Taking Stock: North Coast Business Scene: August 2019

The August review of some of the key business stories of the region, provided for a range of notices, some heralding new and exciting plans, others advising of shifts in business practices or in one case an apology to customers.

The month delivered some highly anticipated news from the Seal Cover Area as Rupert Lawn and Garden outlined its expansion plans and what will be new when the location re-opens in the Spring.

The Prince Rupert owned and operate communication company CityWest had a number of things to share in August, from notes on their annual phone book photo competition, to an update for customers on how the company is addressing the collection of sales tax that it wasn't supposed to collect.

The state of the downtown core area was the focus for a visitor to Prince Rupert City Council as a former resident provided some thoughts on how outsiders may be viewing the city's downtown area.

The launch of a new transportation service also gained prominence in August, as Silver Grizzly Transportation began to outline the nature of their service to and from Prince Rupert connecting the North Coast with the Terrace airport and Skeena Mall in that city.

And Prince Rupert commercial operations continue to do their part to help out in the community, with August showcasing a few of the initiatives that have taken place in the last month.

Those themes and many others, can be be found as part of our review of the Commercial and economic scene in the region for the last month below:

August

The month opened with a new venture for the North Coast Innovation Lab and Hecate Strait Employment Development Society as they celebrated the opening of their Trading Coast Market, which offered local artisans, crafters and such an opportunity to access some retail space in the Hecate Strait building on First Avenue East near Mariner's Park.

Election finance rules from the recent provincial election campaign became the focus of a theme for August after word of a donation from a local contractor running afoul of the regulations  in March of 2018.

The City's retail sector received a mid summer boost in early August with the largest cruise ship of the season and a couple of weekends of twin visits making for the busy dates on the cruise calendar.

BC Liquor stores across the province are making plans to eliminate the use of plastic bags and towards that goal, they launched a Request for Proposal process towards the supply and delivery of paper bags for their extensive network of stores.

Prince Rupert's having a bit of a spa explosion, with a number of new businesses having opened in recent months and as this fall moves forward, they will be joined by a new option at Coast Mountain College, which has just introduced a new Esthetics program for the Prince Rupert campus.

Northern Savings Credit Union began to pull together its local organizing for the annual Terry Fox Run, with the Third Avenue West head office for the Prince Rupert based financial organization putting together the sponsors, door prizes and other elements that make the event one of the most popular of community celebrations. This years run is set for Sunday, September 15th.

Mid August brought an update from the North Coast Innovation Lab, which hosted a community update session at the Lester Centre. During the course of the evening presentation on the success of a number of the programs hosted by the organization were outlined for those in attendance.

The financial returns for small boat visits to Prince Rupert continue to trend on the low side, as the City's Financial Officer outlined the latest figures from the City owned and operated Cow Bay Marina.

Prince Rupert City Council received a review of the state of the downtown core at their August Council Session, as a former resident who had returned through the summer shared some of her thoughts on the number of empty storefronts and rundown nature of parts of the commercial core area

Rupert Lawn and Garden announced some additional features for their planned expansion, with the garden centre located in Seal Cove set to close its doors for the fall and winter to allow for a complete rebuild. In addition to the update on what's coming for the brand new building in the spring, the Garden Centre also announced plans for a Pop Up shop in the old 4 Season's Flowers Location, which opened in September.

The Northwest's locally owned Communications company CityWest had to take the we're sorry route in August, after the company discovered that they had been erroneously collecting PST for a range of phone features that were actually exempt from the taxation regimen.  A less contentious update also came in August, with CityWest releasing the ten finalists for their annual Phone Book competition.

Earlier in the month, CityWest was reaching out to customers to warn them of some ongoing fraud attempts through email that had been directed to local residents.

A local Neighbourhood Pub helped out the Prince Rupert Wildlife Shelter in August, with the Seal Cove Neighbourhood Pub hosting a fundraiser for the local shelter.

Whether Prince Rupert eventually will see the launch of ride sharing remains to be seen, but one service that has no plans to service small communities is Uber, which outlined its plans to focus on the larger population areas of BC when they commence operations anticipated for before Christmas.

The month ended with a new transportation service preparing to launch as Sliver Grizzly Shuttle began accepting reservations for the Prince Rupert - Terrace connection serving both the Terrace Airport and Skeena Mall.

You can keep up to date on the ebb and flow of the Prince Rupert commercial scene through our Taking Stock Archive for 2019. 

More notes on the commercial sector across the Northwest in 2019 can also be found from our from our archive page here. 

We imagine we probably have missed a few here or there, so if you know of a business having opened, or seen the Going out of business sign appear somewhere in the area, drop us a line at our email account of northcoastreviewpr@yahoo.ca

Or send us a short message through our twitter feed of @CharlesHays

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