the developments from last month's UBCM gathering in Victoria see our Archive page of notes on the annual gathering, you can review those items here.

More background from Tuesday's Council Session can be examined on our Council Timeline Page, while further items of interest on City Council Developments can be found on our Council Archive page.