Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Community Futures seeks program coordinator for Phase II of Redesign Rupert


The program designed to provide for some forward looking thinking towards the future of Prince Rupert is looking for a project coordinator, with Community Futures of the Pacific Northwest serving as the head hunter for this years delivery of the Redesign Rupert concept.

The successful business minded facilitator will be tasked to manage the Redesign file in consultation with the City of Prince Rupert and major employers within the community.

The one year contract comes with a range of tasks designed to build on the past work of Redesign Rupert.

Among them organizational skills for identifying tasks and initiatives, providing advice on emerging and critical issues, delivery of quarterly reports on progress and findings and an ability to provide for presentations on projects and initiatives and bring about action from community stakeholders.

An information overview from Community Futures outlines some of the focus for Phase Two of the Redesign program, which is to find solutions to the human capital crisis that has been found in Prince Rupert.

That direction for phase Two is a nod towards recent concerns raised by the business community when it comes to employee recruitment and retention, something that Mayor Lee Brain also made note of during his recent Hays 2.0 Update for the community.

When it comes to the scope of the second phase of the Redesign project, the footprints from City Hall have clearly travelled across Third Avenue West towards the Community Futures Office in the Capital Mall.

With the Profile page for the job opportunity steeped in many of the Mayor and Council's recent discussion topics including their ongoing concerns related to Port Taxation Caps and the Ridley Island Tax Agreement.

Prince Rupert’s key civic amenities are suffering from the effects of a 20-year economic collapse. The downtown is full of empty storefronts, deteriorating buildings, and empty lots. The only remaining beach access has been cut off. The Lester Centre, Museum of Northern BC, Golf Club, Curling Club and Racquet Centre are unable to cover operational and capital costs. 

 The City of Prince Rupert has a $350 million-dollar infrastructure deficit and growing, that includes needed upgrades to roads, sidewalks, bridges, water, sewer as well as millions in upcoming mandated spending for a wastewater treatment system, a new police station, as well as revenue challenges associated with the Port Property Tax Act and Ridley Island Tax Agreement. 

 The combination of these challenges has created a situation where, despite recent port-related development, significant challenges remain in employee recruitment and retention across all sectors of the economy due to deteriorated civic amenities.

You can review the full overview of the position and the scope of the Redesign Phase II project here.

The deadline for applicants with an interest in the project is Friday, May 11, 2018.

There is no indication from the Community Futures information release as to what kind of timeline that Phase Two will follow, or when the program will get underway.

Phase One which for the most part appears to have come to an end last summer, was coordinated by the Community Development Institute at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Earlier this year,we noted that their involvement with the Redesign program appeared to have come to an end  and along with it few mentions by City Council when it comes to the future of the Redesign program, that is until the recent job posting through Community Futures.

You can review some of the work that the CDI provided for the City from our archive page here.

Many of the themes of concern from the city related to Phase II of the program have made for discussion topics and presentations from City Hall, you can review some of those notes from the Council Discussion page.

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