Mayor's update on Alaska Ferry offers few details on three stage plan to address Alaskan concerns

Mayor Brain in Juneau
earlier this week
(From Mayors Facebook)

Mayor Lee Brain has revealed some of the background to his presentation this week to the Southeast Conference  on the city's approach to issues related to the status of  Alaska Ferry between Prince Rupert and Ketchikan.

Using his Facebook portal for his notes, the Mayor recounted some of his travels today and then outlined a synopsis of his three points for the gathering.

1. An Immediate solution that could see reinstatement of the winter schedule for the AMHS into Prince Rupert. 

2. A medium term solution that could see service to Prince Rupert for at least the next 2 years. 

3. A long term solution that could see a permanent/more sustainable resolution to the ferry system into Prince Rupert. 

The Mayor did not provide any details as to what those three stages might provide for when it comes to a resolution of the concerns from the US Customs and Border officials; concerns that at the moment will see the service end its operations at the end of this month.

 Mr Brain did follow up with some observations towards the path forward however:

At this stage, it will take a few weeks for some details to be figured out regarding the immediate solution. If it was up to the State and the City, we would have signed an agreement in Juneau - but currently we must wait for more information from border protection agencies on both the US and Canada side regarding pre/post clearance issues (so to be clear, the immediate issue is regarding new federal legislation requirements).

He also notes that it is clear to him that the residents of Southeast Alaska wish to retain their access to Prince Rupert,  adding as to the importance of the service to both British Columbia and Alaska.

His statement on the topic wraps up with a hope to announce some positive news in the future.

You can review the full statement here.

As we noted earlier this morning, Alaska reports indicate that for the moment the situation related to the request for additional security at the Fairivew Terminal in Prince Rupert remains unresolved and that the service will end on September 30th.

After a fairly quiet summer on the the festering issue, local politicians addressed the issue with a more fulsome approach, but only after the official notice that the service would end was relayed earlier this month.

For more items of note related to the AMHS service see our archive page here.

A wider overview of past City Council issues can be examined from our Council Discussion archive.